1.1.

History of Computing and Computers

Definition of a Computer
Before 1935, a computer was a person who performed arithmetic calculations.
Between 1935 and 1945 the definition referred to a machine, rather than a person.
The modern machine definition is based on von Neumann's concepts: a device that accepts
input, processes data, stores data, and produces output.
We have gone from the vacuum tube to the transistor, to the microchip. Then the microchip
started talking to the modem. Now we exchange text, sound, photos and movies in a digital
environment.

Computing milestones and machine evolution:

14th C. - Abacus - an instrument for performing calculations by sliding counters along
rods or in grooves.
17th C. - Slide rule - a manual device used for calculation that consists in its simple form
of a ruler and a movable middle piece which are graduated with similar logarithmic scales.
1642 – Pascaline -- a mechanical calculator built by Blaise Pascal, a 17th century
mathematician, for whom the Pascal computer programming language was named .
1804 - Jacquard loom - a loom programmed with punched cards invented by Joseph
Marie Jacquard
1850 - Difference Engine , Analytical Engine - Charles Babbage and Ada Byron.
Babbage's description, in 1837, of the Analytical Engine, a hand cranked, mechanical
digital computer anticipated virtually every aspect of present-day computers. It wasn't until
over a 100 years later that another all purpose computer was conceived.
1939 -1942 - Atanasoff Berry Computer - built at Iowa State by Prof. John V. Atanasof
and graduate student Cliford Berry. Represented several "firsts" in computing, including a
binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, separation of
memory and computing functions, and more. Weighed 750 lbs. and had a memory storage
of 3,000 bits (0.4K). Recorded numbers by scorching marks into cards as it worked through
a problem.
1940s - Colossus - a vacuum tube computing machine which broke Hitler's codes during
WW II. It was instrumental in helping Alan Turing break the German's codes during WW II to
turn the tide of the war. In the summer of 1939, a small group of scholars became code
breakers, working at Bletchley Part in England. This group of pioneering code breakers
helped shorten the war and changed the course of history.
1946 - ENIAC - World's first electronic, large scale, general-purpose computer, built by
Mauchly and Eckert, and activated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. ENIAC
recreated on a modern computer chip. The ENIAC is a 30 ton machine that measured 50 x
30 feet. It contained 19,000 vacuum tubes, 6000 switches, and could add 5,000 numbers in
a second, a remarkable accomplishment at the time. A re-programmable machine, the
ENIAC performed initial calculations for the H-bomb. It was also used to prepare artillery
shell trajectory tables and perform other military and scientific calculations.
Since there was no software to reprogram the computer, people had to rewire it to get it to
perform diferent functions. The human programmers had to read wiring diagrams and
know what each switch did. J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John W. Mauchly drew on Alansof's
work to create the ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
1951-1959 - vacuum tube based technology. Vacuum Tubes are electronic devices,
consisting of a glass or steel vacuum envelope and two or more electrodes between which
electrons can move freely. First commercial computers used vacuum tubes: Univac, IBM
701.
1950s -1960s - UNIVAC - "punch card technology" The first commercially successful
computer, introduced in 1951 by Remington Rand. Over 40 systems were sold. Its memory
was made of mercury filled acoustic delay lines that held 1,000 12 digit numbers. It used
magnetic tapes that stored 1MB of data at a density of 128 cpi. UNIVAC became
synonymous with computer (for a while).
1960-1968 - transistor based technology. The transistor, invented in 1948, by Dr. John
Bardeen, Dr. Walter Brattain, and Dr. William Shockley . It almost completely replaced the
vacuum tube because of its reduced cost, weight, and power consumption and its higher
reliability. The transistor is made to alter its state from a starting condition of conductivity
(switched 'on', full current flow) to a final condition of insulation (switched 'of', no current
flow).
1969 - The Internet, originally the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency
network), began as a military computer network.
1969-1977 - integrated circuits (IC) based technology. The first integrated circuit
was demonstrated by Texas Instruments inventor, Jack Kilby, in 1958. It was 7/16" wide and
contained two transistors. Examples of early integrated circuit technology: Intel 4004, Dec
pdp 8, CRAY 1. Now circuits may contain hundreds of thousands of transistors on a small
piece of material, which revolutionized computing.
1976 - CRAY 1 - The world's first electronic digital computer, developed in 1946. A 75MHz,
64-bit machine with a peak speed of 160 megaflops, (one million floating point operations
per second) the world's fastest processor at that time.
1976 - Apples/MACs - The Apple was designed by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Apple
was the first to have a "window" type graphical interface and the computer mouse. Like
modern computers, early Apples had a peripheral keyboard and mouse, and had a floppy
drive that held 3.5" disks. The Macintosh replaced the Apple.
1978 to 1986 - large scale integration (LSI); Alto - early workstation with mouse and
Apple. The PC and clone market begins to expand. This begins first mass market of
desktop computers.
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee invented the networked hypertext system called the World Wide
Web.
1992 - Bill Gates' Microsoft Corp. released Windows 3.1, an operating system that
made IBM and IBM-compatible PCs more user-friendly by integrating a graphical user
interface into the software. In replacing the old Windows command-line system, however,
Microsoft created a program similar to the Macintosh operating system. Apple sued for
copyright infringement, but Microsoft prevailed.
Windows 3.1 went to Win 95, then Win 98, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7/8. There are other
OSs, of course, but Windows is the dominant OS today. MACs, by Apple, still have a faithful
following. Linux has a faithful following.
1996 - Personal Digital Assistants (such as the Palm Pilot became available to
consumers. They can do numeric calculations, play games and music and download
information from the Internet.

