David Evans [email protected] 1001 Things Every Self-Respecting Computer Scientist Should Know...
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Transcript of David Evans [email protected] 1001 Things Every Self-Respecting Computer Scientist Should Know...
David [email protected]
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/
1001 Things Every Self-Respecting
Computer Scientist Should Know
2
CS39014 April 2004
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 2
1001 Questions
0000 What is Computer Science?0001 What problem did the first electronic programmable
computer solve?0010 Why was the first “personal computer” built?0011 Is Computer Science a science, engineering or
other?0100 What are the world’s most complex programs?0101 How do Computer Scientists manage complexity?0110 What is and is not computable?0111 Who was the first object-oriented programmer?1000 Who invented the Internet?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 4
Let AB and CD be the two given numbers not relatively prime. It is required to find the greatest common measure of AB and CD.
If now CD measures AB, since it also measures itself, then CD is a common measure of CD and AB. And it is manifest that it is also the greatest, for no greater number than CD measures CD.
Euclid’s Elements, Book VII, Proposition 2 (300BC)
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 5
The note on the inflected line is only difficult to you, because it is so easy. There is in fact nothing in it, but you think there must be some grand mystery hidden under that word inflected!
Whenever from any point without a given line, you draw a long to any point in the given line, you have inflected a line upon a given line.
Ada Byron (age 19), letter to Annabella Acheson (explaining Euclid), 1834
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 6
What is the difference between
Euclid and Ada?
“It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
Bill Gates (at Microsoft’s anti-trust trial)
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 7
Geometry vs. Computer Science
• Geometry (mathematics) is about declarative knowledge: “what is”
• Computer Science is about imperative knowledge: “how to”– Ways of describing imperative
processes (computations)– Ways of reasoning about (predicting)
what imperative processes will do
Language
Logic
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 8
1. What problem did the first electronic programmable
computer solve?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 9
ColossusFirst Programmable Computer
• Bletchley Park, 1943• Designed by Tommy
Flowers• 10 Colossi in operation at
end of WWII• Destroyed in 1960, kept
secret until 1970s• 2 years before ENIAC –
calculating artillery tables
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 10
Colossus’ Problem• Decode Nazi high
command messages from Lorenz Machine
• XOR encoding:
Ci = Mi Ki
– Perfect cipher, if K is random and secret
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 11
For any given ciphertext, all plaintexts are equally possible.
Ciphertext: 0100111110101
Key: 1100000100110
Plaintext: 1000111010011 = “CS”
Why perfectly secure?
1
0 B
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 12
Breaking Lorenz• Operator and receiver need same
keys• Generate key bits using rotor
machine, start with same configuration
• One operator retransmitted a message (but abbreviated message header the second time!)
• Enough for Bletchley Park to figure out key – and structure of machine that generated it!
• But still had to try all configurations
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 13
Colossus
• Read ciphertext and Lorenz wheel patterns from tapes
• Tried each alignment, calculated correlation with German
• Decoded messages (63M letters by 10 Colossus machines) that enabled Allies to know German troop locations to plan D-Day
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 14
2. Why was the first personal computer built?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 15
Apollo Guidance Computer, 1961-69
1 cubic foot, 70 pounds
Why did they need to fit the guidance computer in the rocket?
4KB of read/write magnetic core memory64KB of read-only memory
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 16
AGC History
• Needed all guidance to be on board in case Soviets jammed signals for Earth
• Design began in 1961
• Risky decision to use Integrated Circuits (invented in 1958)– Building 4 prototypes used 60% of all ICs
produced in the US in the early 60s!– Spurred industry growth
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 17
3. Science, Engineering or Other?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 18
Science?
• Understanding Nature through Observation– About real things like bowling balls, black
holes, antimatter, electrons, comets, etc.
