CS101 Introduction to Computing

Lecture 1 Introduction
Every minute dies a man,
Every minute one is born

Alfred Tennyson
(very famous poet)
Every minute dies a man,
And one and sixteenth is born

Charles Babbage
(very famous computer scientist)
 Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

• Creator of the Analytical Engine - the first

general-purpose digital computer (1833)

• The Analytical Engine was not built until

1943 (in the form of the Harvard Mark I)
 The Analytical Engine

• A programmable, mechanical, digital machine

• Could carryout any calculation

• Could make decisions based upon the results

of the previous calculation

• Components: input; memory; processor; output

Ada, Countess of Lovelace(1815-52)
• Babbage: the father of computing
Ada: the mother?
• Wrote a program for computing the Bernoulli’s
sequence on the Analytical Engine - world’s 1st
computer program
• A programming language specifically
Ada?
designed by the US Dept of Defense for
developing military applications was named
Ada to honor her contributions towards
 A lesson that we all can learn
from Babbage’s Life
• Charles Babbage had huge difficulties raising money
to fund his research

• As a last resort, he designed a clever mathematical

scheme along with Ada, the Countess of Lovelace

• It was designed to increase their odds while gambling.

They bet money on horse races to raise enough
money to support their research experiments

• Guess what happened at the end? The lost every

penny that they had.
Why use a computer?

What value do
Computers bring?

What are they good at?


fast
bored

storage

What type of
problems are not
suitable for
computers?
 It could analyze up to 300 billion
Here is a fact: chess moves in three minutes

In 1997 Deep Blue, a supercomputer

designed by IBM, beat Gary Kasparov, the
World Chess Champion

That computer was exceptionally fast, did

not get tired or bored. It just kept on
analyzing the situation and kept on
searching until it found the perfect move
from its list of possible moves

And now a question …

can computers

think?
embedded
computers
 Goals for Today

1. To develop an appreciation about

the capabilities of computing

2. To find about the structure &

policies of this course
 CS101 Introduction to Computing

Course Contents
& Structure
 Course
Objectives
1. To build an appreciation for the
fundamental concepts in computing

2. To achieve a beginners proficiency in

Web page development

3. To become familiar with popular PC

productivity software
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1. Fundamental concepts

2.
3.
Intro to computing
Evolution of computing Development methodology
Computer organization Design heuristics
Building a PC Web design for usability
Microprocessors Computer networks
Binary numbers & logic Intro to the Internet
Internet services
Computer software
Graphics & animation
Operating systems
Intelligent systems
Application software Data management
Algorithms Cyber crime
Flowcharts Social implications
Programming languages The computing profession
The future of computing
1.
2. Web page development

3.
 Web Development

The World Wide Web

Flow control & loops
Making a Web page
Arrays
Lists & tables
Built-in functions
Interactive forms User-defined functions
More on forms Event handling
Objects & methods String manipulation
Data types & operators Images & graphics
Programming methodology
1.
2.
3. Productivity software
Productivity Applications

Word processor

Spreadsheet

Presentation software

Database
Instructor:
Altaf Khan
altaf@vu.edu.pk

Course Web Page:

http://www.vu.edu.pk/cs101

Textbooks:
UC - Understanding Computers (2000 ed.)
JS - Learn JavaScript in a Weekend
 Reading Assignments

Please make sure to read the assigned

material for each week before the
commencement of the corresponding week

Reading that material beforehand will help

you greatly in absorbing with ease the
matter discussed during the lecture
Check your e-mail often for
announcements related to
this and other VU courses
marks
distribution …
 Assignments (15%)

• Almost one every week, 13 in all

• No credit for late submissions

• The lowest 2 assignment grades will be dropped

 Midterm Exam (35%)

• During the 8th week

• Duration: One hour

• Will cover all material covered during the first

seven weeks
 Final Exam (50%)

• During the 16th week

• Will cover the whole of the course with a slight

emphasis on the material covered after the
midterm exam

• Duration: 2 hours
 Final
Midterm Examination
Examination 50%
35%

Homework
Assignments
15%
 First Assignment
A. Send an email message to me at altaf@vu.edu.pk with the
subject “Assignment 1” giving me some information (in around
50 words) about what you see yourself doing ten years from
now

B. Go to the CS101 message board and post a message

(consisting of approx. 50 words) about how we could make the
contents of this course more suitable for your individual needs.
The subject for this message should be “Assignment 1”

Consult the CS101 syllabus for the submission deadline

A suggestion about unfamiliar terms
• We try not to use any new terms without
explaining them first

• However, it is not possible to do that all the time

• If you encounter any unfamiliar terms during the

lectures, please note them down and consult
the GLOSSARY provided at the end of the
“Understanding Computers” text book for their
meaning
 Let’s summarize the things
that we have covered today?

A few things about:

– the very first digital computer & its inventor

– the capability of modern computers

– the structure and contents of CS101

 In the Next Lecture …
We’ll continue the story of the evolution of
digital computers form the Analytical Engine
onwards

We’ll discuss many of the key inventions

and developments that he lead to the shape
of the current field of computing