Introduction to Information Technology

...history, trends, basics, paradigms, business.

Course code: ITX0025
Teacher: Endre Domiczi
Contact: edo@iki.fi
Link: http://www.lambda.ee/index/Introduction_to_Information_Technology or http://www.lambda.ee/index/itx0025
Link to last year Estonian version http://www.lambda.ee/index/Sissejuhatus_informaatikasse or http://www.lambda.ee/index/itv0010

Exam, Presentation, Evaluation, Results

Student groups for presentation: please click here for signing up.

The email should contain for each group member the name, student number and email-address. Please don't touch the subject line (or only add to it)

Group size is 1-3 persons, presentation time is min. 10 minutes, 15 if the group size is 3.

Topics can be selected from materials on this page that are prefixed with "Additionally:"

Lecture: Amount, Time and Location, Scores

Lectures per week: 2 hours. Unless otherwise marked the schedule is as follows:

• at ITK the following times.
  • Tuesday 17.45-19.15, IT-140 (lecturing endre)

Exercises at ITK: independent reading and (sometimes) problem solving, with guidance

ITK: course ends with EVALUATION. The Evaluation is in writing, two or more hours.

ITK: kursus lõpeb ARVESTUSEGA. Arvestus on kirjalik, kaks või enam tundi. Semestri poole peal (täpne kuupäev ilmub hiljem) toimub lisaks kontrolltöö ajaloo-osa kohta. Arvestuse saamiseks peab edukalt tegema nii kontrolltöö kui arvestustöö.

Course goals

• Give a compact overview of informatics as a whole.
• Give a historical overview of IT theory, technology and business development.
• Introduce future courses for further studies.

NB! the course DOES NOT TEACH elementary computer usage skills. Neither does it teach programming, although it gives a gentle introduction to programming.

Summary

Historical and conceptual overview of informatics as a domain of business, science and engineering. Early history of the domain, scientific and technical development at the beginning of the last century, the rapid development during the mid-century and the even faster paved changes in the scientific-, business and technological aspects during the last decades.

Main programming paradigms (imperative, logical, functional, object-oriented) as well as paradigms in system architecture (mainframes, personal computers, client-server systems, distributed and multi-layer systems).

The birth and disappearance of technologies, companies; trends, principles, specific events.

Please also see Course Register.

Lecture plan and materials

The course DOESN’T HAVE a single course-book. As follows, material for each lecture is given separately.

NB! Materials for not-yet-delivered lectures are preliminary: they are changed, supplemented during the course.

1. Introduction

Basics of Computers and Programming.

Lecture material: Intro2it_1_edo.PPT, Intro2it_1_edo.pdf.

Additionally:

• read and also play with the : Data Representations Applet (originally written by David Eck).
• read: Paul Graham: Why nerds are unpopular?

2. Early History

Industrialization. Theoretical foundations. Logic.

Lecture material: intro2it_2_edo.ppt, Intro2it_2_edo.pdf.

Additionally:

• Paul Graham: What you'll wish you'd known
• A collection of web-based logic programs offering a number of logical functions by Christian Gottschall :

overview , formulae of classical two-valued propositional logic).

• A history of computers from the beginnings - ~1945:

3. "Medieval" history

from WWII till beginning of the 60's. Computers and programming. Languages and architectures. Integratec circuits.

Lecture material: intro2it_3_edo.ppt, Intro2it_3_edo.pdf.

Additionally:

• Paul Graham: Undergraduation plus: more advice for undergrads
• Eck intro lab: data reps.
• Eck lab: Turing machines.
• Earlier machines:
  • Example of an important analog computer: Norden bombsight
  • English cryptography saga: Colossus, Turing, Germans' Enigma and Lorenz SZ 40
  • First digital computers working with electricity:
    • Zuse electro-mechanical computer, compare with this site.
    • Atanasoff's electronic computer
    • Mark I: first programmable electro-mechanical computer.
• Read also: Chronology of Personal Computers by Ken Polsson

4. "Medieval" history (continued)

60's, beginning of the 70's. Minicomputers and microprocessors.

Lecture material: intro2it_4_edo.ppt, Intro2it_4_edo.pdf.

