Context

Nationally, schools follow many different approaches for introductory computer science.

For most, the first 2-3 courses cover

• basic constructs, including conditionals, loops, functions, documentation, and basic organization (called imperative problem solving)
• elements of object-oriented problem solving
• fundamental data structures

The major variations involve ordering:

• imperative problem solving first (objects later)
• objects first

CS at SSU follows the first approach, as do many other schools

The SSU Catalog Description for CS 115, Programming I, identifies several high level themes:

This course gives an overview of computer organization; arithmetic and logical expressions, decision and iteration, simple I/O; subprograms; principles of good programming style, readability, documentation, structured programming concepts; top-down design and refinements; techniques of debugging and testing. Use of the above concepts will be implemented in a standard high-level programming language.

created 25 January 2021 revised 21-29 March 2021

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