Pioneer computer scientists

Charles Babbage (1792-1871) - Diference Engine, Analytical Engine. Ada Byron,
daughter of the poet, Lord Byron, worked with him. His description, in 1837, of the
Analytical Engine, a mechanical digital computer anticipated virtually every aspect of
present-day computers.
Alan Turing -- 1912-1954. British Code breaker. Worked on the Colossus (code breaking
machine, precursor to the computer) and the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine). Noted for
many brilliant ideas, Turing is perhaps best remembered for the concepts of the Turing Test
for Artificial Intelligence and the Turing Machine, an abstract model for modeling computer
operations. The Turing Test is the "acid test" of true artificial intelligence, as defined by the
English scientist Alan Turing. In the 1940s, he said "a machine has artificial intelligence
when there is no discernible diference between the conversation generated by the
machine and that of an intelligent person." Turing was instrumental in breaking the German
enigma code during WWII with his Bombe computing machine. The Enigma is a machine
used by the Germans to create encrypted messages.
J. von Neumann -- (1903-1957). A child prodigy in mathematics, authored landmark
paper explaining how programs could be stored as data. (Unlike ENIAC, which had to be re-
wired to be re-programmed.). Virtually all computers today, from toys to supercomputers
costing millions of dollars, are variations on the computer architecture that John von
Neumann created on the foundation of the work of Alan Turing's work in the 1940s. It
included three components used by most computers today: a CPU; a slow-to-access
storage area, like a hard drive; and secondary fast-access memory (RAM ). The machine
stored instructions as binary values (creating the stored program concept) and executed
instructions sequentially - the processor fetched instructions one at a time and processed
them. The instruction is analyzed, data is processed, the next instruction is analyzed, etc.
Today "von Neumann architecture" often refers to the sequential nature of computers
based on this model.
John V. Atanasoff -- (1904 - 1995) - one of the contenders, along with Konrad Zuse and
H. Edward Roberts and others, as the inventor of the first computer. The limited-function
vacuum-tube device had limited capabilities and did not have a central. It was not
programmable, but could solve diferential equations using binary arithmetic.
J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John W. Mauchly completed the first programmed general
purpose electronic digital computer in 1946. They drew on Alansof's work to create the
ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. In 1973 a patent lawsuit resulted
in John V. Atanasof's being legally declared as the inventor. Though Atanasof got legal
status for his achievement, many historians still give credit to J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and John
W. Mauchly the founding fathers of the modern computer. Eckert and Mauchly formed the
first computer company in 1946. Eckert received 87 patents.
They introduced the first modern binary computer with the Binary Automatic Computer
(BINAC), which stored information on magnetic tape rather than punched cards. Their
UNIVAC I ,was built for the U.S. Census Bureau.
Konrad Zuse-- (1910-1995) a German who, during WW II, designed mechanical and
electromechanical computers. Zuse's Z1, his contender for the first freely programmable
computer, contained all the basic components of a modern computer (control unit,
memory, micro sequences, etc.). Zuse, because of the scarcity of material during WW II,
used discarded video film as punch cards. Like a modern computer, it was adaptable for
diferent purposes and used on/of switch relays, a binary system of 1s and 0s (on = 1, of
= 0). Completed in 1938, it was destroyed in the bombardment of Berlin in WW II, along
with the construction plans. In 1986, Zuse reconstructed the Z1.

Early Counting
The start of the modern science that we call "Computer Science" can be traced back to a
long ago age where man still dwell-ed in caves or in the forest, and lived in groups for
protection and survival from the harsher elements on the Earth. Many of these groups
possessed some primitive form of animistic religion; they worshiped the sun, the moon, the
trees, or sacred animals. Within the tribal group was one individual to whom fell the
responsibility for the tribe's spiritual welfare. It was he or she who decided when to hold
both the secret and public religious ceremonies, and interceded with the spirits on behalf of
the tribe. In order to correctly hold the ceremonies to ensure good harvest in the fall and
fertility in the spring, the shamans needed to be able to count the days or to track the
seasons. From the shamanistic tradition, man developed the first primitive
counting mechanisms -- counting notches on sticks or marks on walls.
From the caves and the forests, man slowly evolved and built structures such as
Stonehenge. Stonehenge, which lies 13km north of Salisbury, England, is believed to have
been an ancient form of calendar designed to capture the light from the summer solstice in
a specific fashion. The solstices have long been special days for various religious groups
and cults. Archaeologists and anthropologists today are not quite certain how the structure,
believed to have been built about 2800 B.C., came to be erected since the technology
required to join together the giant stones and raise them upright seems to be beyond the
technological level of the Britons at the time. It is widely believed that the enormous edifice
of stone may have been erected by the Druids. Regardless of the identity of the builders, it
remains today a monument to man's intense desire to count and to track the
occurrences of the physical world around him.

Abacus
Meanwhile in Asia, the Chinese were becoming very involved in commerce with the
Japanese, Indians, and Koreans. Businessmen needed a way to tally accounts and bills.
Somehow, out of this need, the abacus was born. The abacus is the first true precursor to
the adding machines and computers which would follow. It worked somewhat like this:
 The value assigned to each pebble (or bead, shell, or stick) is determined
not by its shape but by its position: one pebble on a particular line or one
bead on a particular wire has the value of 1; two together have the value
of 2. A pebble on the next line, however, might have the value of 10, and a
pebble on the third line would have the value of 100. Therefore, three
properly placed pebbles--two with values of 1 and one with the value of
10--could signify 12, and the addition of a fourth pebble with the value of
100 could signify 112, using a place-value notation system with multiples
of 10.
Thus, the abacus works on the principle of place-value notation: the location of the bead
determines its value. In this way, relatively few beads are required to depict large numbers.
The beads are counted, or given numerical values, by shifting them in one direction. The
values are erased (freeing the counters for reuse) by shifting the beads in the other
direction. An abacus is really a memory aid for the user making mental calculations, as
opposed to the true mechanical calculating machines which were still to come.

