Chapter I

Introduction to Computer Science

Chapter I Topics
1.1

Teaching the Exposure Way

1.2

Exposure Equation

1.3

Roller Coaster Emotions

1.4

Tackling Computer Science

1.5

Excessive Help

1.6

Computer Fundamentals

1.7

A Brief History of Computing

1.8

How Do Computers Work?

1.9

Messages with Morse Code

1.10 Electronic Memory

1.11 Counting in Other Number Systems
1.12 Memory and Storage
1.13 What Is Programming?
1.14 Programming Languages
1.15 Networking
1.16 Hardware and Software
1.17 Summary

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1.1 Teaching the Exposure Way

One of the most important elements of learning in a classroom is the student
teacher relationship. Who claims that? Me, Leon Schram, a computer science
teacher for more than twenty years. If you are a student - at John Paul II High
School - reading this book, your suspicions were correct. Something happened to
Mr. Schram back in the Sixties when he was in Vietnam. You might suspect too
much exposure to Agent Orange? It has probably caused some brain cell damage.
You know - the slow dissolving - one brain-cell-at-a-time kind of damage. Makes
sense, it has been about 35 years since Vietnam and this guy is acting very weird
these days.
Many years ago I learned quite a lesson about relationships with students. I had a
young lady in my class who had trouble with math. No, let me be honest, this girl
was pitiful with any type of mathematical problem. Our school had some type of
talent show and I went to see it. I was absolutely blown away. This girl, my blessher-will-she-ever-learn-math-student, had the voice of an angel. She was
animated, she was incredibly talented, and suddenly I saw her differently. That
talent show knocked me straight out of my tunnel-vision-view of a struggling math
student. I told her the following day how impressed I was with her performance.
She beamed and was so pleased that I had noticed. Something neat happened after
that. Sure, she still agonized in math but she worked, and tried, harder than she
had done previously. At the same time, I tried harder also. The teacher/student
relationship, which had developed, made her a better student and it made me a
better teacher.
I have been a teacher for a long time, and I have been a student for even longer.
As a teacher, and as a student, I have seen my share of books that hardly ever get
opened. Students try hard to learn. However, they do not get it, get bored, get
disinterested, get frustrated, feel stupid, are intimidated .... pick your poison. The
book just sits somewhere and becomes useless. Now this particular book may be
the most informative, most complete, most up-to-date, most correct book on the
subject, but if the book sits and occupies space, the content matters little.
How does an author of a book develop a student-teacher relationship? That is
tricky business, but if you are really curious what I look like, try my web page at
http://www.schram.org. It is my aim to write this book in the first person
using an informal, verbal style of communication. I want to talk to you, rather
than write to you. By the way, I do not recommend this writing style for Englishtype teachers. I will guarantee you that they are neither amused nor impressed.
My English teachers certainly have never cared much for my writing style and I
have been told at many occasions that my writing lacks the scholarly flavor one
associates with college style writing. For one thing, one does not use I, one uses
one. Do you know how boring it is to keep saying one does this and one does
that? Well, I do not know what one does, but I do know what I do, so I will keep
using I and we. This is not for the sake of glorifying myself, but to keep an

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informal style. Students have told me in the past that it appears that I am talking
to them. In fact, I have been accused of writing with an accent. In case you all do
not realize it I was neither born in Texas nor the United States. I was born in
Holland, moved all over the place, ended up in the United States, took a test in
English, US government and US history, and then became an US citizen. Six
months after my new citizenship I was rewarded with an all-expenses-paid trip to
Vietnam. Today, I have forgotten several languages I learned in my youth, and I
cannot speak any language I remember without an accent.
A few more items on this personal relationship business. I was born in 1945. I
have been married to the sweetest wife in the world since April 9, 1967. Her name
is Isolde. I have four children, John, Greg, Maria, and Heidi. Furthermore, I have
a daughter-in-law, Diana, a son-in-law, David, and six grandchildren. My favorite
activities are skiing, rock climbing, rappelling, SCUBA diving, traveling and
writing. Now there is a slight problem. You know a little about me, but I know
nothing about you. Well perhaps we will meet one day, and I may also hear about
you from your teachers.
By the way, there is a way that I can get to know more about you. You can drop
me an e-mail line. Now please read this carefully. You may wish to send me a note
and say hi. You might even want to give me some constructive criticism about
these books. However, do not write and ask for advice on programs that do not
work. You have a computer science teacher. Your teacher knows your
assignments, knows your background, and knows your computer science level.
Your teacher can help you far more effectively than I possibly can at a distance.
Another point, I get frequent e-mail from students requesting to buy some of these
books that you are reading. I do not publish paper copies for sale. School districts
purchase a copy license, and each school district uses their own method for making
copies. You can approach your teacher about acquiring copies from them, if that is
an option at your school. Good, now that we have that straight, let me move on.
You may get the impression that all this informal style, and such, may take away
from the serious business of learning computer science. Do not believe that for
one minute. There are many pages ahead of you and each topic is going to get a
thorough treatment. Also do not think, just because this introduction is lighthearted, that everything will be in the same style. Some topics are duller than dirt
and you will just have to digest some discomfort and make the best of it. Other
topics are pretty intense, and I will do my best to make it clear what is happening,
but there are no promises. I will try hard to do my part and you need to do yours.
Just exactly what you need to do to learn will come a little later in this chapter.

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1.2 Exposure Equation

Somewhere during the time when Cro-Magnum Man told the Neanderthals to take
a hike - basically my early Twenties - a neat Sociology professor said something
very interesting. What he said ended up having a profound attitude on my teaching
and my writing. He claimed that nothing in life is obvious, and he told the
following story.
Imagine a young boy in the Amazon jungles. This boy has always lived in the
jungle without any modern convenience. He has never been in a city, he has
never seen a television nor seen a book. Now imagine that for reasons unknown
this young boy travels to Colorado in the Wintertime. The little boy stands in a
yard somewhere and watches the snow with bewilderment. He is astonished; he
does not understand what is falling from the sky. Another little boy, about the
same age, from Colorado, looks at the boys behavior. The young Colorado boy
does not understand the other boys bewilderment. Why is the boy acting so odd,
obviously it is snowing, so what is the big deal?
The Amazon boy is bewildered. The Colorado boy is confused that the other boy
is bewildered. The professor asked us what the difference between the two boys
is, and use only one word to describe that difference. The word is . . . . . .

EXPOSURE
The point made by my sociology professor was so wonderfully simple and logical.
If you have zero exposure to something, you will be bewildered. If you have never
in your life seen a plane, heard a plane fly by, seen a picture of a plane, heard
anybody talk about a plane, you will be one frightened, confused puppy when the
first plane comes by.
Here are a couple more examples. When I came to the United States, I had
breakfast the way most American did. I poured myself a bowl of cereal, usually
Corn Flakes, and then proceeded to warm up some milk on the stove. The warm
milk was then poured over the Corn Flakes. As someone who grew up in Europe,
it was "obvious" to me that warm milk is what you put on cereal. I found it very
strange when I realized Americans put cold milk on cereal.
Many years later, I am on a cruise with my son John. An English couple sitting
across from us looks at my son and the following dialog transpires:
English Man:

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John:

"What is what?"

English Man:

"That sir, what is that?" (He points to John's drink.)

John:

"Do you mean my iced tea?"

English Man:

"Iced Tea? Iced Tea? Good Lord Mildred. Did you ever
hear of such a thing."

English Woman:

"My word, no Henry. I think I should like to try some of

that."

