Computer Programming Honor

Vocational Activities

Requirements

  1. Present a report of at least 2 pages on the history of programming languages.

    Answer: Milestones: Ada Lovelace (1843, 1st algorithm); Fortran/Cobol/Lisp (1950-60); C/Pascal (1970); Python/Java (1990); Rust/Go (2010+). Cite sources in 2+ pages. — Ada Lovelace is considered the first programmer in history — in 1843, she wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine; the Ada language (1980) was named in her honor by the US Department of Defense, a NATO standard to this day.

  2. Define Programming Logic.

    Answer: Programming logic is organizing ordered steps to solve problems with conditionals (if/else), loops (for/while), and functions. It is independent of the language and is the basis of any code. — Pseudocode and flowcharts are universal programming-logic techniques taught before any specific language — they allow algorithms to be expressed without complex syntax, a principle used by Donald Knuth in 'The Art of Computer Programming' (1968), a worldwide reference.

  3. Choose a programming language to develop a system and describe the origin of that language.

    Answer: Python: created by Guido van Rossum in 1991, in the Netherlands. The name was inspired by the comedy group Monty Python. Philosophy: readability. Today it dominates AI, web, and automation. — Guido van Rossum was the 'Benevolent Dictator For Life' (BDFL) of Python until 2018, when he resigned after a technical controversy — Python is today the #1 language in the TIOBE index, used at NASA, Netflix, Instagram, Google, and in almost all modern academic scientific research.

  4. Present to the examiner:
    • Present a project for a management system for a Pathfinder club that has integrated:
    • A computer system with the modules above.
    • The source code of the modules above.
    • Documentation on the use of the system.

    Answer: Create a simple club system with 3 modules: registration, attendance, and scoring. Use Python+SQLite or a spreadsheet. Present the prototype, commented source code, and documentation. — For beginners, tools like Streamlit (Python) or Google Apps Script allow functional systems to be created in hours — Streamlit turns Python code into web apps without HTML/CSS, ideal for club projects. Include modules for Pathfinder registration, weekly attendance control, and a scoring report for the directorate.

  5. Complete one of the items below:
    • Hold the certificate of a course in which you learned a programming language;
    • Define and conceptualize the following topics:

    Answer: Choose 1: (a) a course certificate (Udemy, Coursera, Alura, FreeCodeCamp); (b) define variable, function, loop, conditional, and data structure. — FreeCodeCamp and Coursera offer free courses with a certificate — an economical alternative for Pathfinders; Harvard's CS50 is a free worldwide reference, available in Portuguese since 2020. Definitions: variable (a memory space), function (a reusable block), loop (repetition), conditional (decision), and data structure (organization).