Programming
For non-programmers
Starting in a bit...
Available online
Feel free to click along!
http://tinyurl.com/programming-teaser
What is programming?
Introduction to 'Programming for non-programmers'
November 2, 2014
Mathijs de Bruin / @mathijsfietst
Fear and magic
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
— Arthur C. Clarke
Play with it!
It's fun when you are in control!
(Plus you'll call me with more interesting questions…)
Today's topics
Now to tell you what I'm going to tell you.
- History
- Mathematics
- Philosophy
Today's topics
Now to tell you what I'm going to tell you.
Perspective
Today's topics
Now to tell you what I'm going to tell you.
- What are computers?
- How do they work?
- Discussion: What would you do with them?
Today's topics
Now to tell you what I'm going to tell you.
- What are computers?
- How do they work?
- Discussion: What would you do with them?
What are computers?
It's all about the war!*
* Check out Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Bletchley Park
‘Sending numbers through the floor’
Code breakers
(Mostly women)
Enigma
The little fascist mystery box
Alan Turing
Cracked the codes and won the war
Murdered
By whose freedom he fought for
Murdered
Because he was gay
Invented
The electronic computer
Invented
The universal Turing machine
The Turing Machine
Hyphothetical computer which can:
- Read, write or erase symbols (0's and 1's) on an tape
- Depending on read symbols: move tape left or right
- Remember a finite amount of previously read state
The Turing Machine
People actually built this thing!
The Turing Machine
A Universal Computer which can do
Anything*
Any other machine could do
*Ok, any information processing.
Any
‘universal computer’ can emulate
Every
other computer
Some examples
Universal Computers
Can do
Anything
Universal Computers
Do
Everything
But wait
It got invented before!
1850
The Difference Engine*
* Read The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Charles Babbage
Invented
A fully mechanical computer
First programmer
Ada Byron
Lady Lovelace
First program
Calculation of Bernoulli numbers
Published 1843
Ada Byron
Conceived of:
- Computer graphics
- Programmtically composed music
- Scientific and non-scientific computing
Today's topics
- What are computers?
- How do they work?
- Discussion: What would you do with them?
Mathematics
It's fun. No, really!
⋯
Just that calculations suck, allright.
Analog vs. digital
Analog |
Digital |
|---|---|
0, 1 and everything in between |
0, 1 and nothing else |
| Infinite amount of values | Only 2 values possible |
| Continuous mathematics | Discrete mathematics |
Boolean logic
1's and 0's
True or False
Yes or No
High or Low
George Boole, A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences
George Boole
1860
Boolean numbers
Count like a machine!
| Binary | Decimal |
|---|---|
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| So far, so good… | |
10 |
2 |
11 |
3 |
100 |
4 |
101 |
5 |
110 |
6 |
| … | |
Bits, bytes
(and nibbles)
| Amount | Example | Name | Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
bit | 22 = 2 |
| 4 | 1011 |
nibble | 24 = 16 |
| 8 | 10001010 |
byte | 28 = 256 |
| 1024⨯8 | … | kilobyte | 21024⨯8 |
| 10242⨯8 | … | megabyte | 210242⨯8 |
| 10243⨯8 | … | gigabyte | 210243⨯8 |
| 10244⨯8 | … | terabyte | 210244⨯8 |
| 10245⨯8 | … | petabyte | 210245⨯8 |
Boolean operators
AND, OR, NOT, XOR, …
Hardware: Logic gate
Real world boolean operators
Electronic switches
Evolution of computer technology
- Relays
- Vacuum tubes
- Transistors
- Integrate circuits (chips)
1941: relays
Z3 by Konrad Zuse
2000 switches
1946: vacuum tubes
ENIAC by J. Mauchly and J.P. Eckert
about 20.000 switches
1962: transistors
Atlas
about 80.000 switches
1971: Chips/IC's*
Intel 4004
about 2.300 switches per chip
* Integrated Circuits
2014: Modern IC's
Intel Core i7
about 731.000.000 switches per chip
Moore's law
“The number of transistors incorporated in a chip will approximately double every 24 months.”
— Gordon Moore
Today's topics
- What are computers?
- How do they work?
- Discussion: What would you do with them?