Early-bird thread

[elz]

Welcome, everybody! On request, we're going to start with Lecture 1 next Monday, 11/9. However, there's quite a bit of reading associated with the first three lectures - here's what it says at the site:

Lectures 1-3

• Introduction: Chapter 1 of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist


• Variables and statements: Chapter 2 of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist


• Strings: Variables and strings section of Python Programming (also, the
  strings section)


• Python variables are names: Other languages have "variables", from Code Like A Pythonista: Idiomatic Python


• For PS0: Input/output section of Python Programming


• Conditionals: Chapter 4 of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (through section 4.8), and the conditional statements section of Python Programming


• Iteration: Loops section of Python Programming


• Tuples: Tuples section from Dive Into Python and the tuples and sequences section of the Python Tutorial


• More on traversing and slicing strings: Chapter 7 of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

You may want to wait until you've got more context, but if you want to start in on any reading or material this week, here's a place to talk about it!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yipes. Yep, that's a lot of reading.

Well, off I go then...

[libskrat]

Bleh. That was me. Something went wonky with my login, I suppose.

[elz]

It does look a bit intimidating, but over two and a half weeks, it shouldn't be too bad! And some of them are pretty short!

[rodo]

Question: Is it necessary to read the pages that more or less only explain the variables and how to use them from start to finish? I never can remember the stuff unless I'm using it to solve a problem, or at least that was how it worked with HTML for me.

[ex_wicker969]

I'm just giving those a good once-over and clearly bookmarking/noting for reference use... I also need stuff applied to learn it.

[zing_och]

I'm either following along with examples in order to remember, or I try to remember where to find stuff when I do need it.

(heh- nicht lustig!)

[zing_och]

I already watched the first lecture because I couldn't wait, and it's not necessary to do the reading beforehand, so nobody needs to worry if they don't get to it immediately.

[rodo]

Yeah, I started Monday because I confused the dates. ^_^°

In fact, I got the feeling that most of the basics got repeated over and over again, both in the lecture and the texts.

(Yes, nichtlustig.)

[elz]

There are always the problem sets to start in on! :D Actually, I think that's what the reading is mostly aimed at in general - the lectures seem fairly self-contained from what I've seen so far.

[rodo]

I did PS0 already, and it does produce something similar to the example, but I still don't quite know how it works.

[elz]

What's tripping you up, getting the input or something else?

[rodo]

No ... it's more like ... being able to use a phone but not knowing how it works. I often feel like this when I start learning something. Most of the time, there'll be a eureka moment. It just takes a while sometimes.

[badgerbag]

me too. I have been typing stuff into the interpreter in various combinations to get more of a feel for what's going on.

[zulu]

Doing well so far. I did the exercises on one of the reading chapters and found that helpful (lots of debugging included). Python Programming/Strings is just a bunch of gobbledegook until I know why those functions are going to be important. Still many open tabs to get through!

[zulu]

Hm, really getting further lost in the Code Like A Pythonista page. Not too worried about this, but hoping it will make more sense on a later read after I've tried to do more things.

[elz]

Yeah, I think it's just the little section on variables that's important to start with (the difference between the variable containing the value and the variable name being attached to the value).

[zulu]

Aha! Yes, as soon as I went back and read only that small bit of the page, it made a lot more sense.

[yhlee]

Cautionary note to anyone else who foolishly downloaded Python 3.1.1 (short version is I had it d/l'd for another purpose, before I heard of this comm, and thought, How different can it be? *hollow laughter*): there are enough syntax differences between 2.6.4 and 3.1.1 that a bunch of examples won't work as written. All this just to say, stick with 2.6.4. I am currently having to unlearn a bunch of syntax (I eventually gave up and installed 2.6.4). :-D

[newrambler]

I will not be terrified just from looking at the list of readings. I will not be terrified just from looking at the list of readings.

[elz]

That's the spirit! :D If the reading itself is confusing, you can always go back to it after the lectures - they do explain a lot of it there.

[yhlee]

I'm up to conditionals and so far there's a lot of overlap--each reading isn't completely new stuff, so it isn't quite as bad as the list looks.

[newrambler]

Yeah, I've read the first two chapters of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist and so far, so good. And surely if I once learned to read Sophocles, I can learn this.

[zulu]

My IDLE shell thingy has stopped working. When I try to start it, I get "Socket Error: connection refused", and then "IDLE's subprocess didn't make connection. Either IDLE can't start a subprocess or personal firewall software is blocking the connection."

Since I haven't changed anything since five minutes ago when it was working, I don't know what's happening here.

[elz]

Eep. That's on Windows? Googling suggests it's a not uncommon problem. Suggestions seem to be a) making sure it's shut down completely (by checking the running processes or rebooting) and restarting it or b) tinkering with your antivirus software to make sure it's not blocking it.

Alternatively, in the class, I'm sure it makes sense to have everyone using the same tools, which is why they recommend IDLE, but you can write code in any text editor and run it from the command line. Notepad++ is a pretty good option for Windows if IDLE turns out to be more trouble than it's worth.

[zulu]

Thanks for the pointers! I'll continue with my readings and then see what I can do about it.

[ex_wicker969]

I did the reading out of the Think Like Computer Scientist but that lecture really helped to cement everything. His analogy of cooking recipes was excellent and I had at least two ohhhhhh, yeahhhhh, I get it now moments. One was the programming counter and the difference between interpreter/compiler (which was so abstract before I had no clue what was going on) and then also I appreciated his background info that basically put everything in context.

So yay! I am feeling way better about this whole adventure.

[badgerbag]

This is so awesome. thanks for organizing it!

iynTAAhERdcDSE

[(Anonymous)]

With the bases loaded you srutck us out with that answer!