The point trying to be made with these example is that exposure theory states that
nothing in life is obvious. What we do have are varying degrees of exposure. This
means the next time somebody says: It is painfully obvious to see the outcome of
this situation, do not get excited.
Translate that statement into: after being exposed to this situation for the last 20
years of my life, and having seen the same consequences for the same 20 years, it
is now easy for me to conclude the outcome.
Well, this good sociology professor - I wish I remembered his name and could give
him credit - impressed me with his obvious-bewilderment-exposure theory. Based
on his theory I have created an equation:

Bewilderment + Exposure = Obvious

This equation states that bewilderment is where you start. With zero exposure it
is not logical to immediately comprehend a new concept, let alone consider it to be
obvious. However, let enough exposure come your way, and yes, you too will find
something obvious that was confusing at the first introduction. This means that
you need some special sympathy for your first instructor and your first book. I
have had that theory work for, and against me. Students have come to me and
said, it made so much more sense to me when it was explained in college. I have
had the opposite claim with, if only my first instructor had explained it as well as
you did I would not have had so much trouble.
So just what is the point here? Something very weird happens with academic
learning. Students, and I mean students of all possible ages, in all kinds of
academic topics, expect understanding on the first go-around. Students open their
books, and with some luck read a topic once. Perhaps a second, brief reading
occurs immediately before an examination. And more than once, I have been told

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you told us that yesterday when I am repeating an important, probably confusing,

point that requires repetition.
Now let us switch the scene to athletics, band, orchestra, cheerleading and the drill
team. How many band directors practice a half-time show once? Have you heard
of any drill team directors sending girls home after they rehearsed their routine for
the first time? Seen anybody on the swim team get out off the pool after one lap
lately, claiming that they know that stroke now? How about basketball players?
Do they quit practice after they make a basket? Do the cheerleaders quit the first
time they succeed in building a pyramid? You know the answers to these
questions. In the area of extra-curricular activities, students get exposed too
death. As a matter of fact, some of this exposure is so frequent, and so severe that
students are lucky to have any time left over for some basic academic exposure.
But guys, learning is learning and it does not matter whether it is physical, mental,
and artistic or everything combined. You cannot learn anything well without
exposure. And yes, in case you have not noticed by now, I believe so strongly in
this philosophy that I call these books Exposure Java just like my previous text
book that was called Exposure C++.
I am harping on this topic because I believe that so many, many, students are
capable of learning a challenging subject like computer science. The reason that
they quit, fail, or hardly even start is because they interpret their bewilderment as
an indication of their aptitude, their inability to learn. One little introduction, one
short little exposure and a flood of confusion overwhelms many students. Fine,
this is normal; welcome to the world of learning.
Let me borrow from my favorite sport, skiing. I have watched a whole bunch of
people learn to ski. I have taken many students on ski trips and I have taught a fair
number of people of different ages to ski. You know, I have never seen anybody
get off the lift for the first time and carve down that bunny slope like an Olympic
skier. I have seen many people stumble off the lift wondering what to do next. I
have watched these brand-new skiers as they ski down for the first time all bend
over, out of balance, skis flopping in the breeze, poles everywhere, and usually
totally out of control. A close encounter with the snow normally follows. Fine,
you did not look so swell on the first time down, or even the first day, or maybe
the first trip. After peoples first taste of skiing, I have seen many determined to
enjoy this wonderful sport and I have watched as they made fantastic progress. I
have also seen other people who quit after minimal practice, and concluded they
were not capable of learning to ski. Normally, the boring, obligatory list of
excuses comes attached free of charge.
This means whether you are a high school student, learning computer science for
the first time or a teacher, learning Java after C++, you can learn this material.
You can learn it well, even with surprisingly little pain, provided you do not selfinflict so much permanent pain with all this business of self-doubt and I cannot do
this or I cannot do that.
So you are confused. You do not understand? Great, join the crowd because the
majority of the class is confused. Open your mouth, ask questions, hear the
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explanation a second time around and allow time to flow through your brain.
There is not a channel you can change ... a button you can push ... a pill you can
take ... or a specialist you can pay, to soak up knowledge easily. You need
exposure, and surprise ... exposure takes effort. Ask a champion swimmer how
many laps they have completed? Ask anybody who is accomplished in any field
how they arrived. Let me know if they arrived on day one. I want to meet that
extraordinary person.

1.3 Roller Coaster Emotions

Nobody, in my experience as a computer science teacher, expressed the roller
coaster emotions of computer science learning better than Howard Smith.
Howard is not his real name, but the young man may not like to see his name in
print. A typical encounter in the computer lab with Howard went something like
this. Mr. Schram!! Mr. Schram!! I love computers! I am going to be a computer
scientist! Computers are so cool! This excitement would normally follow some
segment of Howards assignment that worked correctly. Unfortunately, Howard
was soon faced with an uncooperative computer in the next stage. Frequently,
there were problems, and Howard could be seen in the lab jumping up and down
as he exclaimed, Mr. Schram, I hate computers! I dont want to touch another
computer. Computers hate me. Mr. Schram, I want to drop this course. I want
out! I want out now, this minute! I hate, hate, hate computers!
Few people show emotions to the degree that Howard did, but he did illustrate a
very important point. There is nothing steady about learning computer science.
Your time in the computer lab is primarily devoted to making the computer
perform some assigned task correctly. You will experience the excitement when
the computer responds correctly and you will also experience the frustration when
your computer just does not cooperate.
This type of emotion is so different from studying a history book or writing an
essay. Essays do not go through stages of working and not working. An essay
slowly and steadily becomes better and even when your essay is far from perfect,
you may decide to turn it in anyway. A computer program can have some small
glitch and will not work at all. Is this so bad? It is not bad at all and I have seen
thousands of students learn computer science very successfully. I am mentioning
the roller coaster feelings because I have observed it and it may be of help for you
to realize that such feelings are very common. After you gain confidence, you may
find that learning computer science is very rewarding and can be quite a bit of fun.

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1.4 Tackling Computer Science

Students have all kinds of different learning and study approaches. You must
accept one simple fact. Learning computer science, like learning most lab sciences,
is most effective when you discover an important concept. Teachers can give you
theorems, general laws and all kinds of facts about some scientific discipline. Yet,
these laws were all discovered by scientists as they observed a wide variety of
different situations.
The same philosophy will be used in the Exposure books. You will see many, many
small programs. Most programs will focus on one or two concepts. Study each
one of the program examples carefully. Check to see what the examples have in
common.
Remember that reading and studying program examples has limited results. You
need to get your hands dirty. Type in the program examples. Observe how the
programs work. Change some of the program statements by adding, deleting and
altering some of the information. The more you "play" with the program
statements, the better your understanding will grow.

Steps In Learning Computer Science

Read the assigned textbook pages before the lecture.

Closely listen to the lecture. In particular, focus on any

concepts that were confusing during your reading.

If program examples are used at your computer, make sure

that you are at the same place as the lecture.

Play with the computer. Load or type small program examples

and try different approaches.

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Ask questions, if you are confused. Concentrate your

questions on the topic being discussed.

Read the material again after the lecture for continuing

exposure. Make note of any topics that are still confusing.

Read the lab assignments before arriving for a scheduled

lab. Think about the solution.

Work on the lab assignment. Ask for help when you are
stuck. Make sure to give clear questions.

Make sure that you get clarification in any area that is

confusing before you take a test.

Pay particularly close attention when a test is returned and

your teacher goes over the questions.

Please realize that cramming does not work with computer

science. You need the combination of text book reading,
lecture/discussion, and hands-on lab assignments to discover
patterns, learn topics and comprehend the bigger picture.

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1.5 Excessive Help

A person who does an entire lab assignment without any help from anybody will
not be accused of cheating on an assignment. Another person, whose effort on a
lab assignment consists of copying somebody elses file does not gain any
knowledge from such an approach. Blindly copying somebodys work and calling
it your own is academic cheating. Few people argue with the examples stated
above. The problem occurs in the middle. What exactly is right, what is wrong,
and what might be called academic dishonesty?
Computer science students learn not only from their teachers, they also can learn a
great deal from fellow students. Sometimes, the best teacher for you may be the
person who has just discovered a solution to the problem that is also frustrating
you. The name of the game is learning, and learning comes in many different
forms with many different types of teachers. One day understanding clicks in your
brain when you try something on the computer ... another day it may be a teachers
statement in a lecture ... perhaps you read a chapter in your text book again ... and
certainly it can be the help of a fellow student.
Program assignments are a considerable part of your grade. Teacher policies
fluctuate tremendously but your ability to finish computer lab assignments is an
integral part of your total grade. You need to recognize that an easy temptation
presents itself. How about simply copying the lab assignment from a good buddy
or somebody who is about to become your good buddy? You know some nice kid
who appears to be pretty smart and always finishes the assignment before you do.
There are two major problems with this approach:

It is wrong because it is unethical.

