We had our seconds test this week, and as the title suggests I ran out of time. I felt pretty confident going into the test as I knew that I had studied pretty hard for it. From what I could tell the content of the test coincided with what I had studied and I felt like I was coasting going into the final DrRacket section.
Unfortunately I had taken too much time on the first portion of the test and had to scramble to complete the final portion. I was mad at myself as I had made it a point of mine to do better on the DrRacket portion of the test as it was what cost me an 'A' on my first test and I had studied Picturing Programs specifically for this test.
I tried to answer as much as I could of the remaining questions in hopes that I will be able to get part marks, what was most frustrating was the fact that I knew how to answer the questions but I simply did not have enough time to get my answers in. I know going into the exam that I will be sure to manage my time more effectively. Let's hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot again.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Project 1 Success
We had to submit our first project last night, it was a program that once completed would act as a clock. I completed it with a lot of time to spare, everything seemed to be working the way it was described in the comments of the code.
Overall I was pleased with the challenge that was put before us in the first project. I started it a week in advance and completed about 80% of the project on the first day alone. It was that last 20% that was giving me the most grief but I was able to complete it after reading through Picturing Programs.
Picturing Programs proved to be an invaluable resource for this project. I read through at least a quarter of the book in search of the solution to many of my problems. It really is the DrRacket bible for all new beginners to the language.
The biggest challenge I faced was when it came to removing the background of the images which were being used for the hands of the clock, I eventually solved it and I experienced an immediate wave of relief across my body. I have never really felt that when programming, at least not with DrRacket.
I even took time once I had submitted the program to try and make the clock look a little more aesthetically pleasing, we were told that this wouldn't lead to any extra credit for us so I didn't include it in my submission. Overall when all was said and done I felt that project 1 definitely challenged my skills in DrRacket and thankfully I was able to come out on top. I can only hope that this remains true going into the second project.
Overall I was pleased with the challenge that was put before us in the first project. I started it a week in advance and completed about 80% of the project on the first day alone. It was that last 20% that was giving me the most grief but I was able to complete it after reading through Picturing Programs.
Picturing Programs proved to be an invaluable resource for this project. I read through at least a quarter of the book in search of the solution to many of my problems. It really is the DrRacket bible for all new beginners to the language.
The biggest challenge I faced was when it came to removing the background of the images which were being used for the hands of the clock, I eventually solved it and I experienced an immediate wave of relief across my body. I have never really felt that when programming, at least not with DrRacket.
I even took time once I had submitted the program to try and make the clock look a little more aesthetically pleasing, we were told that this wouldn't lead to any extra credit for us so I didn't include it in my submission. Overall when all was said and done I felt that project 1 definitely challenged my skills in DrRacket and thankfully I was able to come out on top. I can only hope that this remains true going into the second project.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
DrRacket: Thoughts So Far
We're about 2 months into the semester now and we've been slowly growing our knowledge in DrRacket as the course has progressed. DrRacket as a programming language is pretty interesting to use, I have only ever used Object Oriented Turing and Java previously.
For the most part DrRacket has seemed pretty simple to understand, through the first month or so of the semester we really only learned the basics of the language. It has its limitations of course but its still impressive to me how it tries to make the language easy to understand while still fairly powerful.
Over the past month we have started to learn more complex things that the language can do, this past week we learned about working with strings and conditionals. Working with strings was pretty straight forward, it was cool to see how we can manipulate a string of text but it was nothing to really scratch your head over. Conditionals at first sparked a bit of confusion in me but I eventually got the hang of them and what I can do with them.
The biggest issue I have had with DrRacket is simply doing the check-expect expressions to test the code. I have never been one to do the extra steps in something to make sure it works, I always like to hash out a problem myself and try and problem solve when a problem arises. However, I have started to warm to the idea of doing check-expect expressions - mostly because the quizzes expect us to know how to do them. I have gotten the hang of them and they really do help out in the programming process.
For the most part DrRacket has seemed pretty simple to understand, through the first month or so of the semester we really only learned the basics of the language. It has its limitations of course but its still impressive to me how it tries to make the language easy to understand while still fairly powerful.
Over the past month we have started to learn more complex things that the language can do, this past week we learned about working with strings and conditionals. Working with strings was pretty straight forward, it was cool to see how we can manipulate a string of text but it was nothing to really scratch your head over. Conditionals at first sparked a bit of confusion in me but I eventually got the hang of them and what I can do with them.
The biggest issue I have had with DrRacket is simply doing the check-expect expressions to test the code. I have never been one to do the extra steps in something to make sure it works, I always like to hash out a problem myself and try and problem solve when a problem arises. However, I have started to warm to the idea of doing check-expect expressions - mostly because the quizzes expect us to know how to do them. I have gotten the hang of them and they really do help out in the programming process.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The Workings of a Computer
In class this week we covered the way a computer works, including computer storage. It was very interesting to see the inner workings of the computers we use everyday, including the laptop I am typing this article on right now.
It is amazing when you really think about it. Something that we consider to be a simple operation for a computer is really much more complex than that. We almost take for granted that our computers simply do what we tell them to do. We assume that when we push a button, the computer will do what we expect that button to do. But as we learned in class this week, there is a lot more than goes into the process than we think.
