TEORIA ED APPLICAZIONI DELLE MACCHINE CALCOLATRICI (Theory and Applications of Computer Systems)
5 Credits	3rd year - 2nd sem.
Teacher	Gianfranco Rossi gianfr@prmat.math.unipr.it
Form of teaching	Theory supported by exercises and practical experimentation
Prerequisites	Elementary notions of boolean logics, set theory, functions
Course description	Aim An introduction to algorithms and computer programming Contents Problems and algorithms: basic notions, algorithm representation, flow-charts, programming languages, program execution (translation); Computer architecture: hardware components, information representation (integer numbers , characters, floating-point representation), machine language (hints); Introduction to the C language: variable declaration, simple types, control structures, formatted input/output, program structure, structured types (array, structures), functions definition and usage, parameter passing, recursive functions, pointers, scope rules, file management in C (hints); Program development: the role of abstraction, 'top-down' development , data structures, searching and sorting algorithms, computational complexity (hints); Dynamic data structures: memory allocation, linked lists (definitions, operations), linked list implementation in C, C functions for list manipulation; Programing environments: tools , phases, a case study (the THINK-C system)
Assessment method	Written and oral exam, plus course work or practical exam
Literature/Course material	Ceri, Mandrioli, Sbatella: Informatica arte e mestiere. McGraw-Hill Italia, 1999