It is wrong because you are not learning.

If you do not realize that copying other peoples work - with or without their
consent - is wrong, then it is time you discuss this issue with your parents to get
clarification on basic issues of right and wrong.
Computer lab assignments, that can be copied, are only a part of the total grade
picture. You also have to take written tests and you have to take computer lab
tests. If students study together, help each other with lab assignments, and if the
students learn from their study group, they will learn and do fine on tests.
Students who put in zero effort do not learn and fail tests miserably.
Those of you who are inclined to help your friends by letting them copy your
efforts need to consider the type of friend that you are. A true friend will teach and
prepare a buddy for upcoming quizzes and tests. Somebody who likes the quick

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popularity that comes with improper diskcopying allows a friend to fail in the
future.

Excessive Help
Do not get excessive help. Do not copy lab assignments. It is
wrong. You know it is wrong, and you will not learn.
Do form study groups. Do work together and help each other
understand difficult concepts. Do encourage your friends when
they are struggling.

1.6 Computer Fundamentals

Getting started with computer science is none too easy. The course that you are
taking, and the book that you are reading, assumes that this is your first formal
computer science course. Furthermore, it is also assumed that you have no
knowledge of programming. If you do know some programming, fine, but it is not
any kind of a prerequisite. This means that we should start at the beginning.
However, does the beginning mean an explanation like: this is a monitor; that is a
printer; here is the power button; there is the network server? Probably not.
Todays high school students usually have been behind a variety of computers since
elementary school. Many students have heard stories on how computers make
mankinds life simpler. Did you know how long it used to take to fill out useless
paperwork? Today we can finish ten times the useless paperwork in a fraction of
the old time with the aid of computers. Progress is good. Anyway, this chapter
will provide a brief computer history and provide some information about
computer components, networking and related topics. However, the primary
focus of this chapter will be on understanding how the computer works. What
makes it tick? How does it store information? How does it manage to calculate,
and how is information stored? And, what is a program anyway? In general, all
the introductory information necessary to start learning programming.

1.7 A Brief Computer History?

It is easy to write a very fat book strictly on the topic of computer history. It is
also a major snooze topic for most teenagers. Many young people enjoy working
with computers, but listening to a stimulating lecture on the history of computers is
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another story. In many cases incoming high school students have learned
computer history in middle school technology classes. It does seem odd to plunge
into a computer science course without at least some reference to where did this
come from anyway? What follows is a chronology of some of the major steps in
the history of computers. There are many, many significant large and small
contributions that are not mentioned. This at least is a small start.

The Abacus, 3000 B.C.

The Abacus was originally invented in the Middle Eastern area. This rather
amazing computing device is still very much used in many Asian countries today.
Skilled Abacus handlers can get basic arithmetic results just about as fast as you
might get with a four-function calculator.

Napier Bones, 1617

John Napier used some bones marked with special scales to simplify arithmetic by
using addition for multiplication and subtraction for division. It set the stage for
the slide rule.

Slide Rule, 1622

William Oughtred created the slide rule. This device allows sophisticated
mathematical calculations, which was widely in use until around 1970.

Numerical Calculating Machine, 1642

Blaise Pascal builds the first numerical calculating machine. This device works
similar to the old car odometers and could perform addition and subtraction.
Multiplication was performed with repeated additions.

Jacquard's Loom, 1805

Joseph Jacquard invents flexible cards that are punched with information in such a
manner that it is possible to program how cloth will be weaved. It was one of the
first examples of programming.

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Analytical Machine, 1833

Charles Babbage invents a machine that can read instructions from a sequence of
punched cards. This becomes the first general purpose computing machine.

Programming, 1842
Ada Lovelace designs programs that work for Babbage's analytical machine. She
is considered the mother of programming. Today a programming language is
named after Ada.

Tabulating Machine, 1884

Herman Hollerith invents a tabulating machine that records statistics for the U.S.
Bureau of census. Hollerith starts a tabulating company, which after various name
changes eventually becomes IBM.

Differential Analyzer, 1925

Vannevar Bush, a professor at MIT, builds a large scale computing machine
capable of sophisticated mathematical computations.

Z3, 1941
Konrad Zuse builds a calculating machine capable of automatic computations in
Germany during World War II.

Colossus, 1941-1944
This computer is developed in England in various stages and helps to decrypt the
secret code message of German communication during Word War II.

Mark I, 1944

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This relay-based computer is developed by Harvard University and IBM. Grace

Hopper, then a Navy Lieutenant, becomes the first programmer of the Mark I.

ENIAC, 1946
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) is the first fullyelectronic computer. The computer is two stories tall, weighs 80 tons, contains
19,000 vacuum tubes, and is programmed by walking inside the computer.

IBM 701, 1953

IBM starts to sell the first computer with a stored computer program. This
computer uses vacuum tubes and is called a first-generation computer.

FORTRAN, 1954
FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) is invented by John Backus at IBM. It is the
first commercially successful programming language and is designed for engineers
and mathematicians.

Integrated Circuit, 1958

Jack Kilby, of Texas Instruments, at Richardson, Texas invents the planar
transistor, which allows creation of integrated circuits and micro chips.

COBOL, 1959
The business programming language COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented
Language) is developed based on the design of Grace Hopper.

IBM 360, 1964

IBM sells the first series of compatible computers. This means that a program
created on one computer can be transported and used on another, compatible
computer.
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BASIC, 1964
Tom Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth create BASIC (Beginners All-purpose
Symbolic Instruction Language). This language will later be the first programming
language for personal computers.

Pascal, 1969
Niklaus Wirth, a Swiss professor, creates the programming language Pascal,
designed for teaching computer science with proper structured programming to
university students.

Altair, 1975
Altair becomes the first personal computer. It is created by Ed Roberts and Bill
Yates. The computer costs $397.00 and has storage for 256 bytes.

Apple Computer, 1977

The Apple Computer Company is created and introduces the Apple II personal
Computer. It becomes the first commercially successful personal computer.

Tandy/Commodore, 1977
Commodore and Tandy start selling personal computers. The Commodore and the
Apple computer require a television interface to view computer operations. The
Tandy RadioShak computer has its own CRT (monitor).

VisiCalc, 1979
Dan Bricklin created VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program, which becomes the first
wide spread software to be sold. Dan Bricklin initially lived in a hut somewhere in
the mountains of Montana and received an average of $30,000.00 a week for his
invention. He did not benefit from the tremendous boom in the spreadsheet
market, because his software could not get a patent.
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WordStar, 1979
MicroPro releases WordStar, which becomes the most popular word processing
software program.

IBM PC, 1981

IBM introduces the IBM P.C. It is a computer with a monochrome monitor and
two floppy drives. Hard drives are not yet available for personal computers.
IBM's entry into the personal computer market gives the personal computer a
serious image as a true business computer and not some sophisticated electronic
game playing machine.

MS-DOS, 1981
IBM decides not to create its own operating system for the personal computing
market and decide to out-source development of its operating system for its trivial
little personal computer department. Many companies reject IBM proposal.
Microsoft, an unknown little company run by Bill Gates, agrees to create the
operating system for the IBM Personal Computer and becomes a company larger
than IBM.

Macintosh, 1984
Apple starts to sell the Apple Macintosh computer. The mouse technology was
already developed earlier by Xerox Corporation and Apple actually introduced this
technology with its Lisa computer in 1982. The Lisa computer costs $10,000 and
is a commercial failure. The "Mac" was the first commercially successful computer
with the mouse/windows technology.

