IC210

Class 1: General Architecture

Reading
Section 1.1of Absolute C++
 
Lecture
This lecture doesn't really talk about programming. I'm just listing the basic topics here (Topic 1 will take up most of the time, most likely) rather than giving complete lecture notes. Complete notes will start with the next lecture.

 

  1. Parts of a computer: CPU, main memory, persistent storage (hard drive), input (keyboard), output (monitor)
  2. Filesystems: Tree structure, programs as files, etc. [It will probably save you many headaches if you go to "Start" -> "Settings" -> "Control Panel" -> "Folder Options" and make sure that under the "View" tab you have "Hide file extensions for known file types" off (i.e. unchecked). When this is on, you won't always see the full name of a file, which can be confusing!]
  3. Creating files: quick notepad, side note [It's hard not to create files! Try going to amazon.com, and then check your cookies! It created a file!]
  4. Your ultimate goal as a C++ programmer is to create a file - a file that is a program!
  5. Internet (Extending your filesystem): Tree structure in the underlying filesystems (go to CS Dept Webpage (http://www.usna.edu/CS/) and work to, for example, the Class 1 page for this course, to demonstrate), but of course we jump around almost randomly using hypertext links. The "web" is sort of like other people letting you look at their filesystems!
  6. More internet: with ftp you can read and write to other people's filesystems! What you can't do is run programs on their machine. You'll be using ftp on occasion in this class. (Everyone should have WS_FTP on their machines in Bancroft.)
  7. You have two accounts associated with being a computer science or IT major. You have a Windows account and a Unix account, and you'll keep these accounts while you're here, using different accounts for different classes and tasks.
  8. The department has several online resources for CS majors. Important to you will be
  9. In class we'll bring up the Visual Studio 6 environment and show you what the basic process of creating a program will look like.
Assoc Prof Christopher Brown

Last modified by LT M. Johnson 08/15/2007 09:06 AM