Classes

Mondays and Fridays 08:50 – 12:00

Download and watch videos before the class. (The 'subs' versions have English subtitles burned in.) Complete as many lab experiments as you can before the class.

Class information and outline

Class content is delivered by video. It will normally not be repeated during classes. You therefore must download and watch each week's videos before attending the class.

You should also complete each week's practical work before attending the class. Most class time will be devoted to answering questions about that work. If you have not attempted the work, the class time will be wasted.

Class summaries are posted below with details of homework assignments, etc.

Week 1 — Professional communication tools

Course outline. Assessment methods. Office hours, course web site. Project work environment and tools. Lecture format: interrupt and ask questions! Installing the required software.

Communication tools: interactive, non-interactive. Why e-mail is still relevant and important in professional life. Effective communication with e-mail: subject line, quoting, understanding threads and conversations. Sending and receiving data via e-mail: attachments, zip files.

Assignment (graded)
Send an e-mail with some zipped files attached.

Preparation
Review the slides for next week's class.
Watch the videos for next week's class: Part 1 , Part 2
Download and read the reference material .
Complete the practical assignments.

Week 2 — Text processing

Word processing software: simple layouts, embedding images, math formulae, line drawings

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 3 — Number processing

Spread sheet software: tabulation, formulae, import/export as CSV files tricks to anchor cell references, graphs and charts

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 4 — Presentation preparation

Presentation software: making slides, page templates, images and drawings, export as PDF, math formulae Output formats: PDF for sharing and printing

Assignment (graded)
Make a short article or slide show on a topic of interest, including graphics or photos. Save as PDF and e-mail it to the instructor.

Preparation
TBD

Week 5 — File system organisation

Finder/Explorer vs. the command line: file system layout and navigation Why using the command line will make you ten times more productive and a more effective engineer

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 6 — The command line

Commands and arguments versus words in text Searching, sorting, modifying, analysing data stored in text files using command-line tools Standard input and output, pipelines: combining simple commands to perform more complex tasks using CSV and text files (e.g., from “office” tools) as simple databases Editing plain text files

Assignment (graded)
Extract, analyse and generate a report on the contents of many files. E-mail the script, and its results, to the instructor.

Preparation
TBD

Week 7 — Command sequencing

rationale: files are the first “concrete” objects students formally encounter, so they make a natural target for automated processing scaling operations on one file → performing bulk operations on many files the command-line interface: save shell commands to automate a process Editing text and shell script files

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 8 — Shell variables

Variables, expansion, and 'globbing' using shell variables, looping over file names command exit status, conditionals simple file name modification

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 9 — Conditionals and loops

Combining scripting and command-line tools for data management search/organise music/photo collection by tags, simple catalogue card deck, etc.

Assignment (graded)
Extract, analyse and generate a report on the contents of many files (e.g., histogram of tag values). E-mail the script and results to the instructor.

Preparation
TBD

Week 10 — The Internet

How the Internet works: names, addresses and routes; the parts of an IP address; the DNS The difference between the Internet and the Web

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 11 — Data mobility

The network is the computer: remote login with secure shell, file transfer with sftp/scp, file sharing, cloud concepts

Assignment (graded)
Download a text file from a server, modify and edit it using command-line tools, upload the result (to where???).

Preparation
TBD

Week 12 — The World Wide Web

Content delivery: clients, servers, protocols, HTTP, URIs, and URLs

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 13 — Content creation

Content: HTML and the anatomy of a web page Writing a simple web page in HTML: using the Browser as a Web page previewer +++ deliverable: simple hand-made web page on a topic of interest using headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and hyperlinks content managemnent systems, markup vs, markdown

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 14 — Web applications and cloud services

including file revision control how they work risks, benefits

Assignment (graded)
TBD

Preparation
TBD

Week 15 — Safety and security

Sensitive information: confidential (personal, proprietary), personally identifying, tracking, etc. Effective use of passwords Security basics: encryption, HTTPS, how to encrypt files, archives, e-mail, etc.

Assignment (graded)
Create an encrypted archive, put archive online, use encrypted e-mail to send the archive URL and password to the instructor.