First Week HW - Summary

A computer itself for home use is generally made of a few parts. First and foremost is what is
generally inside the computer tower, or computer box. he first part is the !"# or !entral "rocessing #nit,
this part generally is responsible for doing calculations and things of that nature. $t generally deals with
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and di%ision. $t&s speed is generally measured in Hert'(H'). he next
part contained generally is *A+ or *andom Access +emory, it is generally responsible for loading and
offloading memory within itself to many applications. ,ext is the Hard -isk or Hard -ri%e, this is where file
storage is done and retains all data in general to be read at a later time. $t also contains the operating system
to be utili'ed. hen we ha%e the ,etwork !ard which is generally built into the motherboard many times. $t
is responsible for dealing with networks and the internet. Some models of this also deal with wifi and other
applications. hen there is the graphics card, which is utili'ed to render pictures to the screen of the
computer and do calculations. "eripherals of the computer include a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. he
monitor is used to %iew what needs to be seen and is output to by the graphics card. he .eyboard allows
user input to the computer for applications through typing. he mouse is used in general to gi%e a bit extra
control and to /uickly choose programs to be launched and such.
Software is considered programs run on a computer and includes things such as Windows (0S), +ac
(0S), $nternet 1xplorer, "owerpoint and more. Software in general controls the hardware of the computer
and gi%es it instructions. When you write your %ery own programs this is called computer programming. his
can be written in /uite a few programming languages such !22, !3, !, 4a%a, and more. "rogramming can be
di%ided into two catagories, one of which is systems programming which would be considered things like
Windows (0S) and is responsible for the ability to run programs. 0ther examples would be dri%ers which
control hardware installed on the computer. he next catagory of programming would be called user
programs. his catagory is stuff such as %ideo games, Word, $nternet 1xplorer and programs that run after
windows installations generally.
!omputer hardware changes at a generally /uick rate and follows what is called +oore&s 5aw.
+oore&s 5aw was an idea come up with by 6ordon +oore in which he noticed a trend that in general the
number of transistors in an item double roughly e%ery two years. ransistors are generally the building
blocks of *am, !pu&s and other chips. +ore transistors per chip generally signal a /uicker speed will occur.
When transistors become /uicker they generally increase in clock rate which impro%es in speed also. All this
leads to a generally easyier 7ob for programmers due to more leeway and allows for slightly less efficentcy in
programming while maintaining effecti%eness. Howe%er, a big part of writing good software is to maintain
efficency. his can be done by writing code that doesn&t re/uire as many cpu cycles or as much *A+ useage.
Although the hard dri%e will try and make up for this, it is generally much less efficent. !omputers data is all
generally read in binary as with digital circuitry it lea%es for much less error and more efficentcy.
AS!$$ stand for American Standard !ode for $nformation $nterchange and represents the alphabet
from (a to '), (A to 8), (9 to :) and all special charcters. he ad%antage of this is that all charcters only take ;
bits of space or one <yte. Howe%er, the downside to this in general is the fact that space is %ery limited.
AS!$$ only support =>? combinations of test which means it will only support these. #nicode on the other
hand is rather di%erse in that it supports up to ?>,>@? charcters. he drawback of this is that it re/uires A? bits
of space instead then. he biggest ad%antage of this change is that multiple languages such as 4apanese,
.orean, hai and Arabic are all supported now. "re%iously you would get <ox&es and need to install these
seperately rather then them being supported by default.
here are multiple le%els to each language used in programming in general. he top most language is
called High-5e%el language. his is generally the language used in programming to control the sub le%els
such as Assembly and +achine. $n general higher le%el languages are used to help simplify the process and
make actually writing code more resonable. High-5e%el languages such as ! are also in general cross
compatible on more then one 0S due to how they interact with each piece of hardware. Assembly and
+achine on the other hand are %ery limited and may only function on exactly one type of !"# for example.
Assembly generally is easyier then machine to program with but are still a %ery basic language to work with.
+achine language is generally in binary and extremely unwieldy to try and program directly with. Although
it is the most efficent type to work with due to this. $n general Assembly and High-5e%el languages are
translated into machine programming so it may be read in the e%entual end.
Scripting is a type of programming that isn&t actually compiled but is interpreted by an interpreter.