Forefathers of Computing
For over a thousand years after the Chinese invented the abacus, not much progress was
made to automate counting and mathematics. The Greeks came up with numerous
mathematical formulas and theorems, but all of the newly discovered math had to be
worked out by hand. A mathematician was often a person who sat in the back room of an
establishment with several others and they worked on the same problem. The redundant
personnel working on the same problem were there to ensure the correctness of the
answer. It could take weeks or months of laborious work by hand to verify the correctness
of a proposed theorem. Most of the tables of integrals, logarithms, and trigonometric
values were worked out this way, their accuracy unchecked until machines could generate
the tables in far less time and with more accuracy than a team of humans could ever hope
to achieve.
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal, noted mathematician, thinker, and scientist, built the first mechanical adding
machine in 1642 based on a design described by Hero of Alexandria (2AD) to add up the
distance a carriage traveled. The basic principle of his calculator is still used today in water
meters and modern-day odometers. Instead of having a carriage wheel turn the gear, he
made each ten-teeth wheel accessible to be turned directly by a person's hand (later
inventors added keys and a crank), with the result that when the wheels were turned in the
proper sequences, a series of numbers was entered and a cumulative sum was obtained.
The gear train supplied a mechanical answer equal to the answer that is obtained by using
arithmetic.
This first mechanical calculator, called the Pascaline, had several disadvantages. Although
it did ofer a substantial improvement over manual calculations, only Pascal himself could
repair the device and it cost more than the people it replaced! In addition, the first signs of
techno phobia emerged with mathematicians fearing the loss of their jobs due to progress.
Charles Babbage
While Tomas of Colmar was developing the first successful commercial calculator, Charles
Babbage realized as early as 1812 that many long computations consisted of operations
that were regularly repeated. He theorized that it must be possible to design a calculating
machine which could do these operations automatically. He produced a prototype of this
"diference engine" by 1822 and with the help of the British government started work on
the full machine in 1823. It was intended to be steam-powered; fully automatic, even to the
printing of the resulting tables; and commanded by a fixed instruction program.
In 1833, Babbage ceased working on the diference engine because he had a better idea.
His new idea was to build an "analytical engine." The analytical engine was a real parallel
decimal computer which would operate on words of 50 decimals and was able to store
1000 such numbers. The machine would include a number of built-in operations such as
conditional control, which allowed the instructions for the machine to be executed in a
specific order rather than in numerical order. The instructions for the machine were to be
stored on punched cards, similar to those used on a Jacquard loom.
Herman Hollerith
A step toward automated computation was the introduction of punched cards, which were
first successfully used in connection with computing in 1890 by Herman Hollerith working
for the U.S. Census Bureau. He developed a device which could automatically read census
information which had been punched onto card. Surprisingly, he did not get the idea from
the work of Babbage, but rather from watching a train conductor punch tickets. As a result
of his invention, reading errors were consequently greatly reduced, work flow was
increased, and, more important, stacks of punched cards could be used as an accessible
memory store of almost unlimited capacity; furthermore, diferent problems could be
stored on diferent batches of cards and worked on as needed. Hollerith's tabulator became
so successful that he started his own firm to market the device; this company eventually
became International Business Machines (IBM).
Konrad Zuse
Hollerith's machine though had limitations. It was strictly limited to tabulation. The
punched cards could not be used to direct more complex computations. In 1941, Konrad
Zuse, a German who had developed a number of calculating machines, released the first
programmable computer designed to solve complex engineering equations. The machine,
called the Z3, was controlled by perforated strips of discarded movie film. As well as being
controllable by these celluloid strips, it was also the first machine to work on the binary
system, as opposed to the more familiar decimal system.
Binary Representation
The binary system is composed of 0s and 1s. A punch card with its two states--a hole
or no hole-- was admirably suited to representing things in binary. If a hole was read
by the card reader, it was considered to be a 1. If no hole was present in a column, a
zero was appended to the current number. The total number of possible numbers
can be calculated by putting 2 to the power of the number of bits in the binary
number. A bit is simply a single occurrence of a binary number--a 0 or a 1. Thus, if
 you had a possible binary number of 6 bits, 64 diferent numbers could be
generated. (2^(n-1)) .
Binary representation was going to prove important in the future design of
computers which took advantage of a multitude of two-state devices such card
readers, electric circuits which could be on or of, and vacuum tubes.
Howard Aiken
By the late 1930s punched-card machine techniques had become so well established and
reliable that Howard Aiken, in collaboration with engineers at IBM, undertook construction
of a large automatic digital computer based on standard IBM electromechanical parts.
Aiken's machine, called the Harvard Mark I, handled 23-decimal-place numbers (words) and
could perform all four arithmetic operations; moreover, it had special built-in programs, or
subroutines, to handle logarithms and trigonometric functions. The Mark I was originally
controlled from pre-punched paper tape without provision for reversal, so that automatic
"transfer of control" instructions could not be programmed. Output was by card punch and
electric typewriter. Although the Mark I used IBM rotating counter wheels as key
components in addition to electromagnetic relays, the machine was classified as a relay
computer. It was slow, requiring 3 to 5 seconds for a multiplication, but it was fully
automatic and could complete long computations without human intervention. The Harvard
Mark I was the first of a series of computers designed and built under Aiken's direction.
Alan Turing
The Turing machine, reads in the symbols from the tape one at a time. What we would like
the machine to do is to give us an output of 1 anytime it has read at least 3 ones in a row
of of the tape. When there are not at least three ones, then it should output a 0. The
reading and outputting can go on infinitely.
Turing's purpose was not to invent a computer, but rather to describe problems which are
