All posts by Mr Stratton

Computing teacher and a PT at Coltness High School.
6. External Sites, Computing Higher, Information Systems Higher

Scholar

A reminder to pupils that the scholar website has a range of materials and assessments that you should be using to improve your subject knowledge.

I have list of all the pupil access to Scholar, there is a surprising number of pupils who have not been making use of this site. I will discuss this in class today. I have no wish to name and shame pupils that have not been using the site, however, the information is available.

Please use this resource

6. External Sites, Coursework

Coursework Tasks

I have added a new page to the Glow group that has previous coursework tasks. It was my intention last week to start looking at previous coursework tasks and evaluate what is good and bad.

Obviously the snow has kinda got in the way a big bit so, I would like to to try one of the tasks here. You should find the Computer Systems section straight forward enough but the software development side will be a lot harder. Make sure you stick to the main plan. I have uploaded the unedited PDFs from these years so you can see how the marking schemes are applied. If you do not have VB at home then this link should help.

I have also uploaded some new software development notes into the group.

Please share this message with as many pupils as you can in the class.

1. Computer Systems, Computing Higher, Homework

Interface Homework

This weeks homework is in Glow learn but here is an offline copy

  1. Describe two ways in which buffers improve system performance
  2. Describe a situation in which spooling would be a useful technique
  3. Give reasons why solid state memory devices are so widely used
  4. Why does an interface have to convert incoming serial data to parallel form?
  5. Why is a buffer an essential part of an interface

For practice – do as an exercise but no need to hand in

Describe a suitable selection of hardware including peripherals to suit the tasks below

  • Producing a school website
  • Setting up a LAN at home
  • Creating a multimedia reference DVD
Computing Higher

Notes List

You should now have the following core notes.

Software Development

  • Topic 1 Getting started
  • Topic 2 Strings and Branches
  • Topic 3 Loops (revision)
  • Topic 4 1-D Arrays (revision)
  • Topic 5 User-defined functions
  • Topic 6 Sub-programs and parameter passing
  • Topic 7 Standard Algorithms
  • Topic 8 Real-world Programming
  • Topic 9 Programming tools

Computer Systems

  • Topic 1 – Data representation
  • Topic 2 – Computer Structure
  • Topic 3 – Computer Performance
  • Topic 4 – Peripherals
  • Topic 5 – Networking
  • Topic 6 – Using Networks
  • Topic 7 – Systems Software
  • Answers
  • Glossary
Computing Higher

Design a logo!

We need a new logo for the blog! I would like you to design and create one. It can not use copyright images but can have photos you have taken yourself as well as public domain images.

Attached below is a quick sample I knocked up with powerpoint and irfanview

2. Software Development, Computing Higher

Solution to 6.5.3 task 1

3 Comments

Ok so this is going to be a long post (I will need to check the blog options and shrink the post sizes). This is a solution to task 1 in 6.5.3 it is based on the design given in the answers. It is NOT the only solution and you might want to comment on ways the program could be improved (think about evaluation). I have included some screen shots.

NOTE the display of the data is optional.

Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
'This program represents a solution to 6.5.3 task 1
'The Desgin was given in the answers section
'It is not the only solution
Dim HD_up As Integer 'HD Upgrade required
Dim RAM_up As Integer 'RAM Upgrade required
Dim Mon_up As Integer 'Monitor Upgrade required
Dim Cost1 As Single 'Price
Dim Num As Integer 'Quanity
Dim Basic_Cost As Single 'Cost for Order before deliver and discounts
Dim Dis As Single ' Discount on whole order
Dim Del As Single ' delivery charge per order
Dim VAT As Single 'VAT on Order
Dim Total As Single ' Order Total
Cost1 = 499 'Set the starting cost of a machine
Del = 50 ' £50 delivery per order
Form1.Print "The basic systems costs 499" 'optional
Call Get_Comp_Spec(HD_up, RAM_up, Mon_up)
Call Calc_Cost_Of_One(Cost1, HD_up, RAM_up, Mon_up)
Call Get_Number(Num)
Call Calc_Basic_Cost(Num, Cost1, Basic_Cost)
Call Calc_discount_delivery_VAT(Num, Basic_Cost, Dis, Del, VAT)
Call Calc_total_cost(Basic_Cost, Dis, Del, VAT, Total)
Call Display_total(Total)
End Sub

Private Sub Get_Comp_Spec(ByRef HD_up As Integer, ByRef RAM_up As Integer, ByRef Mon_up As Integer)
'Check what upgrades the user wishes
HD_up = MsgBox("Do you wish to upgrade to 60GB for £30?", vbYesNo)
RAM_up = MsgBox("Do you wish to upgrade to 1GB for £50?", vbYesNo)
Mon_up = MsgBox("Do you wish to upgrade to 21 inch for £199?", vbYesNo)
End Sub

Private Sub Calc_Cost_Of_One(ByRef Cost1 As Single, ByVal HD_up, ByVal RAM_up, ByVal Mon_up)
'calculate the cost of the upgrades
If HD_up = vbYes Then
Cost1 = Cost1 + 30
Form1.Print "Hard drive upgrade £30" 'optional
End If
If RAM_up = vbYes Then
Cost1 = Cost1 + 50
Form1.Print "RAM upgrade £50" 'optional
End If
If Mon_up = vbYes Then
Cost1 = Cost1 + 199
Form1.Print "Monitor upgrade £199" 'optional
End If
End Sub

Private Sub Get_Number(ByRef Num As Integer)
'Get the number of systems ordered
'As an extension task this number could be validated
Num = InputBox("How many machines do you want?")
Form1.Print Num & " machines ordered" 'optional
End Sub

Private Sub Calc_discount_delivery_VAT(ByVal Num, ByVal Basic_Cost, ByRef Dis As Single, ByRef Del As Single, ByRef VAT As Single)
'Calculate Discount
If Num > 10 And Num <= 20 Then
Dis = Basic_Cost * 0.05 '5% Form1.Print "A discount of 5% is £" & Dis 'optional
ElseIf Num > 20 Then
Dis = Basic_Cost * 0.1 '10%
Form1.Print "A discount of 10% is £" & Dis 'optional
Else
Dis = Basic_Cost * 0 '0%
Form1.Print "A discount of 0% is £" & Dis 'optional
End If
'Calculate VAT
Form1.Print "Delivery on the order is £" & Del 'optional
VAT = (Basic_Cost - Dis + Del) * 0.175
Form1.Print "The VAT on the order is £" & VAT 'optional
End Sub

Private Sub Calc_Basic_Cost(ByVal Num, ByVal Cost1, ByRef Basic_Cost As Single)
'Calculate the cost of the order before discount and VAT
Basic_Cost = Num * Cost1 ' Cost for whole order
Form1.Print "The cost of the order before discount,deliver & VAT is £" & Basic_Cost 'optional
End Sub

Private Sub Calc_total_cost(ByVal Basic_Cost, ByVal Dis, ByVal Del, ByVal VAT, ByRef Total As Single)
'Calculate the Total cost of the whole order
Total = Basic_Cost + Del + VAT - Dis
End Sub

Private Sub Display_total(ByVal Total)
'Display the cost for the whole order
Form1.Print "The total for the order was £" & Format(Total, "0.00")
End Sub