CSE 20211Fundamentals of Computing

Prof. Douglas ThainFall 2011

Main Objectives

• Learn how to think algorithmically.• Get LOTS of practice programming.• Take a tour of computer science.• Learn a lot of C, a little C++, and some Unix.

What is Computer Scienceand Engineering?

Conventional(but unsatisfying) definitions:

• Computer science is the study of software, and is closest to the field of mathematics.

• Computer engineering is the study of hardware and is closest to the field of EE.

CSE is Engineering(Both software and hardware)

CSE is Art

CSE is Invention

CSE is Logic and Mathematics

The Minimax Algorithm

Quicksort P = NP?The PageRank Algorithm

Computing is a Mode of ScienceTheory Experiment

Simulation via Computation

CSE is a Craft to be Learned

Learning the Craft of Programming• Write programs for fun!• Write programs for work.• Write programs for contests.• Learn several languages:

– An assembly language. (x86, MIPS, PowerPC)– A procedural language (C, FORTRAN)– An object-oriented language (Java, C#)– A scripting language (python, perl, bash)– A functional language (LISP, Haskell)

• Work on a team writing software (classes, research)• Download, examine, and modify open source software.• Read good books about computing.• Revisit programs you have written before.

A Little History

ENIAC (1946)

IBM 360 Mainframe (1964)

DEC PDP-11 (1970)

Personal Computers (1980s)

Handheld Devices (2000s)

+ The Cloud

The Internet (1969)

The Internet (1972)

The Internet (1990s)

Personal Computers (1990s)The Internet (2000s)

http://xkcd.com/256/

http://xkcd.com/802/

Scale has changed.The concepts have not!

Long Term History(tiobe.com)

Language PositionAug 2011

PositionAug 2006

PositionAug 1996

PositionAug 1986

Java 1 1 5 -C 2 2 1 1

C++ 3 4 2 5PHP 4 5 - -

C# 5 8 - -

Objective-C

6 40 - -

(Visual) Basic

7 3 3 6

Python 8 7 25 -Perl 9 6 10 -

JavaScript 10 10 12 -Lisp 14 15 14 3

Ada 16 17 9 2