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

[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.