Anyone Can Code: Algorithmic Thinking

Description

As the second book in the Anyone Can Code series, Algorithmic Thinking focuses on the logic behind computer programming and software design. With a data-centred approach, it starts with simple algorithms that work on simple data items and advances to more complex ones covering data structures and classes. Examples are given in C/C++ and Python and use both plain text and graphics applications to illustrate the concepts in different languages and forms. With the advances in Artificial Intelligence and automated code generators, it is essential to learn about the logic of what a code needs to do, not just how to write the code. Anyone Can Code: Algorithmic Thinking is suitable for anyone who aims to improve their programming skills and go beyond the simple craft of programming, stepping into the world of algorithm design. This book is independent of the first one in the series but assumes some basic familiarity with programming such as language syntax. Most code examples in this book are either in Python or C/C++, as they are very common and typical languages programmers use these days. Python and C/C++ examples are tested on Python version 3.7 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2019, respectively. C and C++ are two different languages, but C++ is considered an object-oriented extension to C. While almost any C program can be compiled with a C++ compiler, C++ offers new ways of doing things such as input/output and memory management, and there are some behind-the-scenes or syntax differences in the way C and C++ compilers work. For example, struct keyword is used in both languages to define a structure. In C, your structure cannot include functions but in C++ it can. C++ structures are basically classes, but their members are public by default. Also, in C, struct is not a regular type, so if you have defined one, to define a variable you still need to use the keyword struct.