What are introduction CS courses like?
>>8035258
typically you learn either Python or Java. Basic CS concepts, simple algorithms (bubble sort, etc..), OOP concepts, etc...
you get the idea.
if you've taken cs before expect to be bored out of your mind for at least 3/4 of the course
i don't know what it's like for a beginner, probably fine if you keep up
>>8035258
>coming soon
>>8035267
/thread
>>8035258
Ours was introduction to what an algorithm is, intro to coding (java), psuedocode, sorting algorithms (quicksort, heapsort, mergesort, bubblesort, selectionsort) but without any proofs about them (those were in the next course after it, ie a dedicated algorithms course). We did big-O for space/time complexity (again, not rigorous). Uh... we were introduced to a bunch of random topics in very little depth (like crypto(shift/substitution ciphers only), comp architecture, graph theory (dijkstra I think?), but those were just like "hey let's spend 90 minutes on one topic then the next 90 minutes on a different topic" for those kinds of things. I think that's about it. Oh, we learned about binary/hex other base systems and modulo arithemtic I guess. It was a while ago so I am probably forgetting random things.
>>8035258
is that standing autism?
>>8035287
damn. graph theory and quick, heap, and merge sort in an entry level CS course. sounds like a good school.
ours briefly mentions big-O complexity, and only talks about bubble and selection sort, and you would swear it was rocket science to 75% of the class. Like 1/3rd never make it past CS1.
>>8035258
Whatever that thing is, it has to go back.
>>8035299
Go back where?
>>8035302
From wherever that horrible thing came from. Judging by the dress sense, I'd guess mainland China.
>>8035258
A joke filled with subhumans somehow managing to fail them.
>>8035278
what did he even mean by this? why does he cross them out
I can see the argument that CS isnt a science, but its definitely on computers
>>8035296
that's actually kind of nice, CS1 and 2 were a breeze because I already knew all the material, but now we're doing heaps and graphs in CS3 and I actually have to put in effort.
I hate effort.
>>8035315
How do you know that isn't China/Korea in the pic?
>>8035296
They didn't prove anything. They just showed how the algorithms worked (actually i think it was just merge/quick/select/bubble.. I know heapsort was covered in 2nd semester though when we covered datastructures and heaps were mentioned (heaps,bsts,hashtables,etc).
Like our midterm would be like "show how quicksort sorts these 10 numbers" or "give an array that would cause quicksort to take O(n^2) time given that the 1st element in a subarray is used as the pivot. All the complexity stuff was pretty handwavy. Or even small questions just like "give the best-case average-case and worst-case times for quicksort, bubblesort, mergesort, selection sort and insertion sort" which is just kind of trivia.
The graph theory stuff wasn't explained much at all. They just told us what a graph was, told us about traveling salesman/hamilton cycle, told us about P vs NP.. but we never had to prove anything about it. It was just telling us what was out there for the classes after it. The only graph theory was basically just what is a graph, what is a tree, what is a cycle, what is a hamilton cycle. We didn't have to do proofs (those were left for our combinatorics class and algorithms classes in 3rd semester).
Just finished mine now.
Was definitely harder than I expected, but I go to Penn. Honestly it's just extremely time consuming. But some of the stuff we made was actually really useful.
>>8035258
memes, lots of lots of memes
you won't learn anything unless you bring your laptop to class
>professors don't allow laptops in class
idk why professors do this
>>8035426
Why won't you learn without a laptop?
>>8035408
I took CS 101 at another top school. It was miserable with the workload. We had reading quizzes, mini-programming assignments (between 5-9 a week, taking between 5 mins to 2 hours+), large programming assignments (10+ hours), programming quizzes ( 3 additional mini-assignments that went from easy, medium, difficult) and "challenge" questions along with our actual assignments and despite these being challenges and another 5+ hours of programming work they were required to do in our actual programming assignment. They weren't option. Most of the time all of these would be due within a week and would overlap each other. Also, we had mandatory programming labs that was additional work and a complete waste of time.
>>8035354
It's actually the opposite dingus
>>8035258
Fucking boring, I thought it would be cool instead I ended up learning c++ basics for matlab... I fucking hate matlab.
>>8035258
Learning a programming language. And there's nothing wrong with that. The first language is the hardest to learn and it's important to be able to use multiple languages, so it's good to know at least one pretty well.
>>8035354
YouTube his name and you'll get the video it comes from. If memory serves he goes on to say that what they're studying is only a toy model of sorts, that the actual theory of computation is yet to emerge. I could be wrong so go look up the video.
I took an AP CS course on high school. We've been learning Java, all it's delightfully fun stuff. The first semester was really just learning Java along with various other small things like truth tables. Now in the second semester we've learned about recursions and briefly talked about stacks. Then we learned about searching and went over bubble, quick, selection, insertion, and merge sorts. We haven't talked about Big O notation but I was able to teach it to myself because the book talks about it.
I've also been teaching myself C and 6502 asm on the side.
Will I have an edge over the cumfucks in my intro to CS classes in college this year?
>>8035267
My intro class was Intro to C++. Java came after. It was considered a difficult class, but honestly it just required more work and gen ed classes and people weren't used to it. Basically it weeded out all the people who wouldn't have been able to handle harder courses anyway.
>>8035258
Depending on your instructors, anywhere from easy to "what the fuck am I reading"-tier
>>8037489
That's pretty impressive for high school
In my high school we learned how to use PowerPoint
>>8035354
The actual study of physical computers is electrical engineering.
I guess it depends where you are studying, since the things we covered differ a lot from the ones posted already.
My course consisted of:
Propositional and Predicate logic, Context-free Grammar, Graphs, Mealy + Moore machines and Turing machines
>>8038428
Here's a question from my CS computer hardware class.
""
3. [23 marks] Consider a computer with 16-bit registers. The memory
is word addressed. There is a direct-mapped cache with 1K cache frames.
Cache lines are 8 words. Into which cache frame, and with what tag
value, does 16-bit word address '7cba' go? Show your work. Answers in
hexadecimal.
""
>>8040073
>tfw you're not even sure if this problem is hard or not because you don't even know what it means
I assume it's very hard
>>8040115
In hindsight, it's a bad example.
>>8035258
the most important subject is "why EE can do the same and more than a CS"
>>8040198
>tfw thinking of doing computer engineering
is it a bad idea?
I will have to spend at least another year in school if I do decide to do it.
>>8035278
man if introductory CS courses were sicp lectures by abelson I'd take them every fucking year
>>8035354
computing is not a science because it's more of an engineering, rather than collecting data from natural phenomena and making a hypothesis
it's not about computers the same way geometry is not about ruler and compass or math is not about pencil and paper. CS is about computational processes, whether on the pc, on paper, or in the human mind
>>8037489
>I took AP intro to CS, will I have an edge in uni intro to CS
What are you asking? Yes?
>>8040222
Worth it only if you enjoy computer engineering and playing with hardware. The bonus is that it gives you additional career options that CS majors don't have and makes you better than the average CS major if you take a regular programming job.
>>8041991
is it even an engineering? I would probably put it wherever you put math. Although I guess it depends which area of computer science you're talking about. Maybe tear it in half and put it in both.
>>8041991
That's the reason the Germans (and most non English speaking countries) call it Informatik
>>8040115
It really isn't. Computer architecture classes are surprisingly easy in retrospect, the problem is how early they come in most courses. His question is basically asking "where would a computer store these numbers [according to a few rules]?". As long as you know and understand the logic behind the rules, it's easy. The problem is that at the point you're learning this, you're pretty much still a virgin in the area and it all seems super confusing.
