With this module, you'll learn the basic types of computer resources and how the instructions you write are interpreted by the computer and converted into actions.
With this topic, you'll learn about the history of computing and some of the most important events that shaped the Information Age.
- List the four generations of computing
- Explain Moore's Law and the rate of exponential change in computing hardware
- Compare the rate of change in hardware to the rate of change in software
- Theorize how you can stay current with the rapid changes in our industry
- Computer History Timeline
Article - History of Computing
Article - Pirates of Silicon Valley
Film - Apple 1984 Super Bowl Commercial
Video - Bret Victor The Future of Programming
Video - Awesome Computer History
Resource - Jean Bartik and the ENIAC Women
Video
With this topic, you will learn about the essential computer components and the different roles they play.
- Describe the four components of a computer
- Compare processing and storage and how they interact with each other
- List some common and uncommon peripherals
- Theorize how you might use peripherals in your work
- Exploring How Computers Work
Video - Digital Logic Sim
Tool - History and Theory of Electricity
Video - Building an 8-bit computer
Video Series - nand2tetris: building a computer from first principles
Course - 8 Standard Computer Components
Article
With this topic, you will learn about the underlying software that coordinates the different components of a computer.
- Describe what an operating system does
- List some popular operating systems
- Setup and use another operating system using virtualization
- Compare containerization with virtualization and highlight the differences
- Compare some features of your original operating system with the operating system you tried out
- DigitalOcean Learning Library
Resource - Docker in 100 Seconds
Video - Learn Docker in 7 Easy Steps
Video - Understanding Operating Systems
Article - Using Docker Dev Containers
Resource - VirtualBox
Tool
With this topic, you will learn about the process of turning human-readable code into commands that the computer can understand.
- Describe how a computer compiles source code into machine code
- Compare the different processes that occur in compiled languages vs. interpreted languages
- Explain why language compatibility is essential to keep track of
- Setup a language runtime on your machine
- The Programming Process
Article - How do computers read code?
Video - rbenv
Tool - pyenv
Tool - nodenv
Tool - goenv
Tool - rustup
Tool - C# language versioning
- Computer Basics Course
Course ($)
With this topic, you will learn about the different combinations of hardware, operating systems, and runtimes used to run software applications.
- Describe the anatomy of a platform
- List some common platforms where your software might run
- Theorize how you use platform identification with your projects