DrRacket and History of Computing

DrRacket and History of Computing

         From Week 1 to Week 4, my computer science course can be roughly divided into two parts, which are how to use DrRacket to achieve different goals, and how the way of representing information by computers developed over human’s history.

         Personally, the part about operating DrRacket is not hard for me. It becomes more interesting during my exploration of DrRacket. I enjoy the learning process. It is a pleasure when I find DrRacket can be applied in various areas, like doing calculations, creating new images, and making animations. However, the history part is not as interesting as DrRacket. In the beginning, I can hardly focus on professor’s teaching about the improvement of representing information, but this situation is changing in the recent classes. I gradually realize the connections between the two parts, which I originally considered them to be separate. DrRacket is the tool that helps me understand how computers work. The combination of operating DrRacket and learning the principle of computing makes me feel less tedious.

         The problem that I find difficult is the transformation from numbers (base 10) to binary numbers, and vice versa. I have never learned binary numbers before, so it is difficult for me to suddenly accept a brand new way of representing the numbers which I am familiar with. I solve this problem by using a simple method. I do the transformation many times until I feel good about it. I force myself to change some random numbers back and forth. The practices are really helpful because they make me completely understand how computers can use limited expressions to represent all different types of information, like numbers, images, and sounds.