A Brief History of Computing n Pre-Automation Era (mechanization) n Host Centric Period (1940s-1970s) n Network Centric Period (1970s-1990s) n User Centric Period (1990s to current)

Pre-Automation Era n 1880s s n Based on punched cards and tabulating machines n Herman Hollerith (U.S. Census) n Typically routines and procedures n Automated existing tasks(not new services)

Host Centric Period n 1940s Invention of tube-based computers n 1954 Mass production of transistorized computing systems n Internal memory (RAM) and programming languages n 1964 DEC and the “minicomputer” n Creation of large distributed networks based on single shared “host”

Network Centric Period n Also the beginning of the “PC movement” n 1969 beginnings of the “Internet” and TCP/IP (NSFnet) n 1974 MITS, the first crude mail order PC n 1977 Apple II ships to schools n 1982 IBM PC debuts n mid 1980s - beginnings of networked PCs (called “LANs”)

User Centric Period n 1992 WWW opens new doors for end users n mid 1990s GUIs come into fashion (first Lisa, then Mac, next Windows PC) n Internet connectivity comes to the home n Most content created as bits, not atoms n Distributed, personalized computing comes to the masses n The Web grows rapidly to fuel commercial interests

Spectrum of Change in Focus of Computing Systems: SYSTEMS ----> FUNCTIONALITY ---> END USERS ---> ???

Simple Hardware Basics n System unit (CPU, RAM, ROM on a system board) n Peripherals (I/O devices such as magnetic drives, CD, DVD, printers, scanners, etc.) n Network connections (NICs and POTs)

Simple Software Basics n Systems Software n Applications software

Systems Software n Operating Systems (Mac/OS; Windows; UNIX/Linux) n ROM (Read Only Memory) n Programming languages: – Procedural (BASIC, C) – Non-procedural (LISP; Prolog) – Object-oriented (C++)

Applications Software n General Purpose Applications: – Editors (e.g. NotePad) – Word processing (e.g. Word) – Spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) – Database and DBMS (e.g. Access, MySQL) – Communications – Graphics (e.g. Adobe’s Photoshop) – Desktop publishing

Applications Software (cont’d): n Specific applications: – HTML editors (FrontPage, Dreamweaver) – Web development tools (Java, PERL, PHP) – Web animation tools (e.g. Macromedia’s Director w/ShockWave client) – Shadow Network Space (a COE/SISLT/CTIE development) – Networked learning environments (e.g. WebCT, CourseInfo/BlackBoard)