Introduction to Computer Science

So, who thinks the other professor was better? I'm finding this guy harder to follow, though I did catch that computers can be wrong and paranoia is good.

Paranoia, paranoia everybody's coming to get me...

Er. ( Lecture video under the cut. )

I have to say, I understand the whole lists, appending lists, concatenating lists idea, but I'm not following the code. For the universities bit, what are all the raw_inputs there for? Is the for loop just there to show that appending lists is messy? And which line is the concatenate? Is it "Univs = Techs + Ivys"?

(Class handout is here, and I've pasted the relevant code section under the cut.)

( Click for the code! )

As of this week's readings, we're over halfway done with all the readings for the course! \0/ It gets a lot lighter, reading wise, from here on out, and I have to admit to being a bit relieved. Maybe now I'll actually manage to do the problem sets before I put up this post...

Anyway, for Lecture 6 we're supposed to read through Chapters Eight and Ten, using part of the Python Tutorial as a reference. I have one question to toss out for discussion. I know the long form came up in lecture last week, but I didn't realize until I did today's readings that you could force Python into the long form. I just thought it was something that Python switched into when the numbers got too long. Why would you want to start your calculations in long form? Wouldn't it be easier to let Python do it on its own?


Poll #2228
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

PS 3 is

Now, I'm still working on PS3 myself, and given that I'm fast approaching the point of garbled language exhaustion, it ain't happening tonight. Any volunteers to put up their code?

No problem set this week! \0/

Instead, we get two readings to mull over: Floating Point Arithmetic and Newton's Method. Now, the first one I was all right with. I can't envision a situation in which I could possibly care that Python rounds to only seventeen significant digits, but hey, I guess it's good to know these things. But what does Newton's method have to do with programming?

On a side note (and out of curiosity on my part), we started out with 30 something people following along. How many are still with us as we go into the fifth lecture? Stand up and be counted!

I'm sorry, but the reading/PS2 post is going to have to go up sometime tomorrow, unless someone who's finished it wants to put it up for me. It's been a hellish week, and even if I can finish this health insurance application tonight, I'm not going to be in any mental condition to read, code and comment. Better all around if I come at it with a full night's sleep.

All right! Looking at my schedule for the coming weeks, I think I'm going to add a readings and problem set post on Fridays, just to keep them separate from the lectures and to give everyone time to digest and discuss the information before we dive into the next lecture. (This will also give me an extra kick in the rear mid-week to get everything done!)

Thusfar, I've read through chapter 1 and chapter 2 of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, the variables and strings and input and output sections of Python Programming, and the variables tutorial on Pythonista. They're a bit repetitive, but repetition is good for my brain! If you're a visual learner, do the tutorial on Pythonista first, because there's a really nice series of images there.

Out of the readings, the only thing that gave me pause was the minutes since midnight program in Chapter 2. I'm not sure exactly why... I didn't define hours and minutes when I first ran the example, and then after defining them it seemed a bit useless to write a program that only gave the correct answer at that exact moment. (Anyone watch Alice in Wonderland as a kid? That scene where they're cleaning the attic - "This old clock; it tells the right time twice a day. As for the rest? While, maybe not...") Regardless, I ought to go back to that when I'm not tired and trying to do all the readings in one chunk. Did anyone else have trouble with that one, or with anything else in the readings?

And then, PS0! As smc1225 graciously pointed out, you have to open a new window to write your code and then run it. This link, which she (guessing gender from the list of feeds on your profile, smc1225; my most humble apologies if I'm wrong) found when the November group went through PS0, is massively helpful.

So, who's finished PS0? I can't create polls, apparently, but let's report in on our successes and mistakes before we plunge onward into lecture 2!

Edit: Oh, wow, someone gave me paid time! Thanks, oh anonymous benefactor!

Edit 2: Ok, it appears I'm not allowed to insert polls into pre-paid time posts. But, in the future, there will be fun with polls! :D

Is anyone out there still interested in starting this in January? I'm happy to lead a group, so to speak, as I'm definitely still interested. I'd like to do one lecture a week, though, as opposed to two...