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

Latest News

Unlike in previous years there will be no exams in December, only in January.

See more at "Exam"

Nov.21 Discussion of Exam examples

Initial Signing up for exams

Exam, Evaluation, Results

• Unlike in previous years there will be no exam in December, only in January.

Consequently, those who have signed up for a December exam should change.

December exam reconsidered due to many students having flights

In January there will be at least 2 exams (with min. 5 days in between)

There will also be a consultation.

Please click here and email your preferred dates, time interval.

After receiving enough emails the dates will be set.

• A part of the exam will be about logical functions. To prepare please practice on the site of Christian Gottschall:

overview , practice here).

• Another part of the exam will be based on Logic circuits by D.Eck

Logic circuits

Student Presentations

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, max. 15 minutes (maybe 20).

• topics can be selected from materials on this page that are prefixed with "Additionally:" or you can come up with your own, but then you should agree on it in advance with me
• choose a topic that you understand; you should be able to answer some questions related to the presentation
• do not read only, but present

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.

There will be an Evaluation/Exam in December and one or two in January. (the exact date will be announced later)

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.

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?

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:

"Medieval" history : from WWII till beginning of the 60's. Computers and programming. Languages and architectures. Integrated 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

"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

"Medieval" history (continued): 70ś . MicroComputers, Personal Computers.

Lecture material: Intro2it_5_edo.pdf.

Additionally:

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

Recent history: 80's till today. IBM PC, Macintosh, new and old operating systems. Special computers, workstations, essential software. Saga summary

Lecture material: intro2it_6_edo.PPT.

• Additionally: Apple Macintoshi reklaamfilm:
  • Small mpeg variant
  • Large quicktime variant

Basic principles of computers, programming languages.

Lecture material: Intro2it_7_edo.ppt.

Additionally:

• Get a bit acquainted with the following sites:
  • http://www.mkdata.dk/click/
  • Tom's hardware guide
• D.Eck, parts of this: Eck labs (can take from here as separate applications). NB! Read on your own, try and do 1-2 exercises from each part
  • Logic circuits
  • Memory circuits

Programming languages continued. Operating Systems.

Lecture material: Intro2it_8_edo.ppt.

Additionally: Eck labs cont'd: Read on your own, try and do 1-2 exercises from each part:

• xComputer
• xComputer assembly language

Obligatory reading (

• Obligatory is the first 1/4 of article In the Beginning was the Command Line

Suggested reading:

• The Art of Unix Programming
• Computer languages history
• About 2500 Computer Languages, Past and Present
• Computer language shootout
• Minix: the mini-Unix that was the inspiration of Linux
• Unix history

Information Systems

Based on:

Bennett, McRobb and Farmer:

Object Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Using UML, (3rd Edition), McGraw Hill, 2005.

Chapters 1-3

Software architecture and paradigms.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus9o.PPT, itsissejuhatus9o.pdf.

Additionally: Become acquainted with:

• vabavara kasutamisest riigis
• Stallmani naljalaul
• Linus Linuxit hääldamas

Network software paradigms. Internet basic technology.

Lecture material: Itsissejuhatus10o.PPT, Itsissejuhatus10o.pdf.

Additionally: Tutvuda:

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

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

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.

Algorithms. Keerukus ja lahenduvus.

Lecture material: itsissejuhatus13o.PPT, itsissejuhatus13o.pdf.

Additionally: Huvi korral vaata TSP programmi Java lähtekoodi

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.

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.

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

• Bennett, McRobb and Farmer: Object Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Using UML, (3rd Edition), McGraw Hill, 2005.

(don't have to buy it, but read the lecture slides "Information Systems" (more to come) )

• 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 :-)