CSC111 Class Page 2014

--D. Thiebaut (talk) 09:58, 7 January 2014 (EST)

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Main Page | Syllabus | Weekly Schedule | Links & Resources | Piazza | TA Hours | WHITE

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Prof and TAs

Dominique Thiébaut email Dept. Computer Science Ford Hall, 356. Telephone: 3854 Office hours Monday, 2-4 p.m., Wednesday 1-3 p.m., and by appointments

To see when and where TAs are available this week, click here.

Weekly Schedule

First Half (Feb-Spring Break)

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 1 1/27	Monday A look at the syllabus The Python integrated environment, named Idle Python is free and can be downloaded from the Python download page Example of a Python program What is a programming language? The idea of a Syntax Python keywords A simple "Hello World!" program in Python Errors Wednesday Computer architecture: Processor and memory. Their different roles. The concept of an imperative language. Python is a language. Difference between interpreted languages and compiled languages. Getting into the logic of programming. This week we'll "program as an exercise in logic intuition," rather than learning the basics. Playing with Python. variables x = 3 name = "hello" keywords: and del from not while as elif global or with assert else if pass yield break except import print class exec in raise continue finally is return def for lambda try Printing strings. What's a string? Printing numbers. What's a number? What is the difference between "3" and 3? Understanding the difference between an editor and the shell (console) windows Looping through a list and outputting formated information Friday Comments on Lab 1 Variables Rules for labeling a variable CamelCase for regular variables, uppercase for constants Thinking of a variable as a box, or drawer. Variables can switch contents Types of values: int, float, string, char The concept of an algorithm (Section 1.7 in textbook) Must be unambiguous, executable, and terminating. Example: calculating the return on a bank account with a yearly interest rate. Review of the week: some of the concepts covered: variables, literals, integers, reals, strings, functions, statements, comments Preparation for Lab #1 <== Please do this if you plan on using your own laptop during the labs Lab #1 & Lab1 Solution Programs Homework #1, solution programs, and video comments	Reading This week, you should read Chapter 1 in Python for Everyone, up to Section 1.6, included. Read the article on pair programming. We will discuss it in class during the second week of class.
Week 2 2/3	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on Chapter 1. Go to Moodle, select CSC111, and locate the Quiz in the "Week 1-Chapter 1" section. (If I have let you in the class, but you are not officially registered yet, please send me an email (dthiebaut@smith.edu) so that I can add you to the moodle roster. ) Monday Message from student liaisons The two-letter Id needed to submit your program is available here! Meet Guido van Rossum Variables: They are labels for boxes containing information. Boxes in memory. Different types. Can be combined together. Values can be assigned to them with = Operators: + - * / //  % Teller Machine example: given some amount of $ to withdraw from the machine, figure out the number of $20-, $10-, $5- and $1-bills. Here's the program we finished with in class. Wednesday: THERE WILL BE CLASS AND LAB TODAY! I AM ALREADY IN FORD HALL --DT Discussion of the pair-programming article in class. Continue with ATM/Teller machine example: The importance of pseudo-code, and going one step at a time. Changing a float into an int, and vice versa Functions: print(), abs(), trunc() (predefined) Friday Review of Lab 2 Q&A Strings and string methods (documentation) A review of what we have learned so far Learn how to use http://python.org and http://doc.python.org Lab #2 and Lab #2 Solution Programs Homework #2 and solutions programs.	Reading Read the article on pair programming. We will discuss it in class on Wednesday. Finish reading Chapter 2 by the end of this week. Read Chapter 3 up to Section 3.6 3.8 (not included) before Monday 2/10. Add
