Thursday, 24 October 2013

Recap on course materials

So far, we have covered quite a lot of grounds on history of computing and DrRacket. I shall give a cursory overview of what I have learnt thus far.

Problem solving:
1) Understand problem
2) Devise plan(s)
3) Execute plan
4) Evaluate
(This is the basic methodology for creation of new algorithms!!!)
In the past, due to insufficient funding and probably also ignorance of our kind, there is limited progress in development on computing. However as time passes by, event such as wars as well as changing attitudes of individuals towards computing created a demand for computing services. Computing primarily assist us with encryption, calculations and the likes then but are now increasingly replacing many other operations that previously require manual execution.

Digital vs Analog
The handling of information in computing is currently leaning towards digital (2 discrete states are used) 

Linear vs Binary
Similarly, the handling of information in computing is leaning toward one of these two and binary is the choice! (technique of "divide by two" search)

Let's see from the lens of a computer on how they handle calculations!
e.g               23                                  10111
                + 17                              +  10001  
                = 40                                101000 
                1 0 1 0 0 0  => 25+04+23+02+01+00 = 40 !!!

e.g               15                                    1111
             x    19                               x  10011  
             = 285                                     1111
                                                         1111
                                                       0000
                                                     0000
                                                   1111           
                                                 100011101
            1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 =>  28+07+06+05+24+23+22+01+20 = 285 !!!

My next post will recap on DrRacket contents.

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