Mink Hollow Media

Democratizing Information Technology

4: How Programs Work

Chapter 4

Here’s were we will put color versions of the images, updates, and other extras.

If you “look under the hood” of a computer simulation or game you will find that what drives the application is a set of computer programs. It is not necessary to understand any specific programming language or even to have ever written a program. Nonetheless in order to understand how simulations work, you need to understand how the algorithms that drive them work – at least well enough to be able to talk about what they are doing and how they are doing it. In order to do that you need a vocabulary for talking about algorithms. This chapter provides that vocabulary in the form of flowcharts which will be used throughout the remainder of the book to describe and outline the simulations and games you will develop.

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  1. Algorithms
  2. Example 1: A Bad Algorithm and Basic Flowcharts
  3. Example 2: Navigating an Automated Telephone Answering System: Decisions, Input, and Output
  4. Re-Cap
  5. Example 3: Mowing The Lawn: Modules
  6. Example 4: Making an Egg Salad: Iteration, Complexity, and Parameters
  7. Summary
    1. Concepts
    2. Terminology
  8. References, Notes & Further Resources

Images

*Please note: all images are copyrighted, permission to use an image must be obtained from Wiley (and possibly also the original sources).

Figure 4-1: Flowchart Symbols
Figure 4-2: Algorithm for Washing Hair
Figure 4-3: Algorithm For Washing Hair, Version 2
Figure 4-4: Flowchart Symbols, Version 2

 

Figure 4-5: Automated Telephone Answering System
Figure 4-6: Mowing the Lawn, Version 1
Figure 4-7: Flowchart Symbols, Version 3
Figure 4-8: Module: Do One Row
Figure 4-9: Mowing the Lawn, Version 2
Figure 4-10: Module Make <N> Eggs
Figure 4-11: Algorithm: Make Egg Salad