1. UNDERSTANDING PROGRAMMING
A VERY BASIC PRIMER
cc: striatic -

2. In 1801, Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom in which the pattern being woven was controlled by a paper tape constructed from punched cards. The paper tape could be changed without changing the mechanical design of the loom. This was a landmark achievement in programmability.

3. In former times, if figured designs were required, this was done on a drawloom. The heddles with warp ends to be pulled up were manually selected by a second operator, apart from the weaver. It was slow and labor-intensive, with practical limitations on the complexity of the pattern.
Jacquard recognized that although weaving was intricate, it was repetitive, and saw that a mechanism could be developed for the production of sophisticated patterns.

4. The loom was controlled by a "chain of cards", a number of punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence. Multiple rows of holes were punched on each card, with one complete card corresponding to one row of the design. Each position in the card corresponds to a hook, which can either be raised or stopped dependent on whether the hole is punched out of the card or the card is solid.
The hook raises or lowers the harness, which carries and guides the warp thread so that the weft will either lie above or below it. The sequence of raised and lowered threads is what creates the pattern.

5. This portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched cards to create (1839).

6. Ada Lovelace, the first programmer

7. Ada Byron was a teenager when she met Cambridge mathematics professor Charles Babbage. Babbage was impressed with the brilliant young woman, and they corresponded for years. In the design of the Analytical Engine, she created an algorithm that would calculate Bernoulli numbers, which is now considered the first computer program. Lovelace also explored using numbers to represent and manipulate data like music and graphics, forming the basis for modern computing.

8. By 1920, electromechanical tabulating machines could add, subtract and print accumulated totals. Machine functions were directed by inserting dozens of wire jumpers into removable control panels. When the United States instituted Social Security in 1935, IBM punched card systems were used to process records of 26 million workers.

9. The Z2 was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer, and was created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in It was an improvement on his earlier Z1; although it used the same mechanical memory, it replaced the arithmetic and control logic with electrical relay circuits.

10. Zuse suffered setbacks during World War II when some of his machines were destroyed in the course of Allied bombing campaigns. His work remained largely unknown to engineers in the UK and US until much later, although at least IBM was aware of it as it financed his post-war startup company in 1946 in return for an option on Zuse's patents.

11. ENIAC was designed and primarily used to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second and was capable of calculating a trajectory that took a human 20 hours in 30 seconds (a 2400× increase in speed).

12. Machine code or machine language is a set of instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction performs a very specific task, such as a load, a jump, or an ALU operation on a unit of data in a CPU register or memory. Every program directly executed by a CPU is made up of a series of such instructions. Early computers were programmed in machine languages specific to their physical design.

13. Complex programs are quite nearly impossible to understand or create in machine languages, and another approach is necessary for practically creating useful programs.

14. FUNDAMENTALS OF CODE
cc: Laurence Vagner -

15. Usually a set of instructions, or program, for a computer is intended to complete a task that is repetitious, requires accuracy, and requires speed.

16. THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF BASIC PROGRAMS
Sequence of Commands (the right commands in the right order)
Conditional Structures (do certain things based on conditions, responses or results of other actions)
Looping Structures (a list of instructions to follow more than once, for a given number of loops, or until a condition occurs)

17. A programming language is a formal language that specifies a set of instructions that can be used to produce various kinds of output. Programming languages generally consist of instructions for a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that implement specific algorithms.

18. Pomegranate-Glazed Lamb Kebabs
1/2 red bell pepper

19. Mince the garlic by hand or in a mini food processor
Mince the garlic by hand or in a mini food processor. Transfer to a gallon-size zip-top bag along with the soy sauce, pomegranate juice, honey and vinegar. Seal and shake to incorporate.
Trim and discard large bits of fat from the lamb as you cut it into bite-size chunks. Add the meat to the bag; seal, pressing out as much air as possible. Massage to distribute the marinade evenly. Let sit for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the white and light green parts of the scallions into 2-inch pieces. Cut the tomato into 1/2-inch-thick slices, then cut each of those into 3 wedges. Cut the red bell pepper into chunks. Toss those vegetables into the marinade for the last 5 minutes of meat marinating time.
Preheat a large cast-iron griddle or cast-iron grill pan over medium heat.

20. Transfer to a platter; let the kebabs sit for about 2 minutes before serving.

21. A RECIPE FOR CODING Define your purpose (make kebabs)
Define your ingredients
Define your tools
Combine ingredients and tools in the correct order
Define a halt state (the kebabs are cooked and glazed)

22. A WORLD OF LANGAUGES
cc: moleculea -

23. There are thousands of programming languages, each created for different reasons under different circumstances. Some, like C++, Java, and Python, are closely related to each other. Others, like SQL and Lisp, work under different principles and are not related.

24. POPULAR LANGUAGES
Python - a Swiss Army Knife useful for everything from applications to websites to databases.
JavaScript, HTML, CSS - the three languages that make up the World Wide Web
SQL - used with another language to manipulate huge amounts of data
LaTeX - Used to format text and math documents

25. WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
- free computer literacy education
- free resources for basic to advanced computer skills
- a fun game approach to learning coding fundamentals
- a gold-standard learn-to-code resource