Additionally:

• Continuation to question "what to do in high school?". Joel Spolsky: Advice for Computer Science College Students
• PDP-1 restoration project
• Spacewar: first graphical computer game
• Atari muuseum
• mechanical pong
• SRI international
• Bell labs

5. "Medieval" history (continued)

70ś . MicroComputers, Personal Computers.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus5o.PPT, itsissejuhatus5o.pdf.

Additionally:

• Colossal Cave (adventure) textual adventure game
• Magnavox odyssey

6. Recent history

80's. IBM PC, Macintosh, uued vanad opsüsteemid. Spetsiaalarvutid, workstationid, oluline soft.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus6o.PPT, itsissejuhatus6o.pdf.

• Additionally: Apple Macintoshi reklaamfilm:
  • Väike mpeg variant
  • Suur quicktime variant

7. Recent history

90's till today. Summary of the saga.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus_ajaloolopp.PPT, itsissejuhatus_ajaloolopp.pdf.

Additionally:

• Alustada: "Teejuht võrgumeediasse" toorik.
• Tutvu: [http:/materjalid/itsissejuhatus/itsissejuhatus_eestiajalugu.ppt J.Penjami lühiülevaade Eestis tehtud ja olnud varastest arvutitest]

8. Basic principles of computers, programming languages.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus7o.PPT, itsissejuhatus7o.pdf.

Additionally:

• Get a bit acquainted with the following sites:
  • http://www.mkdata.dk/click/
  • Tom's hardware guide
• D.Eck, osad siit: Eck laborid (siit saad võtta eraldi rakendusena). NB! Loe ise läbi, proovi ja tee igast osast üks-kaks harjutust:
  • Logic circuits
  • Memory circuits

9. Programming languages continued. Operating Systems.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus8o.PPT, itsissejuhatus8o.pdf.

Additionally: Eck laborid jätk: loe ise läbi, proovi ja tee igast osast üks-kaks harjutust:

• xComputer
• xComputer assembly language

Kohustuslikku lugemist (

• Kohustuslik on esimene 1/4 pikast artiklist In the Beginning was the Command Line

Soovitavat lugemist:

• üldse mitte kohustuslik (algajatel raske mõista :-) The Art of Unix Programming
• Computer languages history
• About 2500 Computer Languages, Past and Present
• Computer language shootout
• Minix: Linuxi inspiratsiooniks olnud mini-UNIX
• Unix history

10. Software architecture and paradigms.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus9o.PPT, itsissejuhatus9o.pdf.

Additionally: Become acquainted with:

• vabavara kasutamisest riigis
• Stallmani naljalaul
• Linus Linuxit hääldamas

11. Network software paradigms. Internet basic technology.

Lecture material: Itsissejuhatus10o.PPT, Itsissejuhatus10o.pdf.

Additionally: Tutvuda:

• http://www.w3schools.com/.
• http://www.w3c.org/.

12. Network software paradigms. Internet application technology.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus11o.PPT, itsissejuhatus11o.pdf.

Additionally: Tutvuda lühidalt:

• Loengunäite variant: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/networking/urls/readingURL.html
• http://www.w3schools.com/.
• http://www.w3c.org/.
• XMLHttpRequest Demo (async javascript)
• Loengunäide: Tiny www server
• Greenspuni vana kuulus Panda book
• Apache
• veel näiteid: kalkulaator, css, javascript, XML ja XSL näited

13. Recursion. Functional and logical programming.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus12o.PPT, itsissejuhatus12o.pdf.

Additionally: Look at and try to modify the following examples:

• Lihtsamad rekursiivsed pildid
• Rekursiivsed pildid randomiga

Huvi korral installeeri ja proovi Prologi: SWI Prolog.

14. Algorithms. Keerukus ja lahenduvus.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus13o.PPT, itsissejuhatus13o.pdf.

Additionally: Huvi korral vaata TSP programmi Java lähtekoodi

15. Artificial intelligence.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus14o.PPT, itsissejuhatus14o.pdf.

Huvi korral loe Matrix, Skynet ja sõda teispoolsusega, klassiku ülevaadet tehisintellektindusest, Dennetti artikleid, tuntud õpikut, ajakirja JAIR.