• Math and Computer Science are about fake things like numbers, graphs, functions, lists, etc.– Computer Science is a useful tool for doing
real science, but not a real science
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 19
Engineering?“Engineering is design under constraint… Engineering is synthetic - it strives to create what can be, but it is constrained by nature, by cost, by concerns of safety, reliability, environmental impact, manufacturability, maintainability and many other such 'ilities.' ...”
William Wulf
Computing Power 1969-2004(in Apollo Control Computer Units)
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
1969
1971
1972
1974
1975
1977
1978
1980
1981
1983
1984
1986
1987
1989
1990
1992
1993
1995
1996
1998
1999
2001
2002
2004
2005
Moore’s Law: computing power doubles every 18 months!
If Apollo Guidance Computer power is 1 inch, you have 5 miles! 1GB/4KB = 262 144 but why not 18M x?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 21
Constraints Computer Scientists Face
• Not like those for engineers:– Cost, weight, physics, etc.– If 1 Million times what NASA had in 1969 isn’t
enough for you, wait until 2007 and you will have 4 Million times…
• More like those for Musicians and Poets:– Imagination and Creativity– Complexity of what we can understand– Cost of human effort
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 22
So, what is computer science?
• Science– No: its about fake things like numbers, not
about observing and understanding nature
• Engineering– No: we don’t have to deal with engineering-
type constraints
Must be a Liberal Art!
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 23
The Liberal Arts
Trivium (3 roads)
language
Quadrivium (4 roads)
numbers
Grammar Rhetoric Logic Arithmetic
Geometry
Music
Astronomy
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 24
Liberal Arts• Grammar: study of meaning in written
expression• Rhetoric: comprehension of verbal
and written discourse• Logic: argumentative discourse for
discovering truth• Arithmetic: understanding numbers• Geometry: quantification of space• Music: number in time• Astronomy: laws of the planets and
stars
Yes, we need to understandmeaning to describe
computations
Interfaces between components, discourse
between programs and users
Logic for controlling and reasoning about
computations
Yes
Yes (graphics)
Yes (read Gödel, Escher, Bach)
Sort of, read Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s essay
Triv
ium
Qua
driv
ium
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 25
4. What are the world’s most complex programs?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 26
Complex Programs• Apollo Guidance Software
– ~36K instructions
• F-22 Steath Fighter Avionics Software– 1.5M lines of code (Ada)
• 5EEE (phone switching software)– 18M lines
• Windows XP – ~50M lines (1 error per kloc ~ 50,000 bugs)
• Anything more complex?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 27
Human Genome
Produces60 Trillion Cells (6 * 1013)
50 Million die every second!
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 28
How Big is the Make-a-Human Program?
• 3 Billion Base Pairs– Each nucleotide is 2 bits (4 possibilities)– 3B bases * 1 byte/4 pairs = 750 MB – Highly redundant encoding (21/64) ~ 250 MB – About 95% of it is junk ~ 12 MB
1 CD ~ 650 MBWal-Mart’s databaseis >280 Terabytes
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 29
Expressiveness of DNA
• Genetic sequence for 2 humans differs in only 2 million bases– 4 million bits = 0.5 MB
1/3 of a floppy disk<1% of Windows 2000
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 30
5. How do Computer Scientists manage
complexity?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 31
Abstraction
Adapted from Gerard Holzmann’s FSE Slides
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 32
Abstraction in Computer Science
• Procedural Abstraction (CS101)– Abstract what to do from specific values to do
it to
• Data Abstraction (CS201)– Abstract away representation details by
specifying what you can do with something
• Abstraction by Specification (CS340)– Abstract away how details by saying what a
procedure does
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 33
6. What is and is not computable?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 34
Halting ProblemInput: a procedure POutput: true if P halts (finishes execution), false otherwise.
Is it possible it implement a procedure that correctly implements halts and always terminates?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 35
Halts is not Computableboolean contradictHalts (Program P) if (halts “contradictHalts (P);”) while (true) ; else
return true;If contradictHalts halts, the if test is true if enters the while loop - it doesn’t halt!