Laptop PCs, 1991

Most PC vendors start to sell laptop PCs. The early laptops all have monochrome
monitors and lack the power and memory storage of desktop computers.

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Windows 3.1, 1992

Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1, which is its first major windows software
seller. It is a Windows type interface, but it is based on the DOS operating system.

Windows 95, 1995, U.S.

Microsoft introduces Windows 95, which now is an operating system similar to the
Macintosh computer.

The Last Ten Years

Since 1995 there has been an explosion in personal computers with greater
memory, faster processors, larger hard drives, LCD monitors, laptop computers
that rival desk top computers in capability, computer networking with wire and
then wireless connections and the use of the Internet in incredibly large numbers.
The irony of computer progress is that even the experts have been very wrong in
their predictions. In 1946 when the first fully electronic computer, the ENIAC,
was created, it was stated that the world would never need more than ten ENIACs.
Years later at the time when most personal computers had 640,000 Bytes of
memory, Bill Gates announced that personal computers will not need more than
640,000 bytes of memory. This chapter is written on a personal computer with one
Giga Byte of memory, which is 1,000,000,000 bytes of memory. You may not
know precisely what one byte is, but 1,000,000,000 bytes is a whole lot more
memory than 640,000 bytes of memory. Yet, your children will be amazed at the
primitive machines you are using right now, because their future cell phones and
wrist watches will have more power and memory than the desktop and laptop
computers have today. Even the cheapest cell phone on the market today has
more power than the $10,000,000 ENIAC computer had back in 1946.

1.8 How Do Computers Work?

Human beings do not spend money on expensive items unless such items somehow
improve human capabilities. Cars are great. They move faster than humans, they
do not get tired, and they keep you comfortable in bad weather. They are
expensive, but the expense is worth it. Computers process information and do this
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processing better in many areas compared to human beings. The three areas in
which a computer is superior to a human being are shown in figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1

Three Areas Where Computers Beat People

Computers are faster
Computers are more accurate
Computers do not forget

You may be quick to accept that computers are faster, but you are not so sure
about the other two. Too often you have heard the term computer error and you
also remember hearing about data that was lost in the computer.
Well, let us start our computer lesson right now by clearing up some basic myths.
Computers do not make errors. Sure, it is possible for a computer to give
erroneous information. However, the computer is nothing but a stupid machine
that faithfully, and always accurately, follows instructions. If the instructions given
by a human being to a computer are faulty, then the computer will produce errors.
At the same time, many so-called computer errors are caused by sloppy data entry.
A person who receives an outrageous electric bill is told that the computer created
an erroneous bill. True, the computer printed the bill, but not until a data-entry
clerk had slipped an extra zero in the amount of electricity used for the previous
month.
Perhaps you are still not convinced. After all, what about the situation when a
computer breaks down? Wont that cause problems? Broken computers will
certainly cause problems. However, your computer will not work at all. Your
computer applications will not work and you are stuck, but the computer does not
suddenly start adding 2 + 2 = 5.
You may also have heard that people lose their computer information because of
problems with disk drives. Once again this happens, but computer users who keep
their computers and diskettes in a proper environment, along with a sensible
backup system, do not have such problems.
Well, you give up. No point arguing with a stupid book that cannot hear you.
Fine, the computer is faster, the computer is more accurate, and sure the computer
does not forget. But how is this managed electronically? You know that electricity
is incredibly fast, and you have every confidence that the flip of a switch turns on a
light or a vacuum cleaner. Todays computers are electronic, and just how does
electricity store information? How does a computer perform computations? How
does a computer translate keyboard strokes into desirable output? These are all

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good questions and an attempt will be made here to explain this in a manner that
does not become too technical.

1.9 Messages with Morse Code

Unless you are a Boy Scout or Navy sailor, you probably have little experience
with Morse code. Todays communication is so much better than Morse code, but
there was a time when Morse code was an incredible invention and allowed very
rapid electronic communication.
Imagine the following situation. Somehow, you have managed to connect an
electric wire between the home of your friend and yourself. You both have a
buzzer and a push button. Each one of you is capable of buzzing the other
person, and the buzzer makes a noise as long as the button is pressed. You have
no money for a microphone, you have no amplifier and you have no speakers.
Furthermore, your mean parents have grounded you to your room without use of
the telephone. But you do have your wires, your buzzers and your buttons. Can
you communicate? You certainly can communicate if you know Morse code or
develop a similar system. Morse code is based on a series of short and long
signals. These signals can be sounds, lights, or other symbols, but you need some
system to translate signals into human communication. Morse code creates an
entire set of short and long signal combinations for every letter in the alphabet and
every number. Usually, a long signal is three times as long as a short signal. In the
diagram, below, a long signal is shown with a bar. A short signal is indicated by a
square. Consider the first five letters in the Morse code system, shown in the figure
1.2 table.

Figure 1.2

A
B
C
D
E

First Five Letters In Morse Code

short - long

long - short - short - short
long - short - long - short

long - short - short

short

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You, and your buddy, can now send messages back and forth. By pressing the
buzzer with long and short sounds. Letters and numbers can be created this way.
For instance the word BAD would be signaled as follows:

The secret of Morse code is the fact that electricity can be turned on, and it can be
turned off. This means that a flashlight can send long and short beams of light and
a buzzer can send long and short buzzing sounds. With an established code, such
as Morse code, we can now send combinations of long and short impulses
electronically. Very, very brief pauses occur between the shorts and longs of a
letter. Longer pauses indicate the separation between letters. This basically means
that electronically we can send human messages by turning electricity on and off in
a series of organized pulses. Does this mean that Samuel Morse invented the
computer? No, he did not get credit for starting the computer revolution, but it
does serve as a simple example to illustrate how electricity can process letters by
translating on and off situations into letters and numbers.

1.10 Electronic Memory

Fine, Morse code explains how letters can be translated into electronic impulses.
This explains electronic communication, but Morse code does not store any letters.
Morse code signals are sent and they are gone, followed by the next signal. If you
doze off, you miss the signal and it is too bad. Luckily, somebody became clever
and a special device was invented that printed dots (short signals) and dashes
(long signals) on a paper tape as the message was received. Now that explains a
paper memory, and perhaps you even remember something about punched
computer cards, but we still have not gotten to an electronic memory.
Suppose you line up a series of light bulbs. How about picking eight bulbs? Each
light bulb is capable of being turned on and off. With these eight light bulbs we
can create 256 different combinations. Two tables are shown in figure 1.3 below.
The first diagram shows on and off. The second diagram uses 1 and 0. In
Computer Science, 1 means on and 0 means off.
Figure 1.3

off on
0

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off off off off off

0

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on

In this particular example, the second and eighth bulbs are on, and all the other
lights are off. This represents only one of 256 different combinations. Figure 1.5
will show three more combinations. It certainly is not Morse code, but using the
Morse code example, we can imagine that each one of the 256 combinations is
assigned to a letter, a number, or some other type of character.
The number system you use is base-10. Counting and computation in base 10 is
not simpler than other bases because it is base 10. It is simpler because you use
base 10. Sounds confusing, does it not? In elementary school, you practiced
multiplication tables in base 10. How many multiplication tables did you practice
in base 5 or base 8? Not too many, right? Rumor has it that people developed a
base 10 system, because of our ten fingers. Now in base 10 digits range from 0 to
9. After the largest digit 9, we must use two digits, like 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 etc. to
count higher.
Mathematically speaking, counting and computation is possible in many different
bases. A number system that is very skimpy in digits is base-2. Only the digits 0
and 1 are used. Many digits are needed for even small-valued numbers. The first
32 numbers in base-2, with the equivalent base-10 values are shown in figure 1.4.
Figure 1.4

Base 10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Base-2
0
1
10
11
100
101
110
111
1000
1001
1010
1011
1100
1101
1110
1111

Base 10
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Base-2
10000
10001
10010
10011
10100
10101
10110
10111
11000
11001
11010
11011
11100
11101
11110
11111

Now consider these three 8-light-bulbs combinations in figure 1.5. Each one of
these combinations of on and off light bulbs can be viewed as a base-2 number.

