Welcome, Introduction, and Setup - CSC311 - Computer Systems and Programming Tools

Today:

intros
what the learning goals of the course are
see how in class time will work
start learning git/github by doing (we’ll cover the theory after the practical)

Not Today:

syllabus review (on your own time/lab Monday)
cours policy discussion (next week)

Introductions¶

Dr. Sarah Brown
Please address me as Dr. Brown or Professor Brown,
Ms./Mrs. are not acceptable

You can see more about me in the about section of the syllabus.

Why think like a computer?¶

Prismia¶

instead of slides
you can message us
we can see all of your responses
emoji!

questions can be “graded”

this is instant feedback
participation will be checked
correctness will not impact your final grade^[1]
this helps both me and you know how you are doing

This course is structured a bit different than many classes¶

no Brightspace
300 level = more independence
I will give advice, but only hold you accountable to a minimal set
High expectations, with a lot of flexibility

as an aside another Professor describing what she does not like about learning management systems (LMS). Brightspace is one, she talks about Canvas in the post, but they are similar.

Judgement free absences¶

No need to tell me in advance
For 1 class no need to tell me why at all-- make it up and keep moving
For longer absences, I will help you plan how to get caught up, and you must meet university criteria for excused absences

The specific policy around this is in the grading section of the syllabus on Experience Badges

My focus is for you to learn¶

that means: practice, feedback, and reflection
you should be able to apply this material in other courses
you should know that you have learned and be able to talk about it in an interview

Learning comes in many forms¶

different types of material are best remembered in different ways
some things are hard to explain with words, but watching it is very concrete

Learning is the goal¶

producing outputs as fast as possible is not learning
in a job, you may get paid to do things fast
your work also needs to be correct, without someone telling you it is
in a job you are trusted to know your work is correct, your boss does not check your work or grade you
to get a job, you have to interview, which means explaining, in words, to another person how to do something

What about AI?¶

Large Language Models will change what programming looks like, but understanding is always going to be more effective than asking an AI. Large language models actually do not know any facts, they just generate text that is statistically similar to text in their training data.

How does this work?¶

In class:¶

Memory/ understanding check
Review/ clarification as needed
New topic demo with follow along, tiny practice
Review, submit questions

and repeat

Outside of class:¶

Read notes to refresh your memory, check your understanding, and find more details
Complete badges to apply material that has been taught
Prepare for class to activate your memory of related things to what we will cover
Read articles/ watch videos to either fill in gaps or learn more details
Bring questions to class

Getting started¶

Your KWL chart is where you will start by tracking what you know now/before we start and what you want to learn about each topic. Then you will update it throughout the semester. You will also add material to the {term}`repository`` to produce evidence of your learning.

Tip

links are often hints or more information, including links provided in prismia.

Almost all links provided in prismia will appear in the notes too


##  What is this course about?


In your KWL chart, there are a lot of different topics that are not obviously related, so what is this course really about?

- practical exposure to important tools
- design features of those tool categories
- basic knowledge of many parts of the CS core
- focus on the connections

We will use learning the tools to understand how computer scientists think and work.

Then we will use the tools to examine the field of Computer Science top to bottom (possibly out of order).

### How it fits into your CS degree

knowing where you've been and where we're going will help you understand and remember

_this describes the BS; BA drops some of the math_

In CSC110, you learn to program in python and see algorithms from a variety of domain areas where computer science is applied.


Then in CSC 340 and 440 you study the algorithms more mathematically, their complexity, etc.


In CSC211, 212, you learn the foundations of computer science: general programming and data structures.


Then in 301, 305, 411, 412 you study different aspects of software design and how computers work.

In this class, we're going to connect different ideas. We are going to learn the tools used by computer scientists, deeply. You will understand why the tools are the way they are and how to use them even when things go wrong.

## GitHub Docs are really helpful and have screenshots

:::::{important}
Since GitHub changes a lot, I will not take screenshots and instead, link you to their docs

they pay people to update them so I direct you to theirs mostly instead of recreating them

Today we did the following:

Accept the assignment to create your repo: KWL Chart
Edit the README to add your name by clicking the pencil icon (editing a file step 2)
adding a descriptive commit message (editing a file step 5)
adding prior knowledge
created a new branch (named prior_knowledge) (editing a file step 7-8)
added a message to the Pull Request (pull request step 5)
Creating a pull request (pull request step 6)
Clicking Merge Pull Request

See prismia for a link to join the team

Git and GitHub terminology¶

We also discussed some of the terminology for git. We will also come back to these ideas in greater detail later.

GitHub Actions¶

GitHub allows us to run scripts within our repos, the feature is called GitHub Actions and the individual items are called workflows.

Navigate to your actions tab

Get Credit for Today’s class¶

Run your Experience Reflection (inclass) action on your kwl repo

talk with peers to make sure you remember what the right way to click on it is

On the created PR, go to the Files section, edit the file, and commit the changes.

Prepare for Next Class¶

(for lab Monday) Read the syllabus section of the course website carefully and explore the whole course website
(for lab Monday) Bring questions about the course
(for class Tuesday) Think about one thing that you know really well (computing or not). Be prepared to discuss the following: How do you know that you know it? What was it llike to first learn it? (nothing written to submit, but you can use your issue to take notes if you would like)

Badges¶

Review

Practice

make sure you have joined the team to get access to more features in our course organization.
Review the notes from today’s class carefully
Fill in the first two columns of your KWL chart (content of the PR; named to match the badge name)
Post an introduction to your classmates on our discussion forum (include link to your comment in PR comment, must accept above to see)

Experience Report Evidence¶

Your repo must exist

Questions After Today’s Class¶

Footnotes¶

if you are consistenly gettign questions wrong, because you do not understand and never figure the things out, that will eventually impact your grade. ⚓ If you are reading this in hover text, take a screenshot, then log a community badge with the url for this footnote and the text footerhover and include the screen shot in the PR comment.
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