If contradictHalts doesn’t halt, the if test if false,and it evaluates to true. It halts!
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 37
Ali G Multiplication Problem• Input: two d digit numbers (mostly 9s)
• Output: the product of all the numbers
Is it computable?Yes – a straightforward algorithmsolves it.
Is it tractable?Yes – elementary multiplication solves it in O(d2)
Can real computers solve it?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 39
Ali G was Right!• Theory assumes ideal computers:
– Unlimited, perfect memory– Unlimited (finite) time
• Real computers have:– Limited memory, time, power outages, flaky
programming languages, etc.– There are many decidable problems we cannot
solve with real computer: the numbers do matter
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 40
6. Who was the first Object-Oriented Programmer?
“I invented the term Object-Oriented and I can tell
you I did not have C++ in mind.”Alan Kay
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 41
What is an Object?
• Packaging state and procedures – State: the representation
• What a thing is
– Procedures: methods and constructors• What you can do with it
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 42
Object-Oriented Programming• State of mind where you program by thinking
about objects• It is difficult to reach that state of mind if your
language doesn’t have:– Mechanisms for packaging state and procedures
(Java has class)– Subtyping (Java has extends and implements)
• Other things can help: dynamic dispatch, implementation inheritance, automatic memory management, Krispy Kremes, etc.
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 43
Who was the first object-oriented programmer?
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 44
By the word operation, we mean any process which alters the mutual relation of two or more things, be this relation of what kind it may. This is the most general definition, and would include all subjects in the universe. Again, it might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations…Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.
Ada Augusta Byron, 1842
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 46
What is a Network?
A group of three or more connected entities communicating indirectly
Ancient Greeks had beacon chainnetworks on Greek island mountaintops
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 47
Chappe’s Semaphore Network
Mobile Semaphore Telegraph Used in the Crimean War 1853-1856
First Line (Paris to Lille), 1794
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 48
internetwork
A collection of multiple networks connected together, so messages can be transmitted between nodes on different networks.
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 49
The First Internetwork• 1800: Sweden and Denmark worried about
Britain invading
• Edelcrantz proposes link across strait separating Sweden and Denmark to connect their (signaling) telegraph networks
• 1801: British attack Copenhagen, transmit message to Sweden, but they don’t help.
• Denmark signs treaty with Britain, and stops communications with Sweden
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 50
First Use of The Internet
• October 1969: First packets on the ARPANet from UCLA to Stanford. Starts to send "LOGIN", but it crashes on the G.
• 20 July 1969:Live video (b/w) and audio transmitted from moon to Earth, and to several hundred million televisions worldwide.
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 51
Licklider and Taylor’s VisionAvailable within the network will be functions and services to which you subscribe on a regular basis and others that you call for when you need them. In the former group will be investment guidance, tax counseling, selective dissemination of information in your field of specialization, announcement of cultural, sport, and entertainment events that fit your interests, etc. In the latter group will be dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, catalogues, editing programs, teaching programs, testing programs, programming systems, data bases, and – most important – communication, display, and modeling programs. All these will be – at some late date in the history of networking - systematized and coherent; you will be able to get along in one basic language up to the point at which you choose a specialized language for its power or terseness.
J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, The Computer as a Communication Device, April 1968
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 52
The Modern Internet
• Packet Switching: Leonard Kleinrock (UCLA), Donald Davies and Paul Baran, Edelcrantz’s signaling network (1809)
• Internet Protocol: Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn
• Vision, Funding: J.C.R. Licklider, Bob Taylor • Government: Al Gore (first politician to promote
Internet, 1986; act to connect government networks to form “Interagency Network”)
14 April 2004 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/ 53
Summary• Computer Science is a real intellectual
discipline: not like “Automotive Engineering” or “Toaster Science”
• Seek out and work on problems that are at the intellectual core of computer science
• Most of Computer Science was not invented yesterday (or even since you were born)
For slides and links to more information:http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/talks/cs390-s04/