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Figure 1.5

0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
01000001 (base-2) = 65 (base 10)
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
01000010 (base-2) = 66 (base 10)
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
01000011 (base-2) = 67 (base 10)

You are looking at A, B, C on the majority of todays personal computers. By

convention, at least the convention of the American Standard of Computer
Information Interchange (ASCII), number 65 is used to store the letter A.
Combinations 0 through 127 are used for a standard set of characters. The second
group from 128 through 255 is used for a special extended set of characters.
Now we are finally getting somewhere. We can use eight lights for each character
that needs to be stored. All we have to do is place thousands of light bulbs in a
container and you can store bunches of information by using this special binary
code. There is another big bonus. Mathematically speaking, computations can be
performed in any base. With our clever binary system, we now have a means to
store information and make electronic calculations possible as well.
We have now learned that information can be stored in base-2 numbers. Base-2
numbers can store characters by using a system that equates numbers like the base2 equivalent of 65 to A. At the same time, mathematical operations now become
an electronic reality. In other words, the magic of on/off switches allows both
electronic storing of information as well as electronic computation.
We can also add some terminology here. A single bulb can be on or off and this
single light represents a single digit in base-2, called a Binary digit, which is
abbreviated to Bit. We also want to give a special name to the row of eight light
bulbs (Bits) that make up one character. This row shall be called a Byte. Keep in
mind that Byte is not plural for Bit. There is one problem with storing characters
in a single byte. You only have access to 256 different combinations or characters.
This may be fine in the United States, but it is very inadequate for the international
community. Unicode is now becoming very popular and this code stores
characters in 2 bytes. The result is 65,536 different possible characters. Java has
adopted Unicode, as have many technical organizations. The smaller ASCII code
is a subset of Unicode.

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Bits, Bytes and Codes

Bit is a Binary digit that is either 0 (off) or 1 (on).
1 Nibble = 4 bits
1 Byte = 8 bits.
1 Byte has 256 different numerical combinations.
2 Bytes has 65,536 different numerical combinations.
ASCII uses one byte to store one character.
Unicode uses two bytes to store one character.
Early computers did in fact use one vacuum tube for each Bit. Very large
machines contained thousands of vacuum tubes with thousands of switches that
could change the status of the tubes. Miles of wires connected different groups of
vacuum tubes to organize the instructions that the computer had to follow. Early
computer scientists had to walk inside giant computers and physically connect
wires to different parts of the computer to create a set of computer instructions.
The incredible advances in computer technology revolve around the size of the bit.
In the forties, a bit was a single vacuum tube that burned out very rapidly. Soon
large vacuum tubes were replaced by smaller, more reliable, vacuum tubes. A
pattern was set that would continue for decades. Small is not only smaller, it is
also better. The small tube gave place to the pea-sized transistor, which was
replaced by the planar transistor and bits were miniaturized, becoming smaller and
smaller. Today, a mind-boggling quantity of bits fit on a microchip.
This is by no means a complete story of the workings of a computer. Very, very
thick books exist that detail the precise job of every component of a computer.
Computer hardware is a very complex topic that is constantly changing. Pick up a
computer magazine, and you will be amazed by the new gadgets and the new
computer terms that keep popping up. The intention of this brief introduction is to
help you understand the essence of how a computer works. Everything revolves
around the ability to process enormous quantities of binary code, which is capable
of holding two different states: 1 and 0.

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1.11 Counting in Other Number Systems

In the last section you saw a table that assisted in base-2 counting. The primary
concern with binary counting is to help understand how the computer manages
information. Base-2 is not the only number system used by the computer. You will
frequently see base-16 used as well. I want you to look at the number system
charts below first. Various number systems are represented to help you see a
pattern in counting that is the same in all bases. At the same time, take a close
look and compare the base-2 and base-16 number systems. Something unique is
going on that helps to explain why base-16 or the hexadecimal number system is
also used with computers.

Base 10

Base-2

Base 16

Base 5

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

0000
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
1001
1010
1011
1100
1101
1110
1111
0001 0000
0001 0001
0001 0010
0001 0011
0001 0100
0001 0101
0001 0110
0001 0111
0001 1000
0001 1001
0001 1010
0001 1011
0001 1100

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
1A
1B
1C

0
1
2
3
4
10
11
12
13
14
20
21
22
23
24
30
31
32
33
34
40
41
42
43
44
100
101
102
103

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29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

0001 1101
0001 1110
0001 1111
0010 0000
0010 0001
0010 0010
0010 0011
0010 0100
0010 0101
0010 0110
0010 0111
0010 1000
0010 1001
0010 1010
0010 1011
0010 1100
0010 1101
0010 1110
0010 1111
0011 0000
0011 0001
0011 0010
0011 0011
0011 0100
0011 0101
0011 0110
0011 0111
0011 1000
0011 1001
0011 1010
0011 1011
0011 1100
0011 1101
0011 1110
0011 1111
0100 0000

1D
1E
1F
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
3A
3B
3C
3D
3E
3F
40

104
110
111
112
113
114
120
121
122
123
124
130
131
132
133
134
140
141
142
143
144
200
201
202
203
204
210
211
212
213
214
220
221
222
223
224

Did you observe the relationship between the base-2 and base-16 numbers? The
base-2 numbers are intentionally written with groups of four digits. Take a close
look, and you will see that any group of four base-2 digits corresponds to one
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base-16 digit. This makes conversion between base-16 and base-2 a rather simple
substitution job. The binary system is very tedious to view, and you can easily get
confused. For this reason you will see that many computer values, such as
memory addresses, are displayed in the hexadecimal, base-16 system.

1.12 Primary and Secondary Memory

Electronic appliances used to have complex --- cables everywhere --- dusty
interiors. Repairing such appliances could be very time consuming. Appliances,
computers included, still get dusty on the inside, but all the complex wires and
vacuum tubes are gone. You will now see series of boards that all have hundreds
and thousands of coppery lines criss-crossing everywhere. If one of these boards
is bad, it is pulled out and replaced with an entire new board. What used to be,
loose all over the place, vacuum tubes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, wires, etc.
is now neatly organized on one board. Electronic repair has become much faster
and cheaper in the process.
In computers the main board with all the primary computer components is called
the motherboard. Attached to the motherboard are important components that
store and control information. These components are made out of chips of silicon.
Silicon is a semiconductor, which allows precise control of the flow of electrons.
Hence we have the names memory chip, processing chip, etc. We are primarily
concerned with the RAM chip, ROM chip and the CPU chip.
I mentioned earlier that information is stored in a binary code as a sequence of
ones and zeroes. The manner in which this information is stored is not always the
same. Suppose now that you create a group of chips and control the bits on these
chips in such a way that you can not change their values. Every bit on the chip is
fixed. Such a chip can have a permanent set of instructions encoded on it. These
kinds of chips are found in cars, microwaves and many electronic appliances that
perform a similar task day after day.
Computers also have information chips that store permanent information. Such
chips are called Read Only Memory chips or ROM chips. There is a bunch of
information in the computer that should not disappear when the power is turned
off, and this information should also not be altered if the computer programmer
makes some mistake. A ROM chip can be compared to a music CD. You can
listen to the music on the CD, but you cannot alter or erase any of the recordings.

