Chapter 1 - Terms of Endearment
Analytical Thinking
Information technology can be made simple by using the right terms however, analytical thinking is a more valuable habit to obtain. If we take a scenario by saying the mile run has improved or that computer performance has improved, we gather these statements weakly as the only thing it proves is things have enhanced over time, but what we don't know is if the change is significantly bigger or smaller to how it compares to other changes.
As information is simply found on the internet, we're able to match up an existing measure of performance with an up to date one. Thinking analytically is important to become assured in I.T as it also improves our studies, careers and our lives.
- Super Computers
An example of analytical thinking is comparing the speed of computers. The 'UNIVAC' was the first commercial computer introduced in 1951 which operated at the rate of 100,000 additions processes per second which was very fast back then.
In comparison to a standard PC for example, the portable 'IBM ThinkPad' which can perform billions of additions per second is a major difference, which will require working out the 'Factor of improvement'.
The factor of improvement is 10,000 which we work out by dividing the new rate by the old one therefore, (1,000,000,000 / 100,000) = 10,000. In another scenario, a 'ThinkPad' is not a record setter as it is more efficient as an individual, whereby an engineering workstation can effortlessly work out several billion calculations per second which makes the factor of improvement a higher margin.
- Benefits of Analytical Thinking
We have made our understanding of recent speed improvements by applying simple analysis rather than accepting the statement that the mile run and computers have improved. In fact, we have analysed measurements of performance and once we had the data we did not leave it as two observations.
Instead we analysed the relationship by figuring out the factor of improvement. By doing this it lets us analyse other improvements on other advancements and put them into perspective.
It lets us be more precise and more expressive, yet thinking analytically also helps us understand more clearly the world of I.T and the world that we live in.
- Defining 'WYSIWYG'
'What You See Is What You Get' is the definition of the above acronym meaning when we use a computer, it creates the virtual world we see on our monitors. The representation computers use to keep track of the things on screen is very different from the picture it shows us. The text which you are currently reading was a long line of letters, numbers, punctuation and special characters but is displayed on the webpage in a nicer format.
The computer processes this representation of long sequenced letters to create this nicer format. Original text editing software would not be able to do this therefore, users had to work with long sequences if they wanted to make a change to the document; you could imagine what it would of looked like when printed.
Eventually text editing systems were programmed to show users the page how it would appear on paper and changing the text became much easier which was then described as, 'what you see while editing is what you get when it's on paper' text editors became known as 'word processors'.