logically possible to solve. His hypothetical machine, however, foreshadowed certain
characteristics of modern computers that would follow. For example, the endless tape could
be seen as a form of general purpose internal memory for the machine in that the machine
was able to read, write, and erase it--just like modern day RAM.
John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
Back in America, with the success of Aiken's Harvard Mark-I as the first major American
development in the computing race, work was proceeding on the next great breakthrough
by the Americans. Their second contribution was the development of the giant ENIAC
(Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer) machine by John W. Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC used a word of 10 decimal digits
instead of binary ones like previous automated calculators/computers. ENIAC also was the
first machine to use more than 2,000 vacuum tubes, using nearly 18,000 vacuum tubes.
Storage of all those vacuum tubes and the machinery required to keep the cool took up
over 167 square meters (1800 square feet) of floor space. Nonetheless, it had punched-
card input and output and arithmetically had 1 multiplier, 1 divider-square rooter, and 20
adders employing decimal "ring counters," which served as adders and also as quick-
access (0.0002 seconds) read-write register storage.
The executable instructions composing a program were embodied in the separate units of
ENIAC, which were plugged together to form a route through the machine for the flow of
computations. These connections had to be redone for each diferent problem, together
with presetting function tables and switches. This "wire-your-own" instruction technique
was inconvenient, and only with some license could ENIAC be considered programmable; it
was, however, efficient in handling the particular programs for which it had been designed.
ENIAC is generally acknowledged to be the first successful high-speed electronic digital
computer (EDC) and was productively used from 1946 to 1955. As controversy developed
in 1971, however, over the patentability of ENIAC's basic digital concepts, the claim being
made that another U.S. physicist, John V. Atanasof, had already used the same ideas in a
simpler vacuum-tube device he built in the 1930s while at Iowa State College. In 1973, the
court found in favor of the company using Atanasof claim and Atanasof received the
acclaim he rightly deserved.
John von Neumann
In 1945, mathematician John von Neumann undertook a study of computation that
demonstrated that a computer could have a simple, fixed structure, yet be able to execute
any kind of computation given properly programmed control without the need for hardware
modification. Von Neumann contributed a new understanding of how practical fast
computers should be organized and built; these ideas, often referred to as the stored-
program technique, became fundamental for future generations of high-speed digital
computers and were universally adopted. The primary advance was the provision of a
special type of machine instruction called conditional control transfer--which permitted the
program sequence to be interrupted and re-initiated at any point, similar to the system
suggested by Babbage for his analytical engine--and by storing all instruction programs
together with data in the same memory unit, so that, when desired, instructions could be
arithmetically modified in the same way as data. Thus, data was the same as program.
As a result of these techniques and several others, computing and programming became
faster, more flexible, and more efficient, with the instructions in subroutines performing far
more computational work. Frequently used subroutines did not have to be reprogrammed
for each new problem but could be kept intact in "libraries" and read into memory when
needed. Thus, much of a given program could be assembled from the subroutine library.
The all-purpose computer memory became the assembly place in which parts of a long
computation were stored, worked on piece wise, and assembled to form the final results. As
soon as the advantages of these techniques became clear, the techniques became
standard practice.
Jack St. Clair Kilby
In 1958, Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments manufactured the first integrated circuit or
chip. A chip is really a collection of tiny transistors which are connected together when the
transistor is manufactured. Thus, the need for soldering together large numbers of
transistors was practically nullified; now only connections were needed to other electronic
components. In addition to saving space, the speed of the machine was now increased
since there was a diminished distance that the electrons had to follow.
For More Detailed Information visit [http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/]
 1.2. History of Programming Languages
Ever since the invention of Charles Babbage’s diference engine in 1822, computers have
required a means of instructing them to perform a specific task. This means is known as a
programming language. Computer languages were first composed of a series of steps to
wire a particular program; these morphed into a series of steps keyed into the computer
and then executed; later these languages acquired advanced features such as logical
branching and object orientation. The computer languages of the last fifty years have come
in two stages, the first major languages and the second major languages, which are in use
today.
In the beginning, Charles Babbage’s diference engine could only be made to execute tasks
by changing the gears which executed the calculations. Thus, the earliest form of a
computer language was physical motion. Eventually, physical motion was replaced by
electrical signals when the US Government built the ENIAC in 1942. It followed many of the
same principles of Babbage’s engine and hence, could only be “programmed” by
presetting switches and rewiring the entire system for each new “program” or calculation.
This process proved to be very tedious.
In 1945, John Von Neumann was working at the Institute for Advanced Study. He developed
two important concepts that directly afected the path of computer programming
languages.
The first was known as “shared-program technique”. This technique stated that the actual
computer hardware should be simple and not need to be hand-wired for each program.
Instead, complex instructions should be used to control the simple hardware, allowing it to
be reprogrammed much faster.
The second concept was also extremely important to the development of programming
languages. Von Neumann called it “conditional control transfer”. This idea gave rise to the
notion of subroutines, or small blocks of code that could be jumped to in any order, instead
of a single set of chronologically ordered steps for the computer to take. The second part of
the idea stated that computer code should be able to branch based on logical statements
such as IF (expression) THEN, and looped such as with a FOR statement. “Conditional
control transfer” gave rise to the idea of “libraries,” which are blocks of code that can be
reused over and over.