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Another type of chip stores information temporarily. Once again, information is

stored in many bytes, each made up of eight bits, but this information requires a
continuous electric current. When the power is gone, so is the information in these
chips. Computer users also can alter the information of these chips when they use
the computer. Such chips can store the data produced by using the computer, such
as a research paper or it can store the current application being used by the
computer. The name of this chip is Random Access Memory chip or RAM chip.
Personally, I am not happy with that name. I would have preferred something that
implies that the chip is Read and Write, but then nobody asked for my opinion
when memory chips were named.
The amount of memory in a computer is measured in bytes, not bits. Modern
computers have so many bytes that usually memory is indicated as so many
kilobytes or megabytes of memory. Kilobytes are rapidly fading from the
computer scene and gigabytes are alive and well in current computer terminology.
Figure 1.6

Measuring Memory
KB
Kilo Byte
MB
Mega Byte
GB
Giga Byte
TB
Tera Byte
PB
Peta Byte
EB
Exa Byte

1 thousand bytes
1 million bytes
1 billion bytes
1 trillion bytes
1 quadrillion bytes
1 quintillion bytes

The measuring memory diagram, in figure 1.6, may get a frown or two. The
information is technically incorrect. The diagram is meant to help remember the
measure size in a rounded manner. After all, Kilo does mean one-thousand.
Technically speaking one KB is 210 or 1,024 bytes. Using the same logic you can
compute that one MB is 220 or 1,048,576 bytes. I am sure you can live very
comfortably using the previous not really correct diagram.
The most significant chunk of silicon in your computer is the CPU chip. CPU
stands for Central Processing Unit and this chip is the brain of the computer. You
cannot call this chip ROM or RAM. On this tiny little chip are lots of permanent
instructions that behave like ROM, and there are also many places where
information is stored temporarily in the manner of a RAM chip. The CPU is one
busy little chip. You name it, the CPU does the job.
A long list of operations could follow here but the key notion is that you
understand that all the processing, calculating and information passing is controlled
by the Central Processing Unit. The power of your computer, the capabilities of
your computer, and the speed of your computer is based on your CPU chip more
than any other computer component.

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Secondary Storage
I just know that you are an alert student. ROM made good sense. RAM also
made sense, but you are concerned. If the information in RAM is toast when you
turn off the computer . . . then what happens to all the stored information, like
your research paper? Oh, I underestimated your computer knowledge. You do
know that we have hard drives, diskettes, zip diskettes, tapes, and CDs that can
store information permanently.
We have stored information on rust for quite some time. Did I say rust? Yes, I did
and perhaps you feel more comfortable with iron oxide. Tiny particles of iron
oxide on the surface of a tape or disk are magnetically charged positively or
negatively. In a different manner than the internal computer, but with a similar
logic, coded information is stored on a tape or a disk.
Please do keep in mind that this information will not disappear when the power is
turned off, but it can be easily altered. New information can be stored over the
previous information. A magnetic field of some type, like a library security gate,
heat in a car, dust in a closet, and peanut butter in a lunch bag can do serious
damage to your information.
You might be confused about the currently popular CD-ROMs. You can see that
they are external to the computer, but ROM implies Read Only Memory. CDs
store enormous amount of information. The information is permanent and thus
behaves like ROM. When you use a CD with a computer it behaves as if you had
added extra ROM to your computer internally. CDs do not use rust; they are far
too sophisticated for such a crude process. The CD is coded with areas that reflect
and absorb laser light. Once again we can create a code system because we have
two different states, on and off.
The on/off state is the driving force of the digital computer. What is digital?
Look at your watch. You can see digits, and you see the precise time. There is no
fractional time. A clock with hour, minute and second hands is an analog device.
It measures in a continuous fashion. A measuring tape is also analog, as is a
speedometer with a rotating needle. What is the beauty of digitizing something?
With digital information it is possible to always make a precise copy of the original.
It is easy to transfer, store and use digitized information. Entire pictures can be
converted to a digitized file and used elsewhere. I am sure you have been in movie
theaters where digital sound is advertised. So digital is the name of the game.
Just remember that not all digitizing is equally fast.
The internal memory of the computer is digital and it uses electronics. The access
of a hard disk involves electronics, but the information is read off a disk that
rotates and only one small part of the disk is readable at one time. Accessing a
disk drive is much slower than accessing internal memory.

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1.13 What Is Programming?

Computer science is a highly complex field with many different branches of
specialties. Traditionally, the introductory courses in computer science focus on
programming. So what is programming? Let us start by straightening out some
programming misconceptions. Frequently, I have heard the phrase: just a second
sir, let me finish programming the computer. I decide to be quiet and not play
teacher. The person programming the computer is using some type of data
processing software. In offices everywhere, clerks are using computers for a wide
variety of data processing needs. Now these clerks enter data, retrieve data,
rearrange data, and sometimes do some very complex computer operations.
However, in most cases they are not programming the computer. Touching a
computer keyboard is not necessarily programming.
Think about the word program. At a concert, you are given a program. This
concert program lists a sequence of performances. A university catalog includes a
program of studies, which is a sequence of courses required for different college
majors. You may hear the expression, let us stick with our program, which implies
that people should stick to their agreed upon sequence of actions.
In every case, there seems to be two words said or implied: sequence and actions.
There exist many programs all around us and in many cases the word program or
programming is not used. A recipe is a program to cook something. A wellorganized recipe will give precise quantities of ingredients, along with a sequence
of instructions on how to use these ingredients.

Any parent who has ever purchased a some assembly required toy has had to
wrestle with a sequence of instructions required to make the toy functional. So we
should be able to summarize all this programming stuff, apply it to computers and
place it in the definition diagram below.

Program Definition
A program is a sequence of instructions, which enables
a computer to perform a desired task.

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A programmer is a person who writes a program for a

computer

Think of programming as communicating with somebody who has a very limited

set of vocabulary. Also think that this person cannot handle any word that is
mispronounced or misspelled. Furthermore, any attempt to include a new word,
not in the known vocabulary, will fail. Your communication buddy cannot
determine the meaning of a new word by the context of a sentence. Finally, it is
not possible to use any type of sentence that has a special meaning, slang or
otherwise. In other words, kicking the bucket means that some bucket somewhere
receives a kick.
A very important point is made here. Students often think very logically, write a
fine program, and only make some small error. Frequently, such students, it might
be you or your friends, become frustrated and assume some lack of ability. It is far
easier to accept that small errors will be made, and that the computer can only
function with totally clear, unambiguous instructions. It is your job to learn this
special type of communication.

1.14 Program Languages

You are happy with the fact that a program is a set of instructions to perform a
given task. So what needs to be done is understand how instructions are
communicated to a computer. At this stage, we have talked quite a bit about
binary code, digital information and you have a pretty good hunch that our
computers are not using Star Trek technology. So do not try to talk to a computer
in English and tell it to finish your history homework.
For decades computer scientists have struggled with computers understanding
human language. It has not been easy. We have made remarkable progress and a
brief history of programming languages will help to understand where we are
today, and what you will be doing this school year in computer science.

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Programming In Machine Code

Programming the first computers was an unbelievably difficult task. Individual
vacuum tubes had to be switched on or off. Instructions were sequenced in early
computers by physically plugging wires from one computer memory segment to
another. It is true that the early computers were amazingly fast. They were
electronic, and they amazed people with their speed and accuracy, but
programming those early computers was incredibly time consuming. Very few
computers existed in those early days, and large teams of programmers and
technicians were necessary for programming even simple jobs. Later, computers
did improve the program process by allowing tape and cards to be used for
program input. This was far more efficient than walking inside a computer, but
there still remained the tedious process of thousands of 1s and 0s that had to be
entered. Mistakes were very easily made, and very difficult to detect.

Programming in Assembly Language

It did not take long before computer scientists realized that computers are the
perfect tool to help people with programming. After all, a program is a set of
instructions that can be executed by the computer. This set of instructions, or
program, can certainly include instructions that help to translate a more human set
of instructions into computer machine code. A special computer language was
created called Assembly Language.
With Assembly Language, programmers were able to give instructions to the CPU
with a short code for every type of task performed by the CPU. Every CPU
instruction had a mnemonic name. For instance, mov AX,1234 is the instruction
to place the value 1234 into the AX register. The AX register is a temporary
calculation scratch pad in the CPU. Assembly Language brought another
improvement by using hexadecimal (base-16) numbers rather than binary (base-2)
numbers. There exists a unique relationship between base-2 and base-16 numbers,
such that any set of four-digit base-2 numbers can be represented by one base-16
number. It is certainly easier to work with one-fourth the digits.
A programmer first wrote a set of instructions in the special Assembly Language
code. This code was then translated by a so-called Assembler. The Assembler
translated the mnemonic short word instructions into machine code that could be
processed by the computer.

