Blahrg

We really haven't done much. We did three quizzes over arrays of references, which I honestly didn't think was very hard despite the fact that a whole lot of people seem to be struggling with it. I don't know, I just do what I normally do with arrays and don't really think about the references in particular and it all works out just fine for me. The only one I've ever had any real trouble with was that ridiculously complicated nest of different references on the last question of the arrays of references review, and even then I got everything but the last print statement right on the first try. Other than that, we just did a free response question, which was really easy, and we're getting ready for the final next week. So, not much to talk about.

Album

That was extremely frustrating. It turned out that the reason I had to spend the entire class period and some of lunch beating my head against this lab was because of two problems. All I had to do was switch two index  values and change a single character in my remove length method, and it went from bizarre unexplained problems that defied explanation to working perfectly. Such incredibly tiny errors caused the program to bug out in very strange ways, and almost escaped my notice because the errors were strange enough I was looked for fundamental flaws in some of my methods, rather than typos.

References

References are kind of confusing me. Whenever I'm reading about what they're supposed to do, like in the presentation, the way that java handles them makes absolutely no sense to me. However, when I'm just doing the labs and working with the references it makes perfect sense and I've got no problem with them. If I try to think about them, I fail at them, but if I just do what makes sense to me, then it works out properly. Its really strange.

This week

Nobody really did much this week. Maybe its just because its a four day week and its right before Thanksgiving, but there wasn't really anything in any of my classes. We really just did 2d Arrays in this class, and those aren't that hard. The many thing that was confusing in the lab was just scanning in all of the different  stuff for the arrays, just because keeping tracking of where everything is is so confusing, and would give some really strange errors whenever we did something wrong. Maybe I should just start writing down things when I'm doing my labs, in order to keep track of everything in the lab.

Halloween

Halloween was pretty boss, and we had a late start Thursday, so all in all this week has been pretty good. Don't have much to say about the actual class, though, since we've either had workdays or I've been gone for almost every day of the week. The arrays lab was fun, but it was so easy. It pretty much just told us exactly what to do, including how to check if we did it right, so there was really nothing to do.

Files

I honestly don't have much of anything to say about writing to and reading from files. Its almost the exact same thing as it is in python, and it was easy then, too. The only other thing that we had this week was the loops quiz, I think, which didn't end up being very difficult by virtue of my need to check every question about five times just to make sure I didn't misread the problem. OCD-like obsession with making absolutely sure that you've understood the problem perfectly is useful on our quizzes, but its less than helpful when there's a time limit.

For Loops

I'm so glad that we changed the deal lab from while loop to for loop. I don't like while loops that much, and having to do that lab without being able to use for loops would have been fairly frustrating. Its so much more convenient to use for loops in most situations, so being able to use them in labs from now on is going to be nice. Its like what happened with else statements when we were only using if statements. It was so tempting to just use them, but I didn't in an effort to keep with the spirit of the lab or codingbat exercise.

If/Else Statements

Its so tempting to just nest them forever! I mean, I know there are plenty of efficient ways of doing the same thing that I'm doing in my code, but just nesting if loops until the problem goes away just feels easier to me. So long as I don't mess up with my braces or my indentation (which I don't, ever), it works out fine for me. Once we run into a genuinely complex program I'm sure that I'll be forced to snap out of it, but for now its a bit of a struggle.

Six Weeks Exam

This is my first computer science exam of the year, and I thought it worked out pretty well. I'm not sure I like writing down code, but you have to do it for the exam so it is probably for the best that we start getting ready for it. It feels so clumsy compared to typing, and I'm always worried that I've done something wrong or missed something. I didn't have any problems with the multiple choice, except that some of the questions or answers had typos or errors of some kind. Still, I liked the exam over all.

Public class Week5 {

private String blogPost;

public Week5() {

     blogPost = "";

     }

public Week5(String a){

     blogPost=a;

     }

public setPost(String newPost){

     blogPost=newPost;

     }

public String toString() {

    return blogPost;

    }

}

In the main of another method:

Week5 post = new Week5();

post.setPost("Constructors and methods kind of annoy me. Particularly, initialization constructors and          setVariable modifier methods seem redundant to me. I mean, they'll be both really helpful once we need to    change the values of things mid program, but as it is they just take up more space. You have to input variable   values anyways, so you might as well just have a default constructor and prompt the user to input values for use in the modifier methods, though that won't help if you need a predetermined set of values. There's nothing wrong with them, its just irritating to have to use them