Some examples of this would be 4a%aScript and "H". his howe%er leads to a slower execution due to
needing to be interpreted on the stop and not directly through the !"# as would be if you programmed in
any language. 0ne of Scriptings primary purposes is to be read on webpages as it is one of the few ways
across platforms where is can be interpreted %ery easily. he interpreters themsel%es run on the !"# in the
end due to it calculating the interpretation. Howe%er, it is runnable on all of the !"# types due to the
interpreter.
ypes of high le%el programming languages in general are numerous. Some examples of this are
<!"5 (<asic !ombined "rogramming 5anuage), <, ! and !22. ! e%ol%ed from <!"5 and < and was
originally made in A:B=. ! was initally known for being the de%eloped language of the #,$C 0S which is
still around today along with 5$,#C 0S. <y A:B9 ! become known as traditional ! and became much more
widespread. !ompilers e%entually became an issue amongst the ! community sparking a need for
standardi'ation for them in general. $n A:;@ a committee called C@4AA created a standard which to li%e by
for !. $n A:;: A,S$ appro%ed a standard which then gained international recognition causing Standard ! to
be created. ! was updated again in A:::. $t was updated again later in =9AA.
! works on the principle of being a standard library to help ease with programming tasks in general.
$f this wasn&t the case you would ha%e to keep writing code in order to do e%en the most basic of functions in
general. Some of the ad%antages of this being standardi'ed is that they functions are extremely optimised for
performance in general with some of the best programmers. $t also allows for programs to be portable across
many platforms to reduce the need for multiple languages and things to learn within them. A good example
of this would be trying to do s/uare roots for example. he ! library contains a function which will
automatically calculate it for you when entered. his is in%aluable to sa%ing time within the programming
community. he standard ! library denotes its file as stdio.h in which it stands for standard input and output.
his is most easily represented by the printf command which allows the user programming in it to display
text to a console window with ease in general. While on the other hand the scaf command helps intake input
from a user which can then be stores or utili'ed in other ways such as performing math and such. Another
key feature of the ! library is a main function is always re/uired. $t is due to this that ! in general is
fre/uently and commonly used as a base for other programming languages.
Another %ariation of ! is !22 which was created by <7arne Stroustrup at <ell 5abs. his is an
upgrade to ! that allows for what is called ob7ected oriented programming. A real-life ob7ect was modeled in
programming and allowed operations to be done on it in programming as a result of this. his, howe%er, is
7ust one of the languages a%ailable.
0b7ecti%e ! on the other hand is instrumental in the company Apple. his language was created in
A:;9 for use on their +ac 0S and was only 7ust recently remo%ed from its programming and replaced in
roughly the year =9AA. 4a%a was created in A::A and is also extremely common for e%eryone today. $t is used
in tons of online applications in general. 4a%a is was created by the company Sun-+icrosystems and its basis
comes from the language !22. "H" and 4a%aScript are scripting languages, howe%er, they also ha%e a basis
with !. "H" is a scripting language programmed in ! that is also ob7ect oriented like !22.
hese other languages were all created in general to help steamline programming for applications.
+any of them actually 7ust interprate the ! language in %arious ways and help minimise the amount of
writing needed for code. hey also tend to add /uite a few features to the mix for use by the public and
companies. All the languages generally interact with the computers Hardware in some way. ! is still taught
to this day as it&s generally a good basis for students to continue to learn from as it shares many similarities
with the languages using it. ! is also still used for system de%elopement where performance is still the
biggest factor when it comes to a application or software. ,otable times this would occur is when memory
and ram are %ery limited on the computer being utili'ed.
hese programs and languages are generally programmed in a all inclusi%e program known as a $-1
which handles e%erything to do with the code. he first thing needed when dealing with them is what&s called
an editor which allows you to write code for use within an en%iornment. hen follows is what is called a
proprocessor which modifies the code for use by the compiler. he compiler physically translates the code
but needs additional information in order to fully utili'e the code. his is where a 5inker comes in which
matches functions to the code itself for use within the system. he executable file is then produced to be used
by the computer. he executable at the most basic le%el consists of A&s and 9&s but it is unyieldy. When the
program is fully run it is loaded into whats called a loader. A loader loads a program into the memory for use
by the computer. his is the last step to prep the computer for full use before the program is fully run.
Afterwards the computer runs from the !"# and does it&s desired purpose whether this is to calculate or 7ust
to display an image on the monitor of the computer. he 1ditor, "reprocessor, !ompiler and linker all
transmit and operate to the disk of the computer for it&s purposes. he loader is when the hard disk transmits
to the loader when then goes to the primary memory. his is when the !"# interacts with the memory and
operates the program %alue by %alue for use. 0ne of the compilers used in general for learning is -e% !22
which functions for ! and !22 in general. $t is a compiler that is multi-purpose but must be instructed which
to operate as it doesn&t auto detect which library to use while still ha%ing a compiler for personal use for both.