Programming with Interpreters and Compilers

Assembly Language started the ball rolling. A computer program had been created
to make the job of creating a machine language program simpler. This process

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could be continued and a more sophisticated program could translate a program

that is very similar to human language. One person, who must be mentioned, is the
late Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a lieutenant in the Navy when she first
worked extensively with computers. She was largely instrumental for developing
translating programs that allow programming in a human-style language. She was
one of the main developers of the popular program language, COBOL, and was
very influential in the development of early translators.
Two types of translating programs were created, interpreters and compilers. An
interpreter takes a program and translates the program one line at a time. After
each line is translated, the resulting machine code is executed. A compiler
translates the entire program into a machine code file and then executes the file. It
is easier to create an interpreter, but the execution speed is slower than a compiler.
A compiler is far more complex to create, but it executes much faster than an
interpreter. The majority of todays program languages use compilers for
translators. The language you will learn, Java, oddly enough is both a compiled
and an interpretive language. How this is possible will be explained soon.

Low-Level and High-Level Program Languages

Languages that are very close to computer binary code are called low-level.
Machine code and Assembly Language are low-level languages. Languages that
are closer to human languages are called high-level languages. Some languages
are very high-level today, and many programming tasks have already been
performed. With many languages, it is possible to click and drag on program
objects that have already been created and insert them inside your program.
So why not simply write your programs in English? Is that not a matter of creating
some kind of translating program that takes English instructions and creates a
machine code file for the computer? This is certainly what has been attempted for
many years, but translating human languages has been very elusive. Consider the
following example. In the sixties, computer scientists tried to write a program that
would translate English into Russian and Russian into English. This is really the
same problem of properly understanding the meaning of human language. The
scientists decided to test their program by entering an English sentence. The
resulting Russian sentence was then entered back into the computer and the final
result should be the original English sentence. Should, that is, if the computer
could translate correctly in both directions. The original sentence entered was:

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

I do not have a clue what the Russian result was, but I do know the final English
result. Our computer scientists were quite surprised with

The Vodka is great but the meat is rotten

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This little experiment showed the major problem with human languages. Human
languages like English are idiomatic. We use all these idioms and proverbs, and
slang and special nuances that are meaningless to the computers. How can
computers figure out human language, when humans are confused? The bottom
line is that programming requires a restricted language. This language can have
human type words, but the words selected, the symbols and punctuation used, all
must have a very precise meaning. The manner in which the program language
structures its statements is called syntax. Program languages must have very
precise syntax. Compilers first check to see if a program has correct syntax. Only
after the syntax checks out, is the next step of translating into binary code
performed.

A Brief History of Program Languages

The first successful programming language for the mathematics and scientific
community, FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation language), was released in
1956. FORTRAN was an excellent language for mathematics and science, but it
could not handle the record processing required for the business world.
In 1960, COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) was created (largely
by Grace Hopper) for the business community and the armed forces. COBOL
became extremely successful when the Department of Defense adopted COBOL as
its official programming language.
PL1 followed, trying to be a language for everybody. PL1 attempted to be both an
excellent language for science and for business. The result was an extremely
cumbersome language that never gained much popularity. Then there were a host
of many other short-lived languages.
BASIC (Beginner All-purpose Symbolic Instructional Code) was designed for
beginning college students. BASIC became the first popular program language
for personal computers in the seventies. BASIC required little memory, and it was
the only language that could initially be handled by the first micro computers.
In the late seventies, early eighties, Pascal took a strong hold in the educational
community. Pascal was developed by Niklaus Wirth, specifically for the purpose
of teaching proper computer science programming techniques. This language was
adopted for the Advanced Placement Computer Science Examination in 1984 and
stayed in that position until the 1998 exam.
In the early seventies, the UNIX operating system was developed at the Bell
laboratories. This operating system was written in several languages some of
which were called BCPL or just plain B. A later version of the language was
called C, since it followed B. In the eighties, the C language became very popular
as the language of choice for operating systems.

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As the demands for sophisticated computer uses grew, so did the demand for ever
more sophisticated computer programming languages. A new era with a powerful
programming technique was born called Object Oriented Programming (OOP).
You are hardly in a position to appreciate the finer features of OOP. Right now
appreciate that a new language had to be developed to incorporate the power of
OOP. Bjarne Stroustrup combined the popularity of the existing C language with
the demands for OOP and developed C++. C++ includes all the previous
capabilities of C, many improvements on the early C, and the new features of
object oriented programming. C++ actually is somewhat of a hybrid language
since object-oriented Style Programming is possible, but so is the older C-style
programming that today's modern programmers frown upon.
There is something else that you need to understand about this program language
stuff. You can say that there is one level above the compiler, called the linker. It
did not take computer scientists long to figure out that the majority of programs
use the same source code in each and every program. This is the type of code used
with input and output, mathematical calculations, etc. It seemed silly to keep
creating this code over and over again. Special library files of handy computer
routines were created and already translated into special machine code files. Now
these files cannot be executed by the CPU because the instruction set is not
complete. Such files are known as object files.
When modern programmers write a compiled program, like C++, they write their
own personal source code and the compiler checks their syntax to make sure
everything is written correctly. The first pass through the program is the compile
pass. Now a second pass links the compiled code with any other library file and
combines it into one nifty file that can be used by the computers CPU.

Java Comes on the Scene

C++ will continue to be a very important programming language for years to
come. The industrial strength features and the tremendous number of programs
written in C++ guarantee its survival.
In the early Nineties Sun Microsystems worked on a language called Oak. The
main focus of this new language was to be platform independent and objectoriented. Platform independent means that the language does not cause problems
as programs are transported between different hardware and software platforms.
Oak was used internally by Sun Microsystems for about four years and released to
the public in 1995 with the new name Java. Java was a big success largely
because the new language was perfectly suited for the Internet.
Universities also adopted Java very rapidly. By the late Nineties object-oriented
programming was taught everywhere and the new language Java gave no choice

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like C++. This appealed to many college professors who did not like the fact that
C++ allowed, older non-OOP programming.
The College Board adopted Java as the AP Computer Science language to be used
for its examination starting with the 2003-2004 school year. And you have just
started a computer science course that will use Java as its programming language.

1.15 Networking
When you grow up in a certain environment, it can easily seem natural, as if the
environment was always the way you see it. Today's students think it is perfectly
normal that computers can use e-mail, play video games and surf the Internet. It
was not always that simple. Computers evolved and yes computers do seem to
evolve much faster than almost any other type of human creation.

The SneakerNet
Early personal computers were not networked at all. Every computer was a standalone computer. Some computers were hooked up to printers and many others
were not. If you needed to print something, and you were not directly connected
to a printer, you stored your document on a floppy diskette, walked to a computer
with an attached printer, and then printed the document. If a group of computer
programmers worked together on a project, they needed to get up frequently with
stored information to share it with other members in the team. Running around to
share computer information is now called the Sneaker Net. It may not be very
clever, but it does illustrate the environment.

Peer-to-Peer Networks
Computers did not wake up one day and hooked up to the Internet. The first
practical networks for personal computers were peer-to-peer networks. A peer-topeer network is a small group of computers with a common purpose all connected
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to each other. This small network allowed a single printer to be used by any
computer on the network and computers could also share information. These
types of networks were frequently called Local Area Networks or LANs. Initially,
the networks were true peer-to-peer networks. This means that every computer
on the network was equal. All computers were personal computer work stations.
Later, dedicated computers were used, called servers. A server is a specialty
computer that is connected to the LAN for one or more purposes. Servers can be
used for printing, logon authentications, permanent data storage and
communication. Many businesses would have multiple servers set up in such a
manner that some servers exist for the purpose of backing up the primary server.
Using backup systems, tape storage or other backup means insured computer
reliability in case of computer failure.

