School has wrapped up for the semester, at least for me. (Yes, I’m aware it is mid-October. Yes, I’m aware normal people are dealing with mid-terms. What can I say; that’s the way the St. Ed’s New College schedule worked out this time around.)
Now that I’ve got some free time, I can engage in some useful projects, like more Project e work (I’ve got a long multi-part post in the works that I hope to finish soon), updating the SDC pages, and perhaps some outside study.
I’ve written here before about the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative, and I decided this would be as good a time as any to start working through 6.00, “Introduction to Computer Science and Programming“. As I was reviewing the various readings, a thought came to me.
“Hey,” I said to myself, “wouldn’t it be nifty to blog this as you’re taking it?”
“That’s a definition of ‘nifty’ I was previously unaware of,” I responded.
“It’d give you some motivation,” I said.
“Why am I talking to myself?” I responded.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Have you considered medication?”
Anyway, my need for psychotropic medications aside, this seems like a good idea, if only to give my loyal readers something to laugh at. So…
Getting Started: Python and IDLE.
My code for problem set 1. (This has been tested on Project e with Python 2.6.2, on the MacBook with Python 2.5, and on the Nokia with Python 2.5.2. I haven’t tested it on my work machine yet.)
Comments on my code or coding style are welcome; as a matter of fact, they are downright encouraged.
[…] seem to recall mentioning previously that the semester had wrapped, at least for […]
I’ve just started going through this course myself. So far, so good. I’m a complete rookie at programming, but I’m learning quickly. Obviously, you’re no beginner, since you have a website and all. I was wondering if you’d completed the next lessons yet. You referred to the above code as ‘Problem set 1″, when it looks like this was actually for Problem Set “0”. Have you gotten to PS1 yet?
“I’ve just started going through this course myself. So far, so good. I’m a complete rookie at programming, but I’m learning quickly.”
Excellent.
“Obviously, you’re no beginner, since you have a website and all.”
I have some background in Perl (self-taught) and Java (two semesters at St. Eds) but I’ve never held a true programming job for money. At least, not yet; if someone wants to make the offer, my contact information is available…
“I was wondering if you’d completed the next lessons yet. You referred to the above code as ‘Problem set 1″, when it looks like this was actually for Problem Set “0″. Have you gotten to PS1 yet?”
Yeah, that is a little confusing. I think I called it problem set 1 because it was lecture one, but they consider it to be PS0 in the documentation.
No, I haven’t been able to work on PS1 yet because of some personal issues, but I’m hoping to be able to get that knocked out this week. I think I actually wrote some similar (if not identical) Java code for one of my classes; now I just have to go back and find it.