26 April 00:
14 April 00:
27 March 00:
10 March 00: As per announcements in class today:
21 Feb 00: In honor of President's Day I have extended the
due date for Lab 5 until Wednesday 23 February. Here's a
little cartoon about programmers and managers to amuse you while you
wait for Lab 6 to be posted.
18 Feb 00: Added a graphic about StickFigure measurements to the
Miscellaneous Figures section; also added a link to some sample PC-231 code.
16 Feb 00: New lecture (hardware), plus PC-231 Computer Supplement and Miscellaneous
Figures links added (also, some fancier web graphics).
14 Feb 00: New link added to the StickFigure code examples (see below);
also, new lab (#5) up-loaded.
Lecture notes are available here for review; I will also a post review
sheet before each exam.
This the first lecture; in it, I tried to define some basic terms, like
computer, information, etc.,
which in turn led to some basic concerning the nature of language and
symbolic representation.
This material is a bit on the philosophical side and may seem
"fluffy" given the nature of the course, but its main purpose is to
lay a conceptual and terminological foundation for the rest of the course
and for the Computer Science major in general.
There aren't many testable issues in this lecture, but on the other hand
it can be reviewed pretty quickly. You should know the difference between
syntax, semantics and pragmatics,
for example. I'll try to find other specific points to study when I produce
a review sheet for the first exam.
By the way, it's perfectly OK if you want to consult other source materials
on some of these topics as you study: any text on rhetoric, communication
theory or linguistics will consider these issues at greater length than I
have here.
In these next two lectures, we begin to get into the nitty-gritty of how
computers actually represent information. To spoil the story, everything
comes down to sequences of bits (binary digits) and thus effectively to
sequences of ones and zeros.
In this lecture we lay down a foundation for these issues of representation
by discussing how numbers are represented in different numeral systems,
conversion between systems, and the central role of binary numerals.
As mentioned above, with computers, everything
comes down to sequences of bits (binary digits).
The trick to making this an effective choice is in how those bits
are interpreted (as with any language). The fact that any symbolic data
can be reduced to this "medium" is not too hard to see. But the
representation of "not necessarily symbolic" information (such as music
and images) requires some insight ... and perhaps cutting some corners.
The combination of digital representation and digital computers is
nevertheless extremely powerful, and by nearly all accounts is ushering
in a new age in many areas of human endeavor.
These assignments should be posted earlier in the week and then undertaken
during scheduled lab times in Collins 411.
Assigned: Wed 19 Jan 2000
This is just a short exercise to give you the opportunity to get set
up on the 411 lab machines and get started with Symantec Cafe. You will
need to spend some time reading the assignment and the text, but it is largely
just an exercise in the truest sense of the word.
This lab was kindly provided by Professor Jim Levenick!
Assigned: Wed 26 Jan 2000
This is our first significant programming exercise; it's not really that difficult,
but since it's the first time most of you will have written your own program,
it will present some challenges. It also serves to set the stage for a discussion
of abstraction in lectures and for further elaboration as an assignment "theme" in
lab.
Assigned: Mon 31 Jan 2000
This lab is one of two "paper-and-pencil" assignments we will do relating to
material from lecture on number bases and data representation. Although it
serves as a break from programming, it may not be as much fun ...
Assigned: Mon 7 Feb 2000
With this lab we continue the "stick figure" theme, now moving our
program code into classes as a better means of organizing it. Notions
of class and object will be motivated and explained in lecture.
Assigned: Mon 14 Feb 2000
This lab returns to issues of binary representation, as in Lab #3, but now
looks to higher-level problems concerned with representation techniques, rather
than just the low-level details of different numeral systems.
An understanding of these issues will help you
understand the needs of graphic designers, web page designers, sound engineers
and other "para-programmers" in your programming work. It
will also help you to develop intuitions about more general data
storage and complexity analysis issues.
Assigned: Wed 23 Feb 2000
Assigned: Fri 3 Feb 2000
Assigned: Mon 3 Apr 2000
News and announcements
Here's a link to
the applet page from our textbook's author
and one to
the corresponding source code.
Lab 8 due date extended to Mon 17 April 2000!
Reminder: Exam on Friday 31 March!
Solutions to the written homeworks (lab 3 and lab 5) are
now on-line here
and
here.
3 March 00: Classes were cancelled due to my
illness on Wednesday 1 March. Consequently, I have extended the
due date for Lab 6 until Friday. I have also posted a Lab 7
due on the following Friday.
Quick index
On-line lecture notes
On-line homework and programming projects
Production notes