Week 3 2/10	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz #2 on Chapter 3. Go to Moodle, select CSC111, and locate the Quiz in the "Week 2-Chapter 3" section. The quiz closes Monday at 10:59 a.m. Monday A quick glimpse of what's ahead: Code Blocks If-statements Flowcharts The idea of boolean values, George Boole (1815-1864), 2-way directionals Relational operators < <= > >= ==, != Exercise 1: Revisiting the ATM program Exercise 2: Printing a tight box around 3 strings of unknown length: FindMax.py Wednesday Poll for Lab Section 1 students Continue exercises from Monday Exercise 3 (tricky!): Same as Exercise 2 but using this approach: print( "|%30s|" % name ), where 30 is the max More exercises! Negating a boolean expression (point inside a rectangle) Boolean variables Rock, Paper, Scissors Thursday Enjoy the day off! Enjoy the snow! Please do Lab 3 on your own and pick a time when TAs are available to help you out." Friday Revisit the Rock-Paper-Scissors program Boolean variables: how can we use them? How does one operate with them? Some exercises Lab #3 and solution programs Homework #3 and solution programs	Reading Finish reading Chapter 3 this week!
Week 4 2/17	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on Chapter 4: While Loops. The quiz will cover only While loops, from Section 4.1 to 4.5 included. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday: Watch the exchange between the robot played by Robin Williams and his owner, played by Sam Neil in the 1999 movie Bicentenial Man". Here one of the two "people" having a conversation is an ultra-logical being: a robot, who is not fully aware of the subtleties of the art of (human) conversation: (advance the movie to 7 minutes and 10 seconds) Debugging with print() statements: it works! Applying this technique to an exercise The different parts of a while loop. The flow of control. Semantic variations of the while loop Warning: infinite loops! The role of a sentinel. What is a sentinel? Exercises with While Loops Wednesday: RALLY DAY Lab 1 will be split in 2 sections, one Wed. 7-9 p.m., and one Thursday 7-9 p.m.. Both will be in Ford Hall 342. Friday Comments about Lab #4, Challenge 4: Modify the program above so that it stops 1) if the user enters -1 2) or when the sum of the numbers is greater than 20. Working with sentinels Example 1 Example 2 , reading Emily Dickinson's poetry Two illustrative videos for running Python on the command line. Lab #4 and Solution Programs Homework 4 and solution programs	Reading Chapter 4, first half on While loops for Monday 2/17, second half on For loops during the week.
Week 5 2/24	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on the second half of Chapter 4: for Loops. The quiz will cover only for loops, from Section 4.6 to the end of Chapter 4. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday For-Loops: review what they do, how they work Playing with sound files A bit of physics Physics of sound: A metal plate is connected to an oscillator and frequency is increased... The source of waves] (1933). You may skip after the first 6 minutes. Media Files hello.wav goodbye.wav dratcomp.wav force.wav takeover.wav guitar.wav Basic JES program to play sound file file = pickAFile() sound = makeSound( file ) blockingPlay( sound ) Basic functions can be found here Exercise 1: reduce the sound intensity by half Exercise 2: play the sound file backwards The print() function is getting more powerful by the