Understanding input and output in computational thinking
In order to better understand input and output, we will take a look at computational thinking problems in this section. As we go through the design process of the algorithms, we will focus on identifying the inputs needed and what output we require from our algorithms. Let's take a look at our first problem.
Problem 1 – Building a Caesar cipher
A Caesar cipher is a system of cryptography used to code messages. Cryptography is used to secure information so that only the intended users can read the messages. The Caesar cipher uses a shift in the letters to encode the messages. For example, the letter a shifted 3 places would be d. To build an algorithm that does this for us, we'll need a few things on hand:
- A message that will be coded
- How much we'll shift each letter
- A printed coded message
Let's think about what the aforementioned points mean. The message will need to be...
