Schedule

Overview

The following is a rough outline of topics in an order, these things will be filled into the concrete schedule above as we go. These are, in most cases bigger questions than we can tackle in one class, but will give the general idea of how the class will go.

How does this class work?

one week

We’ll spend the first two classes introducing some basics of GitHub and setting expectations for how the course will work. This will include how you are expected to learn in this class which requires a bit about how knowledge production in computer science works and a bit of the history.

How do all of these topics relate?

approximately two weeks

Tip

We will integrate history throughout the whole course. Connecting ideas to one another, and especially in a sort of narrative form can help improve retention of ideas. My goal is for you to learn.

We’ll also come back to different topics multiple times with a slightly different framing each time. This will both connect ideas, give you chance to practice recalling (more recall practice improves long term retention of things you learn), and give you a chance to learn things in different ways.

We’ll spend a few classes doing an overview where we go through each topic in a little more depth than an introduction, but not as deep as the rest of the semester. In this section, we will focus on how the different things we will see later all relate to one another more than a deep understanding of each one. At the end of this unit, we’ll work on your grading contracts.

We’ll also learn more key points in history of computing to help tie concepts together in a narrative.

Topics:

• bash

• man pages (built in help)

• terminal text editor

• git

• survey of hardware

• compilation

• information vs data

What tools do Computer Scientists use?

approximately four weeks

Next we’ll focus in on tools we use as computer scientists to do our work. We will use this as a way to motivate how different aspects of a computer work in greater detail.

Topics:

• linux

• git

• i/o

• ssh and ssh keys

• number systems

• file systems

What Happens When I run code?

approximately five weeks

Finally, we’ll go in really deep on the compilation and running of code. In this part, we will work from the compilation through to assembly down to hardware and then into machine representation of data.

Topics:

• software system and Abstraction

• programming languages

• cache and memory

• compiliation

• linking

• basic hardware components

Tenative Schedule

Content from above will be expanded and slotted into specific classes as we go. This will always be a place you can get reminders of what you need to do next and/or what you missed if you miss a class as an overview. More Details will be in other parts of the site, linked to here.

Table 1 Schedule

Date	Key Question	Prepation	Activities
2022-09-07	What are we doing this semester?	Create GitHub and Prismia accounts, take stock of dev environments	introductions, tool practice
2022-09-12	How does knowledge work in computing?	Read through the class site, notes, reflect on a thing you knw well	course FAQ, knowledge discussion
2022-09-14	How do I use git offline?	review notes, reflect on issues, check environment, map cs knowledge	cloning, pushing, terminal basics
2022-09-19	Why do I need to use a terminal?	review notes, practice git offline 2 ways, update kwl	bash, organizing a project
2022-09-21	What are the software parts of a computer system?	[practice bash, contribute to the course site, examine a sotware project	hardware simulator
2022-09-26	What are the hardware parts of a computer system?	practice, install h/w sim, review memory	hardware simulation
2022-09-28	How does git really work?	practice, begin contract, understand git	grading contract Q&A, git diff, hash
2022-20-03	What happens under the hood of git?		git plumbing and more bash (pipes and find)
2022-10-05	Why are git commit numbers so long?	review, map git	more git, number systems
2022-10-12	How can git help me when I need it?	reveiw numbers and hypothesize what git could help with	git merges
2022-10-17	How do programmers build documentation?	[review git recovery, practice with rebase, merge, revert, etc; cofirm jupyterbook is installed	templating, jupyterbook
2022-10-19	How do programmers auotmate mundane tasks?	convert your kwlrepo	shell scripting, pipes, more redirects, grep
2022-10-24	How do I work remotely ?	install reqs, reflect on grade, practice script	ssh/ ssh keys, sed/ awk, file permissions
2022-10-26	How do programmers keep track of all these tools?	summarize IDE reflections	IDE anatomy
2022-10-31	How do Developers keep track of all these tools?	[compare languages you know]
2022-11-02	How do we choose among different programming languages?	[install c compiler]
2022-11-07	What happens when I compile code?
2022-11-09	Why is the object file unreadable?	what are operators	bits, bytes, and integers/character representtion
2022-11-14	What about non integer numbers?		floating point representation
2022-11-16	Where do those bitwise operations come from?	review simulator	gates, registers, more integer
2022-11-21	What actually is a gate?		physics, history
2022-11-23	How do components work together?		memmory, IO, bus, clocks,
2022-11-28	(sub)
2022-11-30	(sub)
2022-12-05
2022-12-07