Cringe Notebook | Historical Documents Series (part 2)

22 Dec 2025

This is a dedicated series about historical sources. Focusing on old documents or memorable paraphernalia, mostly personal belongings.

In Part 1, I wrote about student cards. Those are memories during my school years.

In this part, I'm going to take you to a time way recent than that, but not too recent of course, because otherwise it wouldn't be historically interesting.

Judge the book by its owner

My cringeworthy notebook, circa 2012-2013

I used to have many notebooks. Only few survived.

This notebook is the one I used to jot down class notes, exercises, random thoughts, and even certain secrets.

It was salad.

Some of the contents are about "C++", and this shall be the prominent topic of this post. I have something quite important to introspect.

The words and sentences arranged in varying indentations are called pseudocode. The diagram is called flowchart.

There's even math. This was probably MAT210 Discrete Mathematics.

At first glimpse, these looks boring. But look closely on the bottommost words: "refog kgb employee monitor". Google it.

We were taught C++

C++, read as "C plus plus", is a computer programming language.

We were introduced to C++ in Semester 1 course CSC128 (Fundamentals of Computer Problem Solving).

The fact that C++ was chosen to be the introductory programming language to be taught to CS freshmen should tell you how important this language is. (there are thousands of programming languages in existence)

C++ source code. I can't exactly remember what this program does.

Indeed. C++ is very important. At least for that time, it was among de-facto in software engineering industry.

You may not appreciate it (some even hate it), but C++ is used for many many things:

to create Windows and Microsoft Office,
web browsers like Google Chrome,
creative software like Adobe Photoshop
video games,
including and not limited to, medical technology, financial systems,
and even military aircraft.

The list is endless.

But we were not taught how to build software

We can't just create usable software from the knowledge of language syntax alone.

C++ has its own "the professional way" of building software: the toolchain.

Software toolchain is a set of software development tools used to build and ship software.

In other words, "software to create software". (I credit my cousin Arash for coining that expression)

Frankly, I don't know all of these. For instance, I may know Java but I don't know Maven or Gradle.

It was only recently that I learn how to include C third-party library and perform the build process. That's my very first taste of toolchain.

Toolchain is the bridge from mere "coding" to "runnable exe that the user mistakenly call as desktop shortcut".

Computer science is not about computer

When you study computer science, you don't actually learn about the electronic computer itself. Instead, you are studying the theory of computation and problem solving. It is but a proud branch of mathematics.

In a nutshell, software engineering is a separate discipline that actually design and build software/systems.

You can use C++ to research what is the fastest way to sort data (computer science), or you can use C++ to create antivirus engine (software engineering).

Conclusion

Over time, provided if we continuously learning and actively explore on our own, we could update our current understanding. (especially for university grad, don't expect University has taught you everything)

What you learned and understood dearly years ago may be understood differently today. If not by you, it can be by other people.

I'm not saying you were wrong. I'm saying you were relevant for a limited time.

Other people may be wrong about how best to enjoy coffee. I was wrong about what Computer Science is for.

LOL

Mohamad Shahrim

author of The Laksamana