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

[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.