We have been taught previously that binary code was the language of computers. This class showed us how a computer is able to simplify everything it does to a series of 1's and 0's through multiple series of calculations.
Information on a computer is also stored as 1's and 0's in one of many storage mediums that computers utilize. I've never really put much thought into the notion that our files are not saved the way we see them on our computer screens. In fact I've never really put much thought into the fact that what we see on our computer screens is not what our computers "see". Our computers really are mindless machines processing 1's and 0's, they do not know what the 1's and 0's are for.
It is amazing when you really think about it. Something that we consider to be a simple operation for a computer is really much more complex than that. We almost take for granted that our computers simply do what we tell them to do. We assume that when we push a button, the computer will do what we expect that button to do. But as we learned in class this week, there is a lot more than goes into the process than we think.
We have been taught previously that binary code was the language of computers. This class showed us how a computer is able to simplify everything it does to a series of 1's and 0's through multiple series of calculations.
Information on a computer is also stored as 1's and 0's in one of many storage mediums that computers utilize. I've never really put much thought into the notion that our files are not saved the way we see them on our computer screens. In fact I've never really put much thought into the fact that what we see on our computer screens is not what our computers "see". Our computers really are mindless machines processing 1's and 0's, they do not know what the 1's and 0's are for.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Wikipedia Assignment Thoughts
We had to submit our second part of the Wikipedia assignment last night. We were asked to show that we have looked into how to modify a Wikipedia article, including who and what to take into account when we are making our changes.
This was not the first time I had been asked to make a significant change to a Wikipedia article for a class assignment, and I must say that my first experience was very pleasing. The assignment is unique, it is unlike anything any of us have ever done in university and we will likely never do it again. I am glad that I have been given a chance to do it again.
Reflecting on my past experience with Wikipedia, the thing that I am most looking forward to when I eventually publish my contribution to the Wikipedia community is watching it grow. In the spirit of the openness that is Wikipedia, all articles are under constant growth. Anyone can edit an article if they feel the need to do so. The last article I researched and published has gone under a number of changes by other Wikipedia users, and it is all because of my original research and posting on the subject.
The feeling of collaborating with people I don't even know on a subject that I do not know much about is one you cannot really describe. I am glad this class has given me the chance to feel that again.
This was not the first time I had been asked to make a significant change to a Wikipedia article for a class assignment, and I must say that my first experience was very pleasing. The assignment is unique, it is unlike anything any of us have ever done in university and we will likely never do it again. I am glad that I have been given a chance to do it again.
Reflecting on my past experience with Wikipedia, the thing that I am most looking forward to when I eventually publish my contribution to the Wikipedia community is watching it grow. In the spirit of the openness that is Wikipedia, all articles are under constant growth. Anyone can edit an article if they feel the need to do so. The last article I researched and published has gone under a number of changes by other Wikipedia users, and it is all because of my original research and posting on the subject.
The feeling of collaborating with people I don't even know on a subject that I do not know much about is one you cannot really describe. I am glad this class has given me the chance to feel that again.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Introduction to SLOG
As the name of this SLOG suggests, I am a fifth year student at the University of Toronto. Going into course selection this year I knew that I was going to have an extra half-credit to use once I had ensured that I met all graduation requirements. I had to make the choice of whether or not I should take an extra course that fell under my majors (Criminology and Sociology with a minor in Book & Media Studies in case anyone is wondering) or take a course that I might actually find interesting.
As you can tell, I chose the latter option. It had been a long time since I had taken a computer course in school. All through high school I took every computer course available to me, it was originally going to be the field I went into once I graduated. However, something changed midway through Grade 12. I had been accepted to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) for Video Game Development and the University of Toronto (UofT) for Criminology. I made the choice to pursue a legal career and haven't taken a course centered around computer science or engineering since.
The course so far has been pretty interesting, I do have a fair amount of knowledge of what we are being taught but it is always nice to learn new things. The DrRacket programming language is pretty simple to understand, I enjoy the examples we are shown and the power that the language has despite its relatively basic appearance. The tutorials do offer a bit of a challenge, and I am always one that will embrace a problem-solving situation.
You can expect a post weekly, I will likely post following lecture commenting on what I learned that class and any insight I might have on the various topics we will cover.
As you can tell, I chose the latter option. It had been a long time since I had taken a computer course in school. All through high school I took every computer course available to me, it was originally going to be the field I went into once I graduated. However, something changed midway through Grade 12. I had been accepted to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) for Video Game Development and the University of Toronto (UofT) for Criminology. I made the choice to pursue a legal career and haven't taken a course centered around computer science or engineering since.
The course so far has been pretty interesting, I do have a fair amount of knowledge of what we are being taught but it is always nice to learn new things. The DrRacket programming language is pretty simple to understand, I enjoy the examples we are shown and the power that the language has despite its relatively basic appearance. The tutorials do offer a bit of a challenge, and I am always one that will embrace a problem-solving situation.
You can expect a post weekly, I will likely post following lecture commenting on what I learned that class and any insight I might have on the various topics we will cover.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)