16. IT business, IT projects.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus15o.PPT, itsissejuhatus15o.pdf.

Lisaks: mitmed kohustuslikud artiklid, vt kas powerpointist või sellel lehel allpool, :kohustuslike lugemismaterjalide peatüki allosas.

17. Varu.

Examples of previous exams (to practice)

• old exam 1
• old exam 2
• old exam 3

NB!

• The questions will be different
• More difficult tasks give you more points than the easy ones:: most difficult 10-15 points, easy ones: 6-9 points. Altogether 100 points

Obligatory textbooks

To pass the course one must read the the following material. NB! The amount of obligatory material may be increased : follow the list

• History from the Beginnings - 1981 (piisab kiirest läbivaatamisest, vajalik materjal loengutes): Bebop BYTES Back
• History 1945-1990 (piisab kiirest läbivaatamisest, vajalik materjal loengutes): The Computer Museum.
• History 1947-1999 (see ei ole otseselt kohustuslik): autor Ken Polsson.
• Vana jutt infoühiskonnast: T.Tammet 1995-1996: "Teejuht võrgumeediasse" toorik.
• About Electronic Democray and State:
  • T.Tammet, 2001: E-valimiste analüüs
• Loogika ainest ja ajaloost: T.Tammet: Loogika aine ja ajalugu: sissejuhatus T.Tamme, T.Tammeti ja R.Prangi loogikaõpikule "Mõtlemisest tõestamiseni".
• Opsüsteemidest laiemas kontekstis: Kohustuslik on algusosa (esimene 1/4) pikast artiklist In the Beginning was the Command Line
• Kohustuslikud artiklid IT äri ja juhtimise teemal on järgmised. Neid "ära õppida" vms pole vaja, piisab lihtsast mõnusast kiirest läbilugemisest:
  • Paul Graham: How to start a startup?
  • Paul Graham: Great hackers
  • Paul Graham: Why smart people have bad ideas
  • Joel Spolsky: Esileht: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
  • Joel Spolsky: Strateegia: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000074.html
  • Joel Spolsky: Funktsionaalsuse spec:Painless Functional Specifications (1 osa): http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000036.html
  • Joel Spolsky: IT Work Arrangements : 12 steps: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html
  • Joel Spolsky: Project Planning: Painless Software Schedules: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html
  • Greenspun: Lihtsalt loe sisukorda, tervet raamatut pole vaja!: http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/
  • Greenspun: Future peatükk: http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/future
  • Greenspun: Humor: http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/

Very useful material: read it!

• Read Daily: http://www.news.com
• Read Daily: http://www.slashdot.org
• Software management, about twice a month: http://www.joelonsoftware.com
• Paul Grahami essays, new ones less often.
• Jargon lexikon and the New Hacker's Dictionary.
• The cathedral and Bazaar
• Gnu manifests
• David Eck: Labs and Applets for "The Most Complex Machine".

If it all seems too easy, then:

• Loe läbi enamus Paul Grahami esseid.
• Loe läbi Steven Raymondi raamat (NB! algajatel raske õieti mõista :-) The Art of Unix Programming
• Loe läbi väga lõbus ja hariv raamat: Philip Greenspuni Guide to Web Publishing. Kui meeldis, uuri järgi, mida Greenspun veel teeb (sh loe teisi raamatuid ka) ja kuidas sündis ja suri tema kuulus firma.
• Vaata, mis võrgust (loodetavasti) edaspidi saab: Semantic Web
• Loe hoolega läbi (ei ole üldse kohustuslik ja algajatele mittesoovitav) ja tee harjutusi ka: Computer Systems: a programmers perspective toorikvariant.
• Loe läbi hulga Daniel Dennetti esseid
• Proovi õppejõu tehisintellektisüsteem Gandalf installeerida (Unix või Windows+cygwin) ja mängi sellega. Proovi ka Otterit (lihtsam, aga nõrgem klassikaline süsteem). Kuidas, loe siit ja siit ja siit.
• Tee omal käel ette läbi terve Programmeerimise põhikursus (peaasi: tee kõik harjutustööd: programmeerimise õppimiseks ainus viis on palju programmeerida :-)
• Õpi assembleris programmeerima (üpris ebapraktiline oskus, aga hästi hariv :-)