minute! sep and end parameters! Wednesday The print() function is getting more powerful by the minute! sep and end parameters! Simple sound modification exercises. Friday A word about Homework 3 A word about Homework 5 Example of a well-documented Python program How to move a group of samples (word) from one place to another in a sound array? How to swap two samples in an array? Exercises on simple (non-nested) for-loops Lab #5 and solution programs Homework #5 and solution programs. A sample of poems generated	Reading Chapter 4 on For-Loops. The quiz for Monday will ask questions about material seen in class the week of 2/24.
Week 6 3/3	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on for Loops. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday Q&A What is printed by this test? if False==False: print( "Chocolate" ) else: print( "Spinach" ) Functions. Definition Examples of functions that print simple messages. def greetings(): print( "-----" ) print( "Hello" ) print( "-----" ) functions can be called inside loops... Playing a game with functions function parameters: creating a function that prints a string with a box around it. Playing more sophisticated games Wednesday Exercises with Functions Functions can shorten their work by using return Functions returning values Examples def add( a, b ): return a+b # try the above function with numbers, ints, floats, and strings! def intAverage( a, b ): return ( int(a)+ int(b) )//2 def printWinner( human, computer ): if human==computer: print( "It's a tie!" ) elif human < computer: print( "I WIN!" ) else: print( "I let you win..." ) Exercises with Value-Returning Functions Top-Down design Friday Top-Down design Review of Lab #6 Comments on Homework 4. Look at the solution programs What should you put in a header? If the assignment does not specify that the program will input data from the keyboard, don't use input() statements!!! PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS!!! Add blank lines to highlight natural (logical) divisions Break long lines into shorter ones One should understand the structure of a program by scanning it quickly. The dynamics of returning from a function def f1( a, b): c = a+b if a < c: return print( "case 1" ) if a > 0: print( "case 2" ) else: print( "case 3" ) return print( "a=%d b=%d c=%d" % (a,b,c) ) # what's the output generated by the following calls? f1( 3, 2 ) f1( -3, 2 ) f1( 3, -2 ) f1( -3, -2 ) Nested-For Loops Exercises on Nested For-Loops Lab #6 and Solution Programs Homework #6 and solution program	Reading We're starting learning about functions this week. They are documented in Chapter 5 of the textbook. We'll cover functions that do not return values first, then functions that return values next. As soon as we understand functions enough we'll jump back to Chapter 4 to look at nested for-loops.
Week 7 3/10	No Quiz this weekend (3/8, 3/9)! Monday redEyes.bmp catHat.bmp Nested for-loops with Python Tutor Digital images. Pixels, colors, RGB format, width, height, coordinate system. Exploring RGB system with JES: color=pickAColor() JES functions for processing images: Processing images: Changing the colors of an image Making an image black and white Swapping Red, Green and Blue components Adding a border to the image Changing the red eyes to black Skeleton Program Wednesday in-class MIDTERM EXAM and an example of the format that will be used Youyou's cats, created during Lab 7 Session 1 Friday Go over Lab #7 solution programs Comments on Homework # 5 (returned) and Homework #7 (due Thursday after the break) Pay attention to details! Imports at top Make the computer compute! Why 255? Adding a disk to an image And now, something completely different... Lab #7 and Solution Programs Homework #7 and Solution Programs	Reading A Good introduction to image processing with JES can be found here.

