Computer Science Paper 2

Computational Thinking

• DECOMPOSITION - breaking a complex problem down into smaller problems and solving each one individually.
• ABSTRACTION - picking out the important bits of information from the problem, ignoring the specific detail that doesn't matter.
• ALGORITHMIC THINKING - a logical way of getting from the problem to the solution. If the steps you take to solve a problem follow an algorithm then they can be reused and adapted to solve similar problems in the future.

An Integer in pseudocode is an int and is only a whole number.

A real (or float) in pseudocode is a real (float) and it is numbers that have a decimal part.

A Boolean in pseudocode is bool and it can only take one of two values, usually true or false.

A Character in pseudocode is char and it is a single letter, number or symbol.

A String in pseudocode is a string and it is used to represent text, it is a collection of characters.

Procedures are sets of instructions stored under one name - when you want your program to do the whole set of instructions you only need to call the name of the procedure.

Functions are similar to procedures - the main difference is the function always returns a value. 

This is a NOT gate the output is always exactly the opposite to the input.

This one is an AND gate. It needs both inputs on to work.

This is an OR gate. It has two input and either input or both, need to be on to give a positive output.