CPS 1: Computer Science Fundamentals

Vijay Abhijit

17th May, 2001

Many thanks to Prof Jeff Forbes and Prof Dietolf Ramm

for slide content !!!

Welcome! Computer Science Fundamentals : CPS 1 D106, Levine Science Research Center — M, T, W, Th, F 2:00 - 3:15 Lab 130 North Building — T, Th 3:20 - 4:20 Instructor: Vijay Abhijit

Getting Help!

• Contact Information– Vijay Abhijit : abhijit@cs.duke.edu OR

vijay.abhijit@duke.edu– Ph : 660 - 4007– Office Hours at 07 North Building

• Mon : 3:20 - 4:30• Wed : 3:20 - 4:30, or by appointment

• Peer Tutors– Peer Tutoring Office, 217 Academic Center, East Campus, Ph: 684-8832

Administrivia

• Read webpage regularly– http://www.cs.duke.edu/education/courses/summer01/cps001

• Read newsgroup – news:duke.cs.cps001

• On webpage you will find:– Assignment information– Syllabus and timetable– Handout of slides

Today’s Topics

• Who is this guy talking to us?

• What is this course about?

• How are we going to learn it?

• Where do we go from here?– A peek into the world of HTML...

Course Mechanics

• What is the prerequisite?– High School Algebra (?)

• How does this course fit into the curricula?– A survey, service course designed for non-

majors– CPS 4 and 6 are more programming oriented

Course MechanicsMechanics (contd.)

• Study Material– Text Books

Course Pack (available from Book Store)

Great Ideas in Computer Science by A. Biermann, 2nd ed, MIT Press, 1997

OPTIONAL: Programming.Java by R. Decker and S. Hirshfield, 2nd ed, PWS, 2000.

– Handouts

Course Mechanics (contd.)

• Flat grading (no marking on curve)– Programs, problems 25%

– Programming test (in last lab. meeting) 10%

– Project 15%

– Quizzes 15%

– Mid Term Exam 15%

– Final Exam 20%

– Class Participation

Assignment 0

• Send me email! (abhijit@cs.duke.edu OR vijay.abhijit@duke.edu) [due Fri, May 18, 11:59pm]

– Your name

– Major

– Class [Fresh / Soph / Jun / Sen / Grad]

– Box at home? [PC / Mac]

– Programmed before? [Never / Basic / Pascal / HTML / Java / C++ / C / Other]

– What would you like to learn from this course?

On the subject of questions

• Did you ask any good questions today?– Questions which illuminate help nourish ideas– Children are born curious– Fear of public displays of ignorance prevents

learning

• Participate in class

• Go to office hours

• Make study groups with your classmates

Quotations about Computer Science

• “Computer Science has such intimate relations with so many other subjects that it is hard to see it as a thing unto itself”

– Marvin Minsky, 1979

• “It has often been said that a person does not really understand something until he teaches it to someone else”

– Donald Knuth

• “Actually a person does not really understand something until he can teach it to a computer”

– Judith Gal-Ezer and David Harel

Survey the Field

• Artificial Intelligence

• Graphics / Multimedia

• Programming Languages

• Systems & Architecture

• Theory

• Parallel Computation

Precise, Logical Thinking

• Breaking down a task into unambiguous steps• Computers are deterministic• Debugging

– Programs will rarely work the first time one writes them

– Systematic approach to detecting, diagnosing and fixing errors

– Debugging skills are useful in many parts of life

First Bug!

The User

Applications

Programming Languages

Operating Systems

Machine Architecture

Circuits

Physics

Layers of Abstraction

The Web and HTML!

• Lots of computers connected together in a collection of networks

• Internet started in 1969 as DARPAnet– To survive a nuclear attack by the USSR– 4 computers in 1969, millions today…

The Web and HTML (contd.)

• HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a common formatting language for the web

• Hypertext (from the Webopedia)– A special type of database system, invented by

Ted Nelson in the 1960s in which objects (text, pictures, music, programs and so on) can be creatively linked to each other

• Hypertext is the idea of a link or a reference

HTML

• HTML uses “tags”• Tags are unprinted, formatting markers

– Identified by angle brackets i.e. (<TAG>)– eg: <TITLE> The Human Tornado </TITLE>– NOT case sensitive

• Most people don’t write HTML– Save as HTML in Microsoft Word– Netscape Composer/ Microsoft Front Page

Delimiting with Tags

• First tag says “Begin Mode”

• Second tag says “End Mode”

• So <TITLE> The Human Tornado </TITLE> means:– Begin TITLE mode– The text “The Human Tornado” is in TITLE

mode– End TITLE mode

Delimiting with Tags (contd.)

• Using these constructs we can nest several different modes and have really interesting behavior

• Good tutorial on HTML at http://www.w3.org/markup/guide

• In lab you will create a webpage