CSC111 Class Page 2010

Main Page | Syllabus | Weekly Schedule | Links & Resources

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Prof and TAs

Dominique Thiébaut email Dept. Computer Science Ford Hall, 356. Telephone: 3854 Office hours TBA, and by appointments

Click here for TA hours this week.

Weekly Schedule

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 1 1/25	Monday Review syllabus Introduction to computer programming Wednesday keywords: 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 Variables Data types Functions Parameter passing Friday Review of the lab Accessing beowulf with a Mac how submit works an example of good documentation: NicelyDocumentedProgram.py exercises: CSC111_Exercises_1 Lab #1 Homework #1 & Solution program 1 and Solution program 2	Read Chapter 1 in Zelle. Read the article on pair programming. We will discuss it in class on Monday 2/1.
Week 2 2/1	Monday: discuss the article on pair programming Robert Fulghum Quotes Beginning discussion of what computer science is about. Towers of Hanoi Block-Structured Languages Understanding blocks Print Exercises Wednesday What's a variable? Naming convention Assignment Multiple assignments Loops Semantics versus Syntax Loop examples Block and Loop Exercises Friday to use main() or not to use main()? Review the use of parentheses () and brackets [] Difference between a list ( , , ) and a list [ , , ] More Loop Exercises Lab #2 Homework #2 and Solutions Programs	We cover Chapter 2 of Zelle this week Start reading Getting Started with Linux and play with the commands on Beowulf
Week 3 2/8	Monday Continuation of Loop Exercises Top-Down design More on loops: indexing Accumulating results Wednesday Playing with Sound files Interesting sound bites: Video 1: Physics of sound: A metal plate is connected to an oscillator and frequency is increased... Video 2: The source of waves (1933). You may skip after the first 6 minutes. Video 3: Theresa Andersson in "Na Na Na" Morning Edition 's Report on Guito Monks Playing with JES ( sample code) Friday Lab #3 and Solution Programs Homework #3 and solution programs	Chapter 3 in Zelle. The math library (I will not cover it in class, but you should read it) Type conversion (important!)
Week 4 2/15	Monday Types, operators Working with indexes and strings Slicing up strings Wednesday No class, Rally Day Friday Exercises Lab #4 and solution programs Homework #4 and Solutions	Strings and string slices are described in Chapter 4. Python Quick Reference
Week 5 2/22	Monday Poems!!! Formatted output (Section 4.5.2 in Zelle) Functions (Section 6.2 in Zelle) Syntax Scope Passing parameters Examples Wednesday Exercises: Understanding Functions Top-down design Introduction to graphics programming Friday A look at CSC111 Zelle graphics.py, the graphics library A few things to know about lists (shallow vs deep copy) Top-Down design, one more time! the crude undocumented program we put together in class.... And if you spend more time on it, you get this program... Lab #5 and solution programs Homework #5 and its solution program	Read Section 6.2 in Zelle Grahics programming is covered in Chapter 5 Functions and functions returning values are covered in Zelle, Chapter 6, Section 6.5
Week 6 3/1	Monday Random poems, revisited: A look at the work of Eitan Mendelowitz on an interactive setup where random poems are generated. Eitan Mendelowitz's installation, Drafting Poems In this video, play close attention to the digital horses, and how, in the preliminary movie, we see how the horses are just collections of fixed size blocks (cylinders) attached to each other. In the next video, the scarabs are objects (particles) that move on their own, in a given direction, avoiding collision with objects. What happens if you connect basic shapes together at random, connect them with articulation points, give them energy to move one block around the other, and iterate hundred of thousands of times and keep the best solutions to generate new ones? (and more videos on this page). Information about Homework assignment Current assignment: work on style! Use listmyprogram utility on Beowulf to spot long lines Wednesday Functions returning values ( Exercises) Class exercise: Putting 8 queens on a chess board. demo of N-queens program Friday Review of missed lab Working with Files Lab #6 and solution programs. Homework #6: Skipped for this week: prepare for midterm!	Read Chapter 5 in Zelle Read Chapter 6.
Week 7 3/8	Monday Decision structures with if/else statements. True/False The syntax of an if statement Using if-statements Logic operators: ==, <, >, <=, >=, != Exercises Wednesday Q&A for Midterm Exercises with if/else statements Thursday: Midterm Exam. A list of typical problems given in past midterms can be found here. Solution programs for the midterm can be found here. Grade Distribution. Friday Introduction to Homework #7 An interesting quote Something fun... No Lab this week. Midterm instead! Homework #7 (due week after Spring break) and its solution program.	Sections 7.1 and 7.2 on Simple Decisions and Two-Way decisions in Zelle.

Spring Break

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 9 3/22	Monday Variations on a scheme: Graphics and if/else statements clickMe.py Wednesday Continue where we left off with clickMe.py, Version 2. We stopped with this version: clickMe.py, Version 3. Moving a ball around: moveBall.py. We stopped with this version: moveBall.py, Version 2 Friday Q&A and review of the lab Using try/except elif tests Lab #8 and Solution Programs Homework #8 and its solution.	We're still in Chapter 7 of Zelle. And we are done at the end of the week!
Week 10 3/29	Monday Review of for loops: break, continue, return A couple programs to start with: demo programs Wednesday While Loops Loop Exercises Accessing Web pages: getWeather.py, a program that gets the temperature from http://www.weather.com/weather/today/01060 Friday deMorgan's Laws Python: language vs. libraries/modules how to import modules/libraries urllib2 (example with http://xgridmac.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/getWikiPageById.cgi) Accessing data on the Web Lab #9 and solution programs Homework #9 and solution programs	Chapter 8
Week 11 4/5	Monday Introduction to OOP OOP and graphics Python programs defining and using classes Wednesday Creating a class for a car using the class Wheel created on Monday Another class example holding student information studentClassN.py Friday Solution program for Lab 10, Part 1. Lab #10 Homework #10 and its solution program	Read Chapter 10!
Week 12   4/12	Monday Default parameter values More programming with classes: studentClassN.py Date/Time example program Sending mail from a Python program Wednesday Class inheritance: myRectangle2.py Using the graphics car of Lab10 as the base and derived classes carLab10.py newCarLab10.py Friday: No Class Lab #11 and Solution Homework #11 and its CSC111 Homework 11 solution program	We're still in Chapter 10. Default argument (parameter) values are covered in Python.org
Week 13 4/19	Monday Review last lab ( lab11.py) Creating a module with newCar.py, containing an inherited class. A view of Programming Languages Wednesday A word on list comprehension. Look for an illustration of this python feature in the solution program for HW 10 Dictionaries. How to use them. How they work. Ulysses by James Joyce: available here... Letter Frequency in English and other languages... search1M.py search in a million-record list search1MHash.py search in a million-record hash table Dictionaries: countwords.py Friday Designing a new language from scratch. Review Lab Lab #12 and Solution program Homework #12 and its solution programs	Dictionaries are covered in Chapter 11 List comprehension is presented in Python.org, Section 5.1.4 in [1]
Week 14 4/26	Monday Designing a new language Introduction to Recursion factorial.py binarySearch.py Wednesday factorial.py binarySearch.py maze.py Friday: Last Class Presentation of the Final take home exam Lab #13 and solution programs Final Exam	Recursion is covered in Chapter 13. Read Sections 13.1 and 13.2.

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Links and Resources

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

Math

• Powers of 2

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