Introduction

Tom Kelliher, CS17

Feb. 5, 1996

Introduction

Syllabus

1. Contract between students and instructor

2. Keys: Responsibility, Commitment, Discipline

3. Late assignments accepted only with prior approval

4. Unannounced quizzes to encourage keeping up on reading

5. Use of WWW --- abuse of WWW

6. Perspective on collaboration --- useful aid, poor crutch

7. Tentativeness of schedule

What I Expect

1. Demonstration of reasoning, problem solving and decomposition skills

2. Communication, beginnings of correctness demonstration skills

3. Ability to detect, resolve ambiguity; exercise decision skills

4. ``Fluency'' in basic computing and C/C++:
   1. Basic control structures and abstractions
   2. Basic data types and possibly abstractions
   3. interactive and disk I/O
   4. ability to correct most syntactic and most logical errors
   5. OS concerns

Problem Solving and Computers

Three tools for computer problem solving:

1. Knowledge of computer fundamentals
2. Grasp of problem-solving strategies and techniques
3. Knowledge of some programming language

The Physical Computer

What is a computer?

An electronic device which has input and output devices, memory, and a processing unit. It can be programmed so as to perform different tasks.

General purpose vs. special purpose computers

Supercomputers, mainframes, ..., workstations, desktops, laptops

Computing Models

1. Uniprogrammed --- batch, standalone
2. Multiprogrammed --- timesharing (central computer, attached dumb terminals, realtime
3. Multiprocessor --- distributed, client/server, networks. File, print servers, workstations.

Will advances in networking technology push us back to the centralized model?