Short Code
In 1949, a few years after Von Neumann’s work, the language Short Code appeared. It was
the first computer language for electronic devices and it required the programmer to
change its statements into 0’s and 1’s by hand. Still, it was the first step towards the
complex languages of today. In 1951, Grace Hopper wrote the first compiler, A-0. A
compiler is a program that turns the language’s statements into 0’s and 1’s for the
computer to understand. This lead to faster programming, as the programmer no longer
had to do the work by hand.
FORTRAN
In 1957, the first of the major languages appeared in the form of FORTRAN. Its name stands
for FORmula TRANslating system. The language was designed at IBM for scientific
computing. The components were very simple, and provided the programmer with low-
level access to the computers innards. Today, this language would be considered restrictive
as it only included IF, DO, and GOTO statements, but at the time, these commands were a
big step forward. The basic types of data in use today got their start in FORTRAN, these
included logical variables (TRUE or FALSE), and integer, real, and double-precision
numbers.

COBOL
Though FORTAN was good at handling numbers, it was not so good at handling input and
output, which mattered most to business computing. Business computing started to take
of in 1959, and because of this, COBOL was developed. It was designed from the ground
up as the language for businessmen. Its only data types were numbers and strings of text.
It also allowed for these to be grouped into arrays and records, so that data could be
tracked and organized better. It is interesting to note that a COBOL program is built in a
way similar to an essay, with four or five major sections that build into an elegant whole.
COBOL statements also have a very English-like grammar, making it quite easy to learn. All
of these features were designed to make it easier for the average business to learn and
adopt it.

LISP
In 1958, John McCarthy of MIT created the LISt Processing (or LISP) language. It was
designed for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. Because it was designed for a specialized
field, the original release of LISP had a unique syntax: essentially none. Programmers wrote
code in parse trees, which are usually a compiler-generated intermediary between higher
syntax (such as in C or Java) and lower-level code. Another obvious diference between this
language (in original form) and other languages is that the basic and only type of data is
the list; in the mid-1960’s, LISP acquired other data types. A LISP list is denoted by a
sequence of items enclosed by parentheses. LISP programs themselves are written as a set
of lists, so that LISP has the unique ability to modify itself, and hence grow on its own.

ALGOL
The Algol language was created by a committee for scientific use in 1958. It’s major
contribution is being the root of the tree that has led to such languages as Pascal, C, C++,
and Java. It was also the first language with a formal grammar, known as Backus-Naar Form
or BNF. Though Algol implemented some novel concepts, such as recursive calling of
functions, the next version of the language, Algol 68, became bloated and difficult to use.
This lead to the adoption of smaller and more compact languages, such as Pascal.

PASCAL
Pascal was begun in 1968 by Niklaus Wirth. Its development was mainly out of necessity for
a good teaching tool. In the beginning, the language designers had no hopes for it to enjoy
widespread adoption. Instead, they concentrated on developing good tools for teaching
such as a debugger and editing system and support for common early microprocessor
machines which were in use in teaching institutions.
Pascal was designed in a very orderly approach, it combined many of the best features of
the languages in use at the time, COBOL, FORTRAN, and ALGOL. The combination of
features, input/output and solid mathematical features, made it a highly successful
language. Pascal also improved the “pointer” data type, a very powerful feature of any
language that implements it. It also added a CASE statement, that allowed instructions to
to branch like a tree.
Pascal also helped the development of dynamic variables, which could be created while a
program was being run, through the NEW and DISPOSE commands. However, Pascal did not
implement dynamic arrays, or groups of variables, which proved to be needed and led to its
downfall. Wirth later created a successor to Pascal, Modula-2, but by the time it appeared,
C was gaining popularity and users at a rapid pace.

C Language
C was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie while working at Bell Labs in New Jersey. The
transition in usage from the first major languages to the major languages of today occurred
with the transition between Pascal and C. Its direct ancestors are B and BCPL, but its
similarities to Pascal are quite obvious. All of the features of Pascal, including the new ones
such as the CASE statement are available in C. C uses pointers extensively and was built to
be fast and powerful at the expense of being hard to read. But because it fixed most of the
mistakes Pascal had, it won over former-Pascal users quite rapidly.
Ritchie developed C for the new Unix system being created at the same time. Because of
this, C and Unix go hand in hand. Unix gives C such advanced features as dynamic
variables, multitasking, interrupt handling, forking, and strong, low-level, input-output.
Because of this, C is very commonly used to program operating systems such as Unix,
Windows, the MacOS, and Linux.

C++ Language
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, a new programming method was being developed. It
was known as Object Oriented Programming, or OOP. Objects are pieces of data that can be
packaged and manipulated by the programmer. Bjarne Stroustroup liked this method and
developed extensions to C known as “C With Classes.” This set of extensions developed
into the full-featured language C++, which was released in 1983.
C++ was designed to organize the raw power of C using OOP, but maintain the speed of C
and be able to run on many diferent types of computers. C++ is most often used in
simulations, such as games. C++ provides an elegant way to track and manipulate
hundreds of instances of people in elevators, or armies filled with diferent types of
soldiers.

Other Languages
Besides these, now we have better languages such as Java, Perl, Ruby and Python.
 1.3. Block Diagram of a Computer
A computer can process data, pictures, sound and graphics. They can solve highly
complicated problems quickly and accurately.

Input Unit:
Computers need to receive data and instruction in order to solve any problem. Therefore
we need to input the data and instructions into the computers. The input unit consists of
one or more input devices. Keyboard is the one of the most commonly used input device.
Other commonly used input devices are the mouse, floppy disk drive, magnetic tape, etc.
All the input devices perform the following functions:
• Accept the data and instructions from the outside world.
• Convert it to a form that the computer can understand.
• Supply the converted data to the computer system for further processing.

Storage Unit:
The storage unit of the computer holds data and instructions that are entered through the
input unit, before they are processed. It preserves the intermediate and final results before
these are sent to the output devices. It also saves the data for the later use. The various
storage devices of a computer system are divided into two categories.
 1. Primary Storage: Stores and provides very fast. This memory is generally used to
hold the program being currently executed in the computer, the data being received
from the input unit, the intermediate and final results of the program. The primary
memory is temporary in nature. The data is lost, when the computer is switched of.
In order to store the data permanently, the data has to be transferred to the
secondary memory. The cost of the primary storage is more compared to the
secondary storage. Therefore most computers have limited primary storage capacity.
2. Secondary Storage: Secondary storage is used like an archive. It stores several
programs, documents, data bases etc. The programs that you run on the computer
are first transferred to the primary memory before it is actually run. Whenever the
results are saved, again they get stored in the secondary memory. The secondary
memory is slower and cheaper than the primary memory. Some of the commonly
used secondary memory devices are Hard disk, CD, etc.

Output Unit:
The output unit of a computer provides the information and results of a computation to
outside world. Printers, Visual Display Unit (VDU) are the commonly used output devices.
Other commonly used output devices are floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, and magnetic
tape drive.

