Control flow

This activity has the following desired goals:

• Learning about sequencing, looping, selection, and calls in the context of the idea of control flow (A, M).
• Learning about the call/return based control flow in the context of command and function execution (A, M).
• Being able to describe the control flow in any program (or portion thereof) (T).

Step 0

Read up on the notional machine for Kojo.

Step 1

Type in the following code and trace it:

def sum(n1: Int, n2: Int) = {
    n1 + n2
}

def sq(size: Int) = {
    repeat(4) {
        forward(size)
        right(90)
    }
}

clear()
val xx = sum(30, 40)
sq(xx)
hop(xx)

Q1a What does each line in the trace mean? Go through the trace and try to fully understand (take help from the explanation below as needed).

Explanation

Control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which the instructions of a computer program are executed (by the CPU in a computer). There are four primary ways in which this happens:

• sequencing - this is the default mode of execution of a program - instructions are run one after the other.
• looping - special istructions (like repeat) make the program loop over a sequence of instructions.
• selection - lets you choose the next instrunction to run from alternative instructions - based on a condition.
• calls and returns - calls jump into previously defined functions or commands, supplying input values as needed, then carry out the instructions specified there, and finally return to the instruction right after the calling instruction. In the case of functions, the result of the computation/calculation carried out by the function is returned. In the case of commands, the unit value () is returned.

Note - the Kojo trace window only shows calls and returns to/from commands and functions that you define. It does not show the calls/returns of predefined (primitive) commands and functions. Be aware that these calls/returns (of primitives) happen under the covers.

When we talk about the fundamentals of programming, we consider three different ways of looking at a program - operation, structure, and development.

Let’s look at control flow from these three different perspectives.

• Operation or running of a program - control flow is the running of the program.
• Program structure - control flow is specified in the structure of the program.
• Program development - you put various control flow mechanisms into your program as you develop it, in terms of the composition of commands and functions.