CS 110X Mar 04 2014

Lecture Path: 24
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Class: Course Evaluations

Think of yourself as a brand. You need to be remembered. What will they remember you for? What defines you? If you have it in you, do something that defines you. Invent something, develop a unique skill, get noticed for something – it creates a talking point.

Chris Arnold

1 Getting Ready For Final Exam

1.1 Skills

We are continuing the process of reviewing the core skills that I used when designing this course.

1.1.1 String Manipulation

SM-1. Know how to convert string into integers and floats
SM-2. Know how to convert floats and integers into string
SM-3. Know how to concatenate string literals
SM-4. Know how to read string input from keyboard
There are two ways. input will convert the entered text into an int, a float, a string, a Boolean, or a list of the same. raw_input returns the exact characters typed in
SM-5. Know how to process XML formatted data
SM-6. Know how to search through a string to find delimited tokens and regions
SM-7. Know how to use ord(char) to determine ASCII code for a character
We did not complete this skill.
SM-8. Know how to use chr(int) to generate character from a given ASCII code
We did not complete this skill.
SM-9. Know how to slice a string substring

1.1.2 Input Output

IO-1. Know how to print information to the console window
IO-2. Know how to read raw input from console as string
IO-3. Know how to write data to a file
IO-4. Know how to read in text data containing strings of text
IO-5. Know how to read in CSV formatted data
IO-6. Understand why opened files need to be closed
IO-7. Know how to append data to a file We did not complete this skill.
IO-8. Know how to use eval to convert arbitrary string into python data type We did not complete this skill, but note that input does this.

1.2 In-Class Exercise

To complete the preparation for the final exam, here are a number of programming questions that you should all be able to do. I will select one or two of them to go over in class. I encourage you to try solving them all

You are given a list of lists (i.e., something like [ [1, 2, 3], [9, 4], [5, 4, 2, 3] ]) and you are asked to append all individual values to create a single large list [ 1, 2, 3, 9 4, 5, 4, 2, 3].

hint: You can solve this without a nested loop

You have a string representing the pages of a document that you would like to print (i.e., something like ’1,5,16,20-25,33’) where commas separate individual pages as well as regions represented by hyphens. You want to count the total number of integers in the representation. In the above case, there would be ten pages printed.

hint: split will really come in handy here, more than once

Given a list containing only 0s and 1s, determine whether there is a consecutive run of N 1s, where N is the parameter to the function.

1.3 What To Do Next

First, if you are thinking that Computer Science is kinda cool after this class, be sure to talk to me via email, or in person in D term.

What if you are more interested in pursuing a Minor in CS? Numerous options are available. Let’s start with the following FlowChart:

Figure 1: CS courses FlowChart

What if you are only interested in taking one more course. Then consider the following advice.

1.4 Course Evaluation

In addition to the course evaluation forms, there are multiple questions that I would like you to answer. These are the "Instructor provided ranked questions" at the bottom of the second side of the evaluation sheet.

#1 – Rate your level of anxiety when working on a programming assignment.
#2 – Rate your skill at mentally tracing through the execution of a large complex program.
#3 – Rate your ability to complete a programming project if you had a lot of time to complete the program.
#4 – Rate your ability to apply programming skills to your own field of study.
#5 – Rate the effectiveness of the "Variable/Value Function Frame diagram notation" on your learning.
#6 – Rate the effectiveness of the "Debug Challenges" on your learning.
#7 – Rate the effectiveness of the "Clicker Technology" on your learning.
#8 – Rate the effectiveness of "Time Spent In Class Lecture" on your learning.