Second Half (Spring Break-May)

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 9 3/24	Monday Lists Lists are containers. Two types of lists: [...] (mutable) and (...) (immutable) Review: creating a list. Empty list and append operation. Review: len() and indexing New: indexing from the end Review: traversing lists New: list reference. Lists are shared! New: inserting elements in a list New: testing if an element is in the list with in Exercises and Solution program Wednesday A word about Homework #6: Keep all the function definitions at the top! (example) Lists are data structures. An example of a list implementation in Java... Continue with the list exercises of Monday Slicing Lists Friday Review of solution programs for Lab #8 Dissecting examples dealing with typical list operations Exercises on lists of lists A word about list comprehension (Advanced material...) (Exercises) A word about filtering data, analytics, and data science Lab #8 and solution programs Homework #8 and solution programs	Reading Read Chapter 6 on Lists
Week 10 3/31	Monday A word about the quiz A word about the Wolfram language Price of a bit technology cost speed RAM: 8GB @ $80 ( 0.01 cents/MB ) 6,000 to 17,000 MB/s SSD 256GB @ $190 (0.0007 cents/MB) 600 MB/s Hard Disk 2 TB @ $160 ( 0.00008 cents/MB) 90 MB/s Working with files. Files are an essential part of a computer, and they are maintained by the operating system. How hard disks work: The evolution of hard disk technology. Examples The evolution of programming languages. How are characters stored on disk (and in memory)? ASCII Table (American Standard Code for Interchange of Information) UTF-8 ((Universal Character Set) Transformation Format) Typical file operations: open file for reading read whole file into a variable (string or list) close file or open file for writing write one or several variables to file close file Examples: Write # write some variables to file name = "Smith College" address = "1 Elm st., Northampton, MA 01063" file = open( "college.txt", "w" ) file.write( "%s\n" % name ) file.write( "%s\n" % address ) file.write( "Amherst College\n" ) file.write( "Amherst, MA, 01002\n" ) file.close() Read # read the same file back and print all the lines file = open( "college.txt", "r" ) for line in file: print( "line =", line.strip() ) file.close() Wednesday Remember to use the docs.python.org pages for reference! What is the file path? Under Windows 7 Under Mac OSX The concept of Current Directory The concept of Parent Directory The concept of the Root of the file system The concept of a tree data-structure Writing text to file Reading text from file Writing numbers to file Reading numbers from file Creating a log Friday Remember to use the docs.python.org pages for reference! An often forgotten combination of operators: "not in", as in "if x not in List"... A word about Homework 7 height = 100 yPairs = [] stripeHeight = height//8 for y in range( 0, height, height//4 ): yPairs.append( ( y, y+stripeHeight ) ) print( yPairs ) for pair in yPairs: print( "Stripe ys: ", end="" ) for y in range( pair[0], pair[1] ): # display a full row of pixes at 7 print( y, end=" " ) print() Catching errors in Python: exceptions The Python documentation Exercises (early end of class: Presentation of the Major) Lab #9 and solution programs Homework #9 and solution programs	Reading Read Chapter 7 on Files and Exceptions. We are going to concentrate on text files, reading text files and writing text files, and on handling exceptions. You may skip Sections 7.3 and 7.4.
Week 11 4/7	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on Chapter 7 on Files and Exceptions. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday Catching Errors, Continued Exercises Advantages Cleaner code, easier to write Clear separation of "regular code" and "code handling problems" (see this reference for an example) Almost same speed as original code when using try/except Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (OOP) The concept: a black box with buttons on the front, and a blueprint to help build it. Example 1: A simple program keeping track of a collection of records. Does not use OOP Example 2: The same program, using OOP. Wednesday Something to learn by heart: LIST.append() does not return anything,, but STRING.replace() does Something to remember: If a function returns something of a given type, it must always return something of this type. The exception is that it can return None which does not have a type Back to Example 2 from Monday's class Rules and definitions The interface the DOT notation. Private versus public member variables Private versus public methods What if a method needs to call another method of the same class? Example 3: Creating a Dog class (use the Person class as example), with two member variables: a tag name (string) a vaccinated status (boolean) Friday (Visit by admitted students) Reminder: Quiz during the weekend on Python objects and classes int to month name: an easy solution def nameOfMonth( num ): months = [ "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" ] return months[ num ] is "Hello" in the user input? ans = input( "> " ) if ans.lower().find( "hello" ) == -1: bePolite( ) Tips & Tricks for programming (life) print start small Creating a new class: People, a list of Person objects. We build on the previous example seen in class. Overview of Homework #10 Lab #10 and solution programs Homework #10 and solution programs Make-up Homework and solution program	Reading We will skip Chapter 8 and move on to Chapter 9 this week. Read Chapter 9!
