Section 1.0 Introduction
Learning Objectives
After you have completed this section, you should be able to
- outline what you will learn in this course.
- prepare your computer environment for the course.
- recall some important concepts about computers, computer networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web.
- explain some relevant terminologies.
Activities
- Choose and download your favorite text editor among TextEdit, Notepad++, Bluefish, XEmacs, or another you may be familiar with, and install it on your computer.
- Become familiar with the text editor you have just installed, including the commands and hot keys.
- Read the preface of Internet & World Wide Web: How to Program (henceforth referred to as ‘Deitel’ or ‘the textbook’), from which you will get an overall picture of the book and the new technologies it covers.
- Watch presentation for the section;
- Read Chapter 1, Introduction to Computers and the Internet, of the e-text.
- Find answers to the study questions below.
- Search the Web for ‘web browsers’, and select some good articles about them. Post the links to the COMP 466 General Discussion Forum with your comments.
Study Questions
- What do you expect to learn from this course?
- Why is it important for computer professionals to learn the content of this course?
- What computer environment do you need to complete the course?
- Why are some good programming skills and knowledge of computer networks and database and systems analysis and design essential for you to succeed in this course?
- How do you connect your Windows/Linux/Mac computer to the Internet?
- What are the main features of your current version(s) of web browser(s)?
- What search engines can you use to search for documents on the Internet?
- How do you access FTP servers on the Internet?
- What CPUs are commonly used in today’s personal computers?
- To run the latest version of your favourite distribution of Windows or Linux on PCs, what are the general requirements for RAM and hard disk?
- What are machine languages? What are assembly languages? What are high-level languages?
- What is structured programming?
- How was the Internet initially developed and where?
- How was the World Wide Web initially developed?
- Which company made PCs popular?
- Which company made PCs standard in business, industry, and government organizations?
- What is object-oriented programming?
Review
Do the Self-review Exercises and Exercises at the end of Chapter 1 of the e-text.
Summary
From this section you have learned that this course is about how to develop web-based applications using all sorts of enabling web technologies. Before taking this course you should already be familiar with some of these technologies such as HTML, CSS, and client-side scripting with JavaScript and dynamic HTML, and should have good programming skills in a modern computer language. Your focus in this course will be on server-side technologies for developing web-based applications.