The Department Of Defense Networking Role

It may come as a shock to you, but the Internet was not created so that teenagers
could play video games and download music. The Internet has its origins in the
"Cold War." If you do not know what the "Cold War" is ask your Social Studies
teacher, your parents or any old person over 30. During the Cold War there was a
major concern about the country being paralyzed by a direct nuclear hit on the
Pentagon. It used to be that all military communications traveled through the
Pentagon. If some enemy force could knock out the Pentagon, the rest of the
military establishment would be lost. A means of communication had to be created
that was capable to keep working regardless of damage created anywhere. This
was the birth of the Internet. The Internet has no central location where all the
control computers are located. Any part of the Internet can be damaged and all
information will then travel around the damaged area.

The Modern Internet

Students often think that the Internet is free. Well that would be lovely, but billions
of dollars are invested in networking equipment that needs to be paid in some
fashion. Computers all over the world are first connected to computers within
their own business or school. Normally, businesses and schools have a series of
LANs that all connect into a large network called an Intranet. An Intranet behaves
like the Internet on a local business level. This promotes security, speed and saves
cost.
Now the moment a school, a business, your home, wants to be connected to the
outside world and giant world-wide network known as the Internet, you have
access to millions of lines of telecommunications. This will cost money and every
person, every school. Every business who wants this access needs to use an
Internet Service Provider or ISP. You pay a monthly fee to the ISP for the Internet

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connection. The amount of money you pay depends on the amount of traffic that
flows through your connection and the speed of your Internet connection.
Today many computers use a wireless connection to hook up to some local
network, that in turn hooks up to the Internet. Wireless connections are
convenient, but there are some problems. Signals are not always reliable, just like
cell phones. You may be stuck in an area somewhere where the signal is weak.
Furthermore, there is the security issue. Information that travels wireless is much
easier to pick by hackers than information that is channeled through cable.

1.16 Hardware and Software

Computer science, like all technical fields, has a huge library of technical terms and
acronyms. Volumes can be filled with all kinds of technical vocabulary. Have no
fear; you will not be exposed to volumes, but at the end of this chapter you do
need some exposure to the more common terms you will encounter in the
computer world. You have already learned about different types of memory,
programming languages and networking. There are a few important computer
terms that you need to understand.
For starters, it is important that you understand the hardware and software
difference. These are the two biggest divisions in the computer business.
Hardware involves all the computer components that can be seen, felt, picked up
and dropped, like a monitor, a mouse, a jump drive. Software involves the set of
computer instructions that are coded on a disk, a CD, or a hard drive.

Computer Hardware and Peripheral Devices

There are big, visible hardware items that most students know because such items
are difficult to miss. This type of hardware includes the main computer box, the
monitor, printer, and scanner. There are additional hardware items that are not
quite as easy to detect.
It helps to start at the most essential computer components. There is the CPU
(Central Processing Unit), which controls the computer operations. The CPU
together with the primary memory storage represents the actual computer.
Frequently, when people say to move the CPU to some desk, they mean the big
box that contains the CPU and computer memory. In reality it contains lots more
than just a bunch of memory chips. There are also many peripheral devices.

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What does periphery mean? It means an imprecise boundary. If the computers are
located on the periphery of the classroom, then the computers are located against
the walls of the classroom. Computer hardware falls into two categories. There
are internal peripheral devices and external peripheral devices.
External peripheral devices were already mentioned. These are hardware, located
outside the computer and connected with some interface, which is usually a cable,
but it can also be wireless. The first external peripheral device you see is the
monitor. In the old days a monitor was called a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). This
was appropriate with the bulky monitors that looked like old televisions. Today
many monitors use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens. It is common now for
monitors to be 17, 19 or even 21 inches. This has changed since the early
computer days of 13 and 15 inch monitors.
Other external peripheral devices include a printer, keyboard, mouse, scanner,
jump drive or memory stick.
There are many internal peripheral devices that are connected to the computer
inside the computer case. These devices include the disk drive, CD ROM drive,
digital camera memory drive, network interface card and video card.

Computer Software
Computer software provides instructions to a computer. The most important
aspect of this course is to learn how to give correct and logical instructions to a
computer with the help of a programming language.
Software falls into two categories. There is system software and application
software. Usually, students entering high school are already familiar with
applications software.
Applications software runs an application on a computer. The whole reason why a
computer exists is so that it can assist people in some type of application. For
centuries, accounting kept large, complicated spreadsheets of business numbers.
Now these same numbers are entered on an electronic spreadsheet. You will not
experience the horror of finding some mistakes on the early pages of a thirty page,
typed, research paper. This type of mistake necessitates retyping the majority of
the pages. Today, this is a simple matter of inserting the corrections on a word
processor program. Spread sheets and word processors were the first software
applications. Currently, there are thousands of other applications to assist people
in every possible area from completing tax returns to playing video games.
System software involves the instructions that the computer requires to operate
properly. A common term is OS (operating system). The major operating systems
are Windows XP, UNIX and MAC OS. It is important that you understand the

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operation of your operating system. With OS you can store, move and organize
data. You can install new external devices like printers and scanners. You can
personalize your computer with a desktop appearance and color selections. You
can install additional applications and computer protection against losing data and
viruses.

1.17 Summary
This has been an introductory hodge-podge chapter. It is awkward to jump
straight into computer science without any type of introduction. Students arrive at
a first computer science course with a wide variety of technology backgrounds.
Some students know a little keyboarding and Internet access along with basic
word processing skills taught in earlier grades. Other students come to computer
science with a sophisticated degree of knowledge that can include a thorough
understanding of operating systems and frequently knowledge of one or more
program languages as well.
The secret of computer information storage and calculation is the binary system.
Information is stored in a computer with combinations of base-2 ones and zeroes.
Individual binary digits (bits) store a one or a zero. A one means true and a zero
means false. A set of eight bits forms one byte.
A byte can store one character in memory with ASCII, which allows 256 different
characters. The newer, international Unicode stores one character in two bytes for
a total of 65536 different characters.
Neither this chapter nor this book explained any details about the operating
system. Operating systems change frequently, or at least operating system versions
change to a new-and-improved model about every two or three years. A solid
knowledge of your computer's operating system is vital. Writing a computer
program requires knowledge of editing text, saving and loading files and moving
around the hard drive's directory system efficiently.
If your basic computer knowledge is weak, make sure to pick up additional
information from your teacher, library or bookstore. Technology is evolving and
students arrive in computer science classes with increased sophistication. In this
course no prior knowledge whatsoever about any programming language or
programming logic is assumed. However, a fundamental knowledge of basic
computer operations is essential.
Sun Microsystems created Java to be a programming language that is portable on many
computer platforms, a so-called platform-independent language. They also wanted the
language to be compatible with web page development.

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Early computers were stand-alone work stations. The first networked computers used
a "peer-to-peer" network. This was followed by LANs (Local Area Networks) that
connected dedicated specialty servers with computers and printers for a common
purpose. The Department of Defense developed the Internet as a means to provide
communication at war time.
Individuals, schools and businesses can set up a LAN at their private location without
paying a fee beyond the cost of the necessary hardware and software. Connection to
the Internet requires an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and a monthly connection fee.
Many computers today, especially laptop computers, have wireless network
connections. Such connections are convenient, but they are not as reliable and there is
also a greater security risk.
Computers use hardware and software. Hardware peripheral devices are the visible
computer components. There are external peripheral devices, such as monitors,
keyboards, printers and scanners. There are also internal peripheral devices like disk
drives, CD ROM drives, network interface cards and video cards.
Software falls into two categories of application software and operating system
software. Application software includes the common applications of word processing
and spreadsheets, but also tax return software and video games. Operating system
software runs the computer and allows the user to personalize the computer to his or
her needs and organize data.

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