Arithmetic and Logical Unit:

All calculations are performed in the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) of the computer. It also
does comparison and takes decision. The ALU can perform basic operations such as
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc and does logic operations viz, >, <, =,
etc. Whenever calculations are required, the control unit transfers the data from storage
unit to ALU once the computations are done, the results are transferred to the storage unit
by the control unit and then it is send to the output unit for displaying results.

Control Unit:
It controls all other units in the computer. The control unit instructs the input unit, where to
store the data after receiving it from the user. It controls the flow of data and instructions
from the storage unit to ALU. It also controls the flow of results from the ALU to the storage
unit. The control unit is generally referred as the central nervous system of the computer
that control and synchronizes its working.

Central Processing Unit:

The Control Unit and ALU of the computer are together known as the Central Processing
Unit (CPU). The CPU is like brain performs the following functions:
• It performs all calculations.
• It takes all decisions.
• It controls all units of the computer.
Other internal Units
Registers: It is a special temporary storage location within the CPU. Registers quickly,
accept, store and transfer data and instructions that are being used immediately (main
memory hold data that will be used shortly, secondary storage holds data that will be used
later). To execute an instruction, the control unit of the CPU retrieves it from main memory
and places it onto a register. The typical operations that take place in the processing of
instruction are part of the instruction cycle or execution cycle. The instruction cycle refers
to the retrieval of the instruction from main memory and its sub sequence at decoding. The
process of alerting the circuits in CPU to perform the specified operation. The time it takes
to go through the instruction cycle is referred to as instruction time.
Bus: The term Bus refers to an electrical pathway through which bits are transmitted
between the various computer components. Depending on the design of the system,
several types of buses may be present. The most important one is the data bus, which
carries the data through out the central processing unit. The wider the data bus, the more
data it can carry at one time and thus the greater the processing speed of the computer.
Ex: Intel 8088 processor uses a data bus of 8 bits wide. Some super computers contain
buses that are 128 bits wide.
Random Access Memory (RAM): The main memory of the computer is called as RAM.
The name derives from the fact that data can be stored in and retrieved at random, from
anywhere in the electronic main memory chips in approximately the same amount of time,
no matter where the data is. Main memory is in an electronic or volatile state. When the
computer is of, main memory is empty, when it is on it is capable of receiving and holding
a copy of the software instructions, and data necessary for processing.
Because the main memory is a volatile form of storage that depends on electric power can
go of during processing, users save their work frequently on to non volatile secondary
storage devices such as diskettes or hard disk.
The main memory is used for the following purposes:
1. Storage of the copy of the main software program that controls the general
operation of the computer. This copy is loaded on to the main memory when the
computer is turned on, and it stays there as long as the computer is on.
2. Temporary storage of a copy of application program instruction, to be received by
CPU for interpretation and processing or execution.
3. Temporary storage of data that has been input from the key board, until instructions
call for the data to be transferred in to CPU for processing.
4. Temporary storage of data, which is required for further processing or transferred as
output to output devices such as screen, a printer, a disk storage device.
 1.4. Generations of Computer
The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the diferent
generations of computing devices. Each of the five generations of computers is
characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way
computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more
efficient and reliable computing devices. The five generations of computers and the
technology developments that have led to the current devices that we use today. Our
journey starts in 1940 with vacuum tube circuitry and goes to the present day -- and
beyond -- with artificial intelligence.

First Generation (1940-1956) - Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and
were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in
addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the
cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming
language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one
problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was
displayed on printouts.
The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The
UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census
Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation (1956-1963) - Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers.
The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the
late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to
become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-
generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that
subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube.
Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for
output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or
assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-
level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early
versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their
instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core
technology.
The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.
Third Generation (1964-1971) - Integrated Circuits
The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of
computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called
semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers
through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed
the device to run many diferent applications at one time with a central program that
monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience
because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) - Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of
integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an
entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971,
located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory
to input/output controls—on a single chip.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced
the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into
many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form
networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation
computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and hand held devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) - Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development,
though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today.
The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence
a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change
the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to
develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and
self-organization.
 1.5. Types of Computer

Classify by principle of operation:

• Analog Computer
• Digital Computer
• Hybrid Computer

Classify by size:
• Micro Computer
• Mini Computer
• Mainframe Computer
• Super Computer

Classify by function:
• Servers
• Workstations
• Information Appliances
• Embedded Computers
Analog Computer
Analog Computer is a computing device that works on continuous range of values. The
results given by the analog computers will only be approximate since they deal with
quantities that vary continuously. It generally deals with physical variables such as voltage,
pressure, temperature, speed, etc.

Digital Computer
On the other hand a digital computer operates on digital data such as numbers. It uses
binary number system in which there are only two digits 0 and 1. Each one is called a bit.
The digital computer is designed using digital circuits in which there are two levels for an
input or output signal. These two levels are known as logic 0 and logic 1. Digital Computers
can give more accurate and faster results.
Digital computer is well suited for solving complex problems in engineering and technology.
Hence digital computers have an increasing use in the field of design, research and data
processing.
Based on the purpose, Digital computers can be further classified as,
General Purpose Computers
Special Purpose Computers
Special purpose computer is one that is built for a specific application. General purpose
computers are used for any type of applications. They can store diferent programs and do
the jobs as per the instructions specified on those programs. Most of the computers that we
see today, are general purpose computers.

Hybrid Computer
A hybrid computer combines the desirable features of analog and digital computers. It is
mostly used for automatic operations of complicated physical processes and machines.
Now-a-days analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters are used for transforming the
data into suitable form for either type of computation.
For example, in hospital’s ICU, analog devices might measure the patients temperature,
blood pressure and other vital signs. These measurements which are in analog might then
be converted into numbers and supplied to digital components in the system. These
components are used to monitor the patient’s vital sign and send signals if any abnormal
readings are detected. Hybrid computers are mainly used for specialized tasks.
Super Computers
Super computers are the best in terms of processing capacity and also the most expensive
ones. These computers can process billions of instructions per second. Normally, they will
be used for applications which require intensive numerical computations such as stock
analysis, weather forecasting etc.
Other uses of supercomputers are scientific simulations, (animated) graphics, fluid dynamic
calculations, nuclear energy research, electronic design, and analysis of geological data
(e.g. in petrochemical prospecting). Perhaps the best known super computer manufacturer
is Cray Research. Some of the "traditional" companies which produce super computers are
Cray, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Currently, China's Tianhe-2 is the fastest super computer in
the world.