Week 12 4/14	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on Classes and Objects. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday Exercises on objects and classes Wednesday Graphics (Covered in Chapter 2) The window The canvas Horstmann's graphic library Skeleton program from graphics import GraphicsWindow MAXWIDTH = 800 MAXHEIGHT = 600 def main(): win = GraphicsWindow(MAXWIDTH, MAXHEIGHT) canvas = win.canvas() #--- add new code here --- win.wait() win.close() main() Setting the color inside shapes canvas.setFill( red, green, blue ) Drawing rectangles: canvas.drawRect( x, y, width, height ) Drawing circles canvas.drawOval( x, y, width, height ) Friday Review of Lab #11 A class with a top and a car without one: a case of Class Inheritance Building up to an inherited class Exercise Lab #11 and solution program Homework #11 and Solution program	Reading We continue working with objects and classes this week, so the material covered in Chapter 9 is definitely still a good reference to visit and visit again. We will use objects in the context of graphics this week, so the material you already read in Chapter 2 will be a good reference for us. One of the appendices in the book has a good coverage of the graphics library (starting Page A-24) and all the methods available. Class inheritance is covered in Chapter 10 of the book. Read the first 4 sections (stop at Section 10.5, excluded).
Week 13 4/21	Saturday/Sunday: Moodle Quiz on Classes and Inheritance. The quiz will close right before Monday's class. Monday Adding motion to graphic objects. Example Resizing a graphic object. Example A new concept: Event-Driven Programming Adding event-driven capability to out graphics library: graphics111.py Circle, Wheel, Rectangle and Polygon classes Menu class Example Programs Wednesday: Guest Lecture: Prof. Helene Visentin, on mapping Paris throughout the ages. http://albus.smith.edu/paris/ What is the field of Digital Humanities? Keynote presentation (pdf) Class discussion: Mapping the campus Friday Animated Objects Playing with global variables A review of Lab #12 An introduction to sets Console demo a = { 'dog', 'cat' } b = set( [] ) a.add( 'dog' ) a.discard( 'cat' ) len( a ) sorted( a ) a.intersection( b ) a.union( b ) L1 = [ 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5 ] d = set( L1 ) # Exercise: take a list and remove all its duplicates # Exercise: count unique words in a string, with lists, with sets Example Lab #12 and solution programs Homework #12	Reading Wikipedia has a short article introducing event-driven programming. Sets and Dictionaries are covered in Chapter 8. Read Sections 1 and 2, and stop at 8.3.
Week 14 4/28	Monday Back to the example on sets. Making the counting of unique words even faster! Dictionaries. Dictionaries, like sets, are data structures: data organized in a specific way so as to make some problems easier to write, or faster to execute, or more memory efficient. Playing with dictionaries in the console: >>> dict = {} >>> dict = { "apple":1, "pear":3, "banana":6 } >>> dict >>> dict[ "pear" ] >>> dict[ "orange" ] >>> dict[ "kiwi" ] = 12 >>> dict.keys() >>> dict.values() >>> dict.items() >>> for key in dict: print( key ) >>> for key in dict: print( key, dict[key] ) >>> contacts = {} >>> contacts[ "Marie" ] = "111 22 33" >>> contacts[ "Alex" ] = "222 33 44" >>> contacts[ "Francis" ] = "333 44 55" >>> contacts.pop( "Alex" ) Find the frequency of occurrence of words in a sentence Find the 10 most frequent words in James Joyce's Ulysses Recursion A simple first example: factorials: the mathematical expression, and its version in Python. Wrapping text recursively. The towers of hanoi Wednesday Continue with Factorial Program Python code Animation Zipped Keynote Towers of Hanoi, the movie How long would it take for 64 disks? Binary search Fractal tree Friday: A couple more words about recursion... maze-visiting program Final Take-Home EXAM Lab #13 and solution program	Reading Dictionaries and sets are covered in Chapter 8. Section 8.3 is especially interesting. Recursion is covered in Chapter 11. Read up to, but not including, Section 5.

