Computational Thinking

Abstraction is the process of hiding unnecessary details while showing details that are more important in context

As a computational thinking method abstraction allows to solve problems by focusing on what’s important and ignoring what isn’t

Two from: Reduced development time as factors that can detract from the program can be ignored Program more likely to solve the problem as unnecessary aspects will not detract from the main purpose of the program Reduces complexity of programming code therefore can run on lower spec computers

The real life model will have every detail, while the abstracted model may have removed certain details to make it easier to understand

The typical approach for this method is to think about what the system should output, i.e. what is the end goal From here you can back track and create the inputs that should eventually lead to the previously outlined desired outputs

Preconditions may act as limitations and can effect the solution produced. When thinking about how to solve a problem or design a system, preconditions should be thought about ahead of time to determine whether an idea is feasible

Caching is where a computer system places data in cache memory so it can be retrieved quickly. Smart algorithms can be used to prefetch data that is predicted to be need ahead of time

Benefit: improved speed and efficiency when accessing data Drawback: The predictive nature of caching is hard to implement and it can often lead to the wrong data being fetched, leading to it having to be removed(flushed). Maintaining the correct sequence of data in such circumstances is problematic

two from: Shortens development time Save system resources Lowers development costs Reduces redundant code

two from: Shortens development time Save system resources Lowers development costs Reduces redundant code

Creating subroutines such as procedures, functions and methods is an example of reusable coding. They are blocks of code than can be used multiple times simply by calling them, saving time, money and resources

All the pre-written and pre-tested code in the library is available for the programmer to use as long as they import it. This saves them from having to write their own, potentially flawed, versions saving time, money and resources

Think procedurally is identifying the individual components in a bigger problem. In this way, a large complex problem can be broken down in smaller, more manageable chunks

Decomposition diagrams Top-down modular design/ structure diagrams

Think logically by considering where decisions will have to be made allows us to consider and evaluate our options, which will likely result in a better outcome

Selection

Thinking concurrently is a skill which involves which parts of a program can be developed to take place, or be processed, at the same time And on the flip side which parts of the program are dependent on each other

Executing multiple tasks at the same time, but not necessarily simultaneously

Concurrency is about dealing with lots of things at once, while parallelism is about doing lots of things at once dealing vs doing

The number of tasks completed in a given time is increased The time wasted by the processor waiting on the user or another process is reduced

two from: Safety: Possibility of corrupting the consistent state of the program Liveness: Tasks can suspend and wait on each other indefinitely, known as deadlock Resource consumption: Multiple threads can consume resources in regards to scheduling, which may result in slower performance compared to ordinary sequential means