Mainframe Computers
Mainframe computers can also process data at very high speeds i.e., hundreds of million
instructions per second and they are also quite expensive. Normally, they are used in
banking, airlines and railways etc for their applications.

Mini Computers
Mini computers are lower to mainframe computers in terms of speed and storage capacity.
They are also less expensive than mainframe computers. Some of the features of
mainframes will not be available in mini computers. Hence, their performance also will be
less than that of mainframes.

Micro Computers
The invention of microprocessor (single chip CPU) gave birth to the much cheaper micro
computers. They are further classified into :
• Desktop Computers
• Laptop Computers
• Handheld Computers (PDAs, smart phones, tablets, etc)

More Info: [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~fgandon/lecture/uk1999/computers_types/]

 1.6. Types of Software
Various types of computer software are used to simplify the operations and applications of
computer programs. Computer software enables the computer system to perform in
accordance with the given tasks.
Basically, there are only 2 main types of Software.
• System Software
• Application Software
Besides these, software can also be categorized depending on the nature of use. There are
2 categories based on that. They are:
• Ready-made (of-the-shelf) Software
• Tailored (custom) Software
Also, we can categorize software under another broad heading as:
• Open Source Software
• Closed Source (Proprietary) Software

System Software
System software is the most commonly used variety types of software. System software
ofers a protective shield to all software applications. It also provides support to the
physical components of computers. System software coordinates all external devices of
computer system like printer, keyboard, displays etc.
System software sits directly on top of your computer's hardware components (also
referred to as its bare metal). It includes the range of software you would install to your
system that enables it to function. This includes the operating system, drivers for your
hardware devices, linkers and debuggers. Systems software can also be used for managing
computer resources. Systems software is designed to be used by the computer system
itself, not human users.

Application Software
Application software is used for commercial purpose. The application software is widely
used in educational, business and medical fields. Computer games are the most popular
forms of application software. Industrial automation, databases, business software and
medical software prove to be of great help in the respective fields. Educational software is
widely used in educational institutes across the globe.
Applications software is designed to be used by end-users. Applications software, in
essence, sits on top of system software, as it is unable to run without the operating system
and other utilities. Applications software includes things like database programs, word
processors and spreadsheets, e-mail applications, computer games, graphics programs and
such. Generally, people will refer to applications software as software.
Ready-made (off-the-shelf) Software
These types of software are made and distributed by large enterprise companies. They are
made with a general purpose requirement in mind. People using these kind of software may
need to adjust in few features and usability.
Advantages:
• Lower up-front cost
• Contains many features, often more than you need
• Support is often included or can be added with a maintenance contract
• Upgrades may be provided for free or at reduced cost
• If it's software-as-a-service (SaaS) there is no hardware or software to install
Disadvantages:
• Slow to adapt or change to industry needs
• Your feature request may get ignored if it doesn't benefit the larger customer base
• May require you to change your process to fit the software
• Higher customization fees (proprietary software vendors often charge ridiculous
hourly fees unless they provide an open API)

Tailored (custom) Software

These types of software are made with a specific customer in mind. They are given the
opportunity to interact when in need to make any changes or adding any new features.
Advantages:
• You can start with the minimum necessary requirements and add on later
• Can be tailored to your exact business needs and processes
• Changes can be made quickly
Disadvantages:
• Very high initial cost
• All changes and feature requests will be billable
• May incur additional costs ramping up new developers
Open Source Software
These types of software provide have their source code available publicly. People can
download, modify and re-distribute the modified versions of the software. They are
maintained and contributed by thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. They
release very frequently and a number of features are added by diferent developers if they
wish to do so. They release the bug fixes and other releases very quickly. They are
generally free of cost as well, but not all of the open source software are free of cost.
Examples of some of the most popular open source software are Linux Kernel, Firefox Web
Browser, Apache Web Server, LibreOffice Suite, etc.

Closed Source (Proprietary) Software

These types of software do not provide their source code to the general public. The
developers work in a closed group and do not release the source code publicly. They are
generally controlled by a particular enterprise company. These software generally charge
money for license or subscription. But, there can be closed source software that are free of
cost, they are called Freewares. The updates and bug fixes in these types of software are
generally late as compared to open source software. People have to wait for the bug to be
fixed by the company and release the updated version of the software.
Examples of some of the most popular closed source (proprietary) software are Microsoft
Windows, Microsoft Office Suite, Internet Explorer, Skype, etc.
 1.7. Types of Programming Languages
Fundamentally, languages can be broken down into two types: imperative languages in
which you instruct the computer how to do a task, and declarative languages in which
you tell the computer what to do. Declarative languages can further be broken down into
functional languages, in which a program is constructed by composing functions, and
logic programming languages, in which a program is constructed through a set of
logical connections. Imperative languages read more like a list of steps for solving a
problem, kind of like a recipe. Imperative languages include C, C++, and Java; functional
languages include Haskell; logic programming languages include Prolog.

