CS 200 - Fall 2023.

Welcome to CS 200!

Video of the Day

This song opens a Broadway musical based on a play by Shakespeare, with music and lyrics by a Yale graduate. This number captures the feeling of hope, promise, uncertainty, and even trepidation felt by many of us in this room. Welcome back!

Logical problem of the day: 854-917-6320

What unique property does this number possess?

https://pollev.com/slade You may also download the app to your phone. Use the "slade" poll id.

Lecture 0: Introductory Lecture. 8/30

Discussion of course and instructor:

Biography. Hybrid: academia (theory) / industry (practice).
- Yale undergraduate. music major. (studied CS with Alan Perlis)
- Developed computer systems for presidential campaigns and the White House.
- Yale graduate student, M.S., Ph.D., computer science (artificial intelligence)
- Yale Computer Science Department: Assistant Chairman, Assistant Director of the Yale AI Project, Lecturer.
- NYU Stern School of Business, Department of Information Systems, Assistant Professor.
- Wrote three books (T/Scheme, LISP, decision making) - dedicated to Yale alumnae.
- Developed investment and risk technology systems for Wall Street. Sell side (Morgan Stanley), Buy side (INVESCO, Bank of America, Commonfund)
Syllabus,
Note: You will be required to learn UNIX, as well as Python. Questions about UNIX will appear on all exams.
Other courses to consider:
- CS 100. Introduction to Computing and Programming.
  Ozan Erat and Cody Murphey
  HTBA.
  Introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and to the art of programming. Students learn how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development. Languages include C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript, plus CSS and HTML. Problem sets inspired by real-world domains of biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming. See CS50's website, https://cs50.yale.edu for additional information.
- CS 110. Python Programming for Humanities and Social Sciences.
  Sophie Park
  MW 11:35 - 12:50pm.
  Introduction to computer science and Python programming with domain-specific applications. Students learn how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, web development, and statistical tools. Students learn to apply computing techniques in the fields of social sciences & humanities by analyzing data. No previous programming experience is required. This course is intended for students of social sciences & humanities majors.
- CS 200. Introduction to Information Systems. (This course. Note recursion.)
  Stephen Slade
  MW 2:30 - 3:45pm.
  The real-world artifacts and implementations that comprise the vital computational organisms that populate our world. Hardware and software and the related issues of security, privacy, regulation, and software engineering. Examples stress practical applications of technology, as well as limitations and societal issues.
  Note: CS 200 satisfies the prerequisite for CS 223 and the Certificate in Programming. However, if you intend to major in Computer Science, you should enroll in CS 201.
- CS 201. Introduction to Computer Science.
  Stephen Slade
  MWF 10:30-11:20am.
  Introduction to the concepts, techniques, and applications of computer science. Topics include computer systems (the design of computers and their languages); theoretical foundations of computing (computability, complexity, algorithm design); and artificial intelligence (the organization of knowledge and its representation for efficient search). Examples stress the importance of different problem-solving methods.
  Note: CS 201 satisfies the prerequisite for CS 223 as well as the Computer Science major. However, if you do not intend to major in Computer Science, you may consider enrolling in CS 200.

Both CS 100 and CS 110 assume no prior programming experience. By contrast, CS 200 and CS 201 assume that this is not your first rodeo.

If you're thinking of taking CPSC 200, please do the following.

Complete this online Student Information form.

Get a course account for CPSC 200 on the Zoo. When you register for this class, your course account should be created within one hour or so of signing up.

Start the reading assignment: [Assignments].

Familiarize yourself with the Zoo computers by attending a (soon-to-be-scheduled) Zoo help session, or with classmates or on your own using the Zoo tutorial, Spring 2014 edition.

(Optional.) Download and install Python on your computer (Python) and familiarize yourself with it. If you don't want to install and run Python on your machine, you may run it in person or remotely using your Zoo account.

Note that there are two current versions of Python: 2 and 3, which are not quite compatible. We suggest that you opt for version 3.

Perlis epigram #19: A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.

The language we'll use this semester, Python, is widely used for production systems, including web programming and data science.

We conclude with a gentle demonstration of Python in action: f0830.py in which we do the following:

define a list comprising 10 digits
define a function, num_to_word, which takes a single digit, num, and returns the corresponding English word, e.g.,
num_to_word(9) ==> 'nine'
define a function, word_to_num, which is the inverse of num_to_word. Note that we define a sub-function within the function itself. The sub-function, find_index, is recursive.
We then try out the functions.
Here is a transcript of today's class.
Here is jupyter notebook version of today's class.

Getting to know Python

Introduction.html (jupyter) Python

Getting to know UNIX

UNIX Introduction

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