[lessons] Add introduction writeup

This introduction contains only an overview of the course, and does not
go into any C++.

License: CC-BY4.0
Signed-off-by: Patrick M. Niedzielski <[email protected]>

lessons/01-introduction.md

@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Introduction
+============
+
+Goals for the Course
+--------------------
+After this course, we will have
+
+  - Learned the syntax, semantics of the C++ language
+  - Learned techniques and idioms used by C++ programmers
+  - Designed and implemented both small, generic utilities and
+    medium-sized software projects
+  - Used and implemented tools to aid in the development process
+  - Evaluated and implemented proposed changes to the C++ language and
+    standard library
+
+These are the concrete goals for this course, but the hope is that you
+will get much more out of this course than these bullet points.  In
+particular, there will be a number of recurring themes that you will
+be introduced to—these themes are incredibly cross-cutting and should
+influence both the C++ you write, and any programming you do in the
+future.  You should also learn how to evaluate abstractive
+capabilities in programming languages and specific abstractions in
+software.
+
+Materials
+---------
+All materials for this course will be available online for free, or
+will be provided otherwise.  For materials available online, these
+will usually be available under a free culture license, so feel free
+to use them or distribute them under the terms of those licenses.
+Some other materials will be provided under Fair Use; please do not
+redistribute these.
+
+Learning
+--------
+This course is designed to be interactive, not lecture-based.  This
+requires an amount of work on your parts as well as mine.  Please take
+an active approach to your learning, and make it worth it both for
+yourselves and me.  I expect that each of you will progress at
+different rates, which is fine.
+
+Projects
+--------
+As we go through the course, we will be implementing two projects: a
+`util` project that each of you will implement, and an individual
+project that will be assigned/negotiated for each of you.  These
+projects are designed to introduce you to using C++ in a medium-sized
+project, and to learn first-hand how the features of C++ work together
+to allow you to write safe, maintainable, and extensible software.
+
+The `util` project will contain small, self-contained functions and
+vocabulary types that you will find useful again and again.  Some of
+these utilities will already exist in the standard library; we will
+either be implementing them exactly as specified in the Standard or
+with modifications.  This will give you fuller understanding how how
+the abstractions may be implemented, as well as understanding their
+performance characteristics.  Some of the simple utilities will be
+simple to implement, and some will be difficult.  These utilities will
+be useful in your other project.
+
+The individual project will be a medium-sized C++ project to be
+written by each student.  In this project, we will not just be
+focusing on C++, but also on the engineering process and utilizing the
+tools you have at your disposal effectively.  I hope this will
+encourage you to do this in all future projects, in C++ or not.
+
+Along these same lines, as the course progresses, we will be
+practicing code review.  *This is where you will learn the most.*
+Turning in assignments is not a “fire-and-forget” process, but rather
+a multi-step, interactive process.  You will take part in the
+evaluation of your and your peers' code, and you will be expected to
+address and/or fix the comments you receive.  We will also go back to
+old code and refactor it or re-evaluate the same solution with new
+knowledge.  It is in your best interest to make your code clear and
+well-documented, both for yourself and your peers.  Note also that for
+your individual project, your peers will not be as familiar with the
+problem domain as you will become; take this into account.
+
+Collaboration
+-------------
+Software is not written in a vacuum.  You are encouraged to talk to
+other students in the course and look at their code.  Your goal in
+this course is to learn—more important than getting the the “right”
+solution is understanding the solution, being able to explain it, and
+being able to defend the implementation.
+
+Please, please, please get in touch with me and other students and
+discuss your solutions, even if you feel you understand the material.
+
+Miscellany
+----------
+Please make sure you've accepted the invitation to the GitHub
+organization I've made.
+
+The first lesson will come tomorrow, and we will be setting up your
+Linux development environment.