Imperative languages are sometimes broken into two subgroups: procedural languages
like C, and object-oriented languages like C++ and Java. Object-oriented languages are
a bit orthogonal to the groupings, though, as there are object-oriented functional languages
(OCaml and Scala being examples).
You can also group languages by typing: static and dynamic. Statically-typed
languages are ones in which typing is checked (and usually enforced) prior to running the
program (typically during a compile phase); dynamically-typed languages defer type
checking to runtime. C, C++, and Java are statically-typed languages; Python, Ruby,
JavaScript, and Objective-C are dynamically-typed languages.
You can also group languages by their typing discipline: weak typing, which supports
implicit type conversions, and strong typing, which prohibits implicit type conversions. The
lines between the two are a bit blurry: according to some definitions, C is a weakly-typed
languages, while others consider it to be strongly-typed. Typing discipline isn't really a
useful way to group languages, anyway.
Diferent languages have diferent purposes, so it makes sense to talk about diferent
kinds, or types, of languages. Some types are:
• Machine languages — interpreted directly in hardware
• Assembly languages — thin wrappers over a corresponding machine language
• High-level languages — anything machine-independent
• System languages — designed for writing low-level tasks, like memory and process
management
• Scripting languages — generally extremely high-level and powerful
• Visual languages — non-text based
NOTE: These types are not mutually exclusive: Perl is both high-level and scripting; C is
considered both high-level and system.
Machine Code
Most computers work by executing stored programs in a fetch-execute cycle. Machine code
generally features :
• Registers to store values and intermediate results
• Very low-level machine instructions (add, sub, div, sqrt)
• Labels and conditional jumps to express control flow
• A lack of memory management support — programmers do that themselves
• Machine code is usually written in hex.

Assembly Language
An assembly language is basically just a simplistic encoding of machine code into
something more readable. It does add labeled storage locations and jump targets and
subroutine starting addresses, but not much more.

High-Level Languages
A high-level language gets away from all the constraints of a particular machine. HLLs have
features such as:
• Names for almost everything: variables, types, subroutines, constants, modules
• Complex expressions (e.g. 2 * (y^5) >= 88 && sqrt(4.8) / 2 % 3 == 9)
• Control structures (conditionals, switches, loops)
• Composite types (arrays, structs)
• Type declarations
• Type checking
• Easy ways to manage global, local and heap storage
• Subroutines with their own private scope
• Abstract data types, modules, packages, classes
• Exceptions
System Languages
System programming languages difer from application programming languages in that
they are more concerned with managing a computer system rather than solving general
problems in health care, game playing, or finance. System languages deal with:
• Memory management
• Process management
• Data transfer
• Caches
• Device drivers
• Operating systems

Scripting Languages
Scripting languages are used for wiring together systems and applications at a very high
level. They are almost always extremely expressive (they do a lot with very little code) and
usually dynamic (the compiler does little, the run-time system does almost everything).
 1.8. Traditional (Structured) Programming Concepts
Structured Programming is a method of planning programs that avoids the branching
category of control structures. It is a technique for organizing and coding computer
programs in which a hierarchy of modules is used, each having a single entry and a single
exit point, and in which control is passed downward through the structure without
unconditional branches to higher levels of the structure. Three types of control flow are
used: sequential, test or selection, and iteration.
Traditional programming techniques focus on structures and separate functions that
perform operations on those structures. Object-oriented programming treats the properties
of a structure and possible operations on a structure as a single unit, called an object.
Thus the principal diference is the transitivity of the action: in traditional programming, the
program performs operations on data, while in object-oriented programming, the program
instructs objects to perform actions that in turn perform operations on data. OOP therefore
introduces an additional level of abstraction over traditional programming techniques.
Principles of Structured Programming:
• Make flow of control as easily understood as possible. (Emphasis on use of Control
Structures)
• Build your program from top-down. Decompose the problem into smaller and smaller
pieces. (Top down programming)
• Avoid repeating the same code, can fix code in one place.

Top-down programming
Top-down programming refers to a style of programming where an application is
constructed starting with a high-level description of what it is supposed to do, and breaking
the specification down into simpler and simpler pieces, until a level has been reached that
corresponds to the primitives of the programming language to be used.
Disadvantages of top-down programming
Top-down programming complicates testing. Noting executable exists until the very late in
the development, so in order to test what has been done so far, one must write stubs .
Furthermore, top-down programming tends to generate modules that are very specific to
the application that is being written, thus not very reusable.
But the main disadvantage of top-down programming is that all decisions made from the
start of the project depend directly or indirectly on the high-level specification of the
application. It is a well-known fact that this specification tends to change over time. When
that happens, there is a great risk that large parts of the application need to be rewritten.
How does top-down programming work?
Top-down programming tends to generate modules that are based on functionality, usually
in the form of functions or procedures. Typically, the high-level specification of the system
states functionality. This high-level description is then refined to be a sequence or a loop of
simpler functions or procedures, that are then themselves refined, etc.
In this style of programming, there is a great risk that implementation details of many data
structures have to be shared between modules, and thus globally exposed. This in turn
makes it tempting for other modules to use these implementation details, thereby creating
unwanted dependencies between diferent parts of the application.

Bottom-up programming
Bottom-up programming refers to a style of programming where an application is
constructed starting with existing primitives of the programming language, and
constructing gradually more and more complicated features, until the all of the application
has been written.
Advantages of bottom-up programming
Testing is simplified since no stubs are needed. While it might be necessary to write test
functions, these are simpler to write than stubs, and sometimes not necessary at all, in
particular if one uses an interactive programming environment such as Common Lisp or
GDB.
Pieces of programs written bottom-up tend to be more general, and thus more reusable,
than pieces of programs written top-down. In fact, one can argue that the purpose bottom-
up programming is to create an application-specific language . Such a language is suitable
for implementing an entire class of applications, not only the one that is to be written. This
fact greatly simplifies maintenance, in particular adding new features to the application. It
also makes it possible to delay the final decision concerning the exact functionality of the
application. Being able to delay this decision makes it less likely that the client has
changed his or her mind between the establishment of the specifications of the application
and its implementation.
How does bottom-up programming work?
In a language such as C or Java, bottom-up programming takes the form of constructing
abstract data types from primitives of the language or from existing abstract data types.
In Common Lisp, in addition to constructing abstract data types, it is common to build
functions bottom-up from simpler functions, and to use macros to construct new special
forms from simpler ones.