Links and Resources

Map of Smith College

Full Map

Reduced Map

Dates of Construction for Smith Buildings

• The dates for the construction of different buildings on campus are available here

A Skeleton Python Program for Displaying An Image

# Skeleton program for displaying a gif image.
# D. Thiebaut
# Warning: will not work with a jpg or png image!  If you 
# need to convert your image to gif, use a Web service.
#

from graphics111 import *
import tkinter as tk

MAXWIDTH  = 800
MAXHEIGHT = 600


# ========================================================
#                       Main Program
# ========================================================
def main():
    gifFileName = "SmithMapSmall.gif"
    # open the window and get access to its canvas
    win = GraphicsWindow(MAXWIDTH, MAXHEIGHT)
    canvas = win.canvas()
    
    # put gif image on canvas    
    photo = tk.PhotoImage( file=gifFileName )
    canvas._tkcanvas.create_image(0,0, image=photo, anchor = tk.NW )
    
    # wait and respond to events, or comment out and make the program
    # stop as soon as car disappears.
    win.wait()
    win.close()
    
main()

A Skeleton Event-Driven Program

# A Skeleton event-driven program
# D. Thiebaut
#

from graphics111 import *

MAXWIDTH = 800
MAXHEIGHT = 800

def mouseEvent( win, canvas, x, y ):
    global menu
    
    button = menu.buttonClicked( x, y )
    
    if button == None:
        return
    
    if button == "LeftArrow":
        return
    
    if button == "RightArrow":
        return
    
    if button == "Minus":
        return
    
    if button == "Plus":
        return    


# ========================================================
#                       Main Program
# ========================================================
def main():
    global menu
    
    # open the window and get access to its canvas
    win = GraphicsWindow(MAXWIDTH, MAXHEIGHT)
    canvas = win.canvas()
    canvas.setCallbackFunction( mouseEvent )
    
    # add a menu to the window
    menu = Menu()
    menu.draw( canvas )
    
    # wait and respond to events, or comment out and make the program
    # stop as soon as car disappears.
    win.wait()
    win.close()
    
main()

Graphics Library used in Textbook

• It is available for download here. Once downloaded, unzip it and move it to the directory where you are developing your programs.

All Demo Programs

• A selection of programs created in class can be found here

On Line Python books

• disocovermagazine.com blog. Check out the answers posted by many readers. They contain some interesting links that you may find useful!

Python keywords

The list of all the reserved words of the Python language

and del for is raise assert elif from lambda return break else global not try class except if or while continue exec import pass yield def finally in print

Linux

• Getting Started with Linux (from U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
• Intermediate Linux (from U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
• A good Emacs tutorial
• Emacs Quick Reference

Misc

• If you decide to work in pairs for the homework assignments, you need to follow the protocol for 'pair programming' as discussed in this article.

• Video talks on Python:
  • Guido van Rossum, and Python 3000

• All the programs of Zelle's Python textbook

• a video of digital horses: what we can do with lists of objects!

Software

• Installing and using the Secure Shell Client on a Windows PC.

• Using SSH on Windows, Linux, or on a Mac with OS X

Class Videos

(The tables below were generated by this Python program.)

http://img.youtube.com/vi/YF9dxRkY4E8/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 For-Loop exercises -- Exercise #5	http://img.youtube.com/vi/TNfI1tO70CE/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 For Loop Exercises -- Exercise #4
http://img.youtube.com/vi/1VXPBeYBiuo/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 For-Loop Exercises -- Exercise #3	http://img.youtube.com/vi/y1dv69bSSwk/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 For-Loop Exercises -- Exercise #2
http://img.youtube.com/vi/_FZEwCOyQvA/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 For-Loop Exercises: Solution for Exercise #1	http://img.youtube.com/vi/P1Myggumnso/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 -- Using PythonTutor
http://img.youtube.com/vi/ELRMtELi0zE/mqdefault.jpg Running Python Programs from the Command Line (Mac)	http://img.youtube.com/vi/6x2qtLrQdqU/mqdefault.jpg Python on the command line in Windows
http://img.youtube.com/vi/1FomulmEjuk/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 Intro to Lab 3	http://img.youtube.com/vi/TU2zzMM7v4A/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 Notes on Homework 1 2014
http://img.youtube.com/vi/OCRvN0NJlHg/mqdefault.jpg Comments for CSC111 TAs on Homework 1	http://img.youtube.com/vi/qwEDoAGB3NE/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 Comments on Homework 2
http://img.youtube.com/vi/TgZxW6w6w8c/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 Comments on Lab #1	http://img.youtube.com/vi/bjVO2MZroUU/mqdefault.jpg CSC111 Spring 2014: Finding the Class Web Page

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