Hi, and welcome to Open Terminal by CrushOnCuriosity.
In this series, we're going to cover the entire Class 10 ICSE Computer Applications syllabus. We'll start from the absolute basics and work our way up to everything you need to score a perfect 100/100 in your board exams.
I hope you're as excited to begin this journey as I am. I'm genuinely excited to teach you everything I know.
Now, before we begin, I should probably introduce myself.
Well... my name? Ahh... that's not really important. What matters is that I've been building apps and websites since I was in the 7th grade. I scored 99/100 in my ICSE Computer Applications exam, and throughout school, my performance in Computer Applications consistently stayed in the 90s.
Beyond academics, I've been building a SaaS product, I own a few mobile apps on Google Play, and I've developed an e-commerce solution for a clothing brand, along with a school's website. So... I think I'm qualified to teach this subject, don't you think?
You can also connect with me on Twitter. I'm pretty active there. You can find me on Instagram as well, although my account is most likely private, you're welcome to send me a DM, and I'll try my best to get back to you.
Anyway, that's more than enough of an introduction. Let's move on to today's lesson.
Let me ask you a question.
What do you mean by a computer?
Pause for a moment and think about your answer. Then, make sure to leave it in the comments below.
If your answer was, "A computer is a machine that executes commands to perform tasks," I'd agree with you.
For example, you can use a computer to:
- calculate your average grade,
- play videos,
- browse the internet,
- and much more.
So, in simple terms, we ask, and the computer responds.
This is easier to understand with the analogy of a waiter in a restaurant.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and place an order. You communicate your request by speaking to the waiter. Similarly, when using a computer, we provide input through devices like a keyboard or a mouse.
But here's the important part: both you and the waiter must understand the same language. Only then can you expect her favorite dish to arrive.
Likewise, when communicating with a computer, we need a language that both we and the computer can understand. The result of our request is called the output, which may appear on a screen, come through speakers, or even be printed on paper.
Now, what if the waiter doesn't speak your language?
If you're a tourist, your guide would translate your instructions to the waiter and translate the waiter's response back to you.
So, does a computer understand English?
With the rise of AI, your immediate answer might be, "Yes."
But technically... the answer is no.
For a computer to understand English, there's a lot happening behind the scenes.. natural language processing, pattern prediction, machine learning, vector searches, and much more.
Let's not dive that deep just yet.
A computer does not naturally understand human language.
Instead, it understands machine language, also known as binary language, which consists of only 0s and 1s.
For example, this is how the word "hello" looks in binary:
01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
I definitely can't communicate like that.. and neither can you. If I texted that to my crush, she'd probably block me immediately.
So then, how do we communicate with computers?
The answer is:
Programming languages and compilers.
Do they directly understand both humans and computers?
We write our instructions using programming languages, and compilers translate those instructions into machine language that the computer understands.
Well, think of them as the tourist's guide in our restaurant analogy. They help translate our instructions into something the computer can understand.
We'll learn exactly how that works in the next lesson.
I think that's enough for today.
If you enjoyed this lesson or learned something new, leave your thoughts in the comments below. Share this article with your friends or, if you're watching this as a video, share it with anyone who might find it helpful.
I'll see you in the next one.
