Compiled Learning Objectives

At the end of the sprint, you should be able to do the following things. Make sure to check you can do them all, and if not, go back and keep practicing until you can.

Binary and hexadecimal numbers

• Convert signed and unsigned numbers between any two of: binary, decimal, hexadecimal
• Identify whether a binary number is a power of two
• Explain the similarities and differences between binary, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers
• Explain why we use binary numbers
• Explain why we use hexadecimal numbers
• Describe how different programs can interpret the same bytes as different data
• Identify how many bits are needed to store integers up to some limit
• Identify the maximum integer that can be stored in a number of bits
• Add together two binary numbers without converting to decimal
• Identify which of two binary numbers is larger without converting to decimal

CPU and memory

• Explain the purpose of main memory.
• Explain the purpose of a CPU.
• Explain what input/output is and why it’s useful.
• Describe the concept of a memory address.
• Describe how a string is laid out in memory.
• List (non-exhaustive) examples of instructions that CPUs often support.
• Define the term ‘clock speed’ with respect to a CPU.
• Explain the benefits of CPUs have multiple cores.
• Describe what CPU cache is, and why one is useful.
• Explain why computers have secondary storage.

Shell tools

• Identify which of {cat, ls, wc, grep, sed, awk} will be useful to solve a given problem.

cat

• Show the contents of a file with cat

man pages

• Open a man page for a tool
• Close a man page for a tool
• Interpret sample command lines in man pages
• Learn from a man page about the flags a tool supports

More cat

• Show the contents of a file, including line numbers, with cat.
• Concatenate multiple files outputting to the terminal.

ls

• List the files (and directories) in a directory with ls.

wc

• Count the bytes, words, and lines of a file with wc.
• Count just the words of a file with wc.

grep

• Identify the lines in a file which contain a string using grep
• Identify which files contain a string using grep

sed

• Remove numbers from the start of lines in a file using sed.
• Replace occurrences of one string in a file with another using sed.
• Print the lines of a file which don’t contain some string using sed.

awk

• Filter a space-separated file and extract a positional field using awk.
• Sum the numbers in a column of a space-separated file using awk.
• Explain what NF and $NF mean in awk.

How We Work

• Explain the structure of a week in SDC.

Goals

• Explain what sector(s) you want to work in.
• Compare different job roles in the software industry.