Year 2025/2026

Course Focus: The Language of Computer Science

Objective: To understand and master the specialized vocabulary, conceptual metaphors, documentation styles, and communication conventions used by computer scientists and software engineers.

Module 1: Core Lexicon & Terminology

· Study: The foundational vocabulary, its etymology, and precise meanings.

· Concepts:

  · Basic Operations: compile, execute, parse, iterate, invoke, assign.

  · Data Structures: stack, queue, tree, graph, hash. Why are they named with these metaphors?

  · Paradigms: object-oriented, functional, procedural. What do these words imply about structure and philosophy?

  · Common Verbs: to debug, to deploy, to refactor, to abstract away, to serialize.

· Activity: Create a glossary. Trace word origins (e.g., "bug," "daemon," "thread"). Differentiate between similar terms (e.g., parameter vs. argument, error vs. exception).

Module 2: Conceptual Metaphors & Mental Models

· Study: How abstract computing concepts are explained through physical-world analogies.

· Concepts:

  · Spatial Metaphors: high-level/low-level, deep copy/shallow copy, background/foreground.

  · Physical Metaphors: memory, pipe, stream, buffer, firewall, package, container.

  · Biological/Organizational Metaphors: tree, inheritance, parent/child processes, port, socket.

· Activity: Analyze how these metaphors shape understanding. For example, how does thinking of a "stack" as a stack of plates clarify LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) behavior?

Module 3: Syntax & Semantics of Code Comments & Documentation

· Study: The formal and informal rules of writing about code.

· Concepts:

  · Inline Comments: Explaining why, not what.

  · Docstrings & API Documentation: Standard formats (Javadoc, Python docstrings). The use of imperative mood ("Returns the value") vs. descriptive.

  · READMEs: Conventions for open-source projects.

· Activity: Compare documentation for different languages (Python's requests library vs. Java's Spring Framework). Rewrite poor comments into effective ones.

Module 4: Technical Writing & Communication Genres

· Study: The specific types of writing required in the field.

· Concepts:

  · Specifications & RFCs: Precise, unambiguous language. Use of "shall," "must," "may."

  · Error Messages: How to write user-friendly vs. developer-focused messages.

  · Commit Messages: Conventional commits style (e.g., feat:, fix:, docs.

  · Post-mortems & Incident Reports: A specific narrative structure (timeline, root cause, impact, remediation).

  · Technical Blog Posts & Tutorials: Balancing expertise with accessibility. The use of code snippets, diagrams, and narrative.

· Activity: Write a technical specification for a simple function. Analyze famous RFCs (like RFC 791 for IP). Write a commit history for a mock feature.

Module 5: Spoken Discourse & Collaboration

· Study: How language is used in meetings, stand-ups, code reviews, and pair programming.

· Concepts:

  · Code Reviews: The linguistics of giving constructive feedback ("Consider...", "What if...?", "This might be simpler if...").

  · Explaining Technical Concepts: The art of the "whiteboard explanation." Using analogies effectively.

  · Stand-up Updates: The three-part formula (What I did, what I'm doing, blockers).

  · Asynchronous Communication (Slack, Teams): Brevity, use of code blocks, and threading.

· Activity: Role-play a code review session. Record yourself explaining a concept like "REST API" to a non-technical person.

Module 6: The Evolution of CS Language

· Study: How jargon emerges, changes, and sometimes becomes standard English.

· Concepts:

  · Neologisms & Portmanteaus: blog (weblog), DevOps (Development + Operations), cryptocurrency.

  · Acronyms & Initialisms: From CPU and HTTP to YAML and K8s (Kubernetes).

  · Verbing of Nouns: "To Google," "to SSH into a server," "to cron a job."

  · Cultural & Humorous Terms: yak shaving, heisenbug, bikeshedding.

· Activity: Research the history of a term like "cloud computing" or "agile." Follow a new term emerging on platforms like Hacker News.