Structures form a very large building block with which to collect like data into one collective unit. They are a versatile data structure in which to clump data together in convenient little packages! They are essentially classes with all members defined as public access with no private or protected access modes available. They are most commonly used for conglomerating data and also support member functions, but that attribute is rarely used. I believe this is because when multiple functions are involved, the need for private and protected variables and functions increases.
Read the rest of this entry »
This article compares two styles of building data structures and data structure libraries in C++: (a) Intrusive data structures formed by pointers stored inside the application objects, (b) Containers where auxiliary objects form the required data structure, and only point to the application objects without adding any pointers or other data to them.
Read the rest of this entry »
What: We are developing a tool to track variables and their values in C programs as they change at runtime. Because of the low-level, unrestricted memory access the language allows, the challenge lies in collecting accurate information without disrupting the program’s execution. Our approach combines techniques from profiling with memory tracking to analyze dynamic allocation throughout the lifetime of a program.
Read the rest of this entry »
A string is a group of characters, usually letters of the alphabet. In order to format your printout in such a way that it looks nice, has meaningful titles and names, and is aesthetically pleasing to you and the people using the output of your program, you need the ability to output text data. We have used strings extensively already, without actually defining them. A complete definition of a string is ‘a sequence of char type data terminated by a NULL character,’.
Read the rest of this entry »
Many simple programs that you have written up to now have undoubtedly consisted only of a main() function that performed all the necessary steps to solve that problem. Yet, you were always encouraged to break the problem down into one or more subprograms or functions. When you break a program down into a series of functions, you are doing what is called functional abstraction. This book begins with a formalization of this process of functional abstraction: its methods, techniques, benefits, and so on.
Read the rest of this entry »
Python was created by Guido van Rossum in 1990 to solve problems in the development of the Amoeba operating system. It is named after the British television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The use of Python has grown steadily over 1990’s to its current state where it is used in a variety of applications and environments.
Read the rest of this entry »
In this paper we describe a Python- and Tkinter-based visual-programming environment called ViPEr. This tool enables non-programmers to build computational and visualization networks interactively. Computational nodes can be placed onto a canvas and their input and output ports can be connected using the mouse. The connections between the nodes define a directed graph that will be used to propagate data and trigger the execution of nodes that have new input data. ViPEr is, in appearance, similar to programs such as AVS [Upson et al. 89] from Advanced Visual Simulations Inc, or OpenDX [DX 93] from IBM, but presents some fundamental differences which will be pointed out throughout this paper. Several examples of applications will be used to illustrate ViPEr’s design and current range of capabilities.
Read the rest of this entry »
Although Python is a high-level language, it is not English or some other natural human language. The Python translator does not understand “add the numbers two and three”. Python is a formal language with its own specific rules and formats, which these tutorials will introduce gradually, at a pace intended for a beginner. These tutorials are also appropriate for beginners because they gradually introduce fundamental logical programming skills. Learning these skills will allow you to much more easily program in other languages besides Python. Some of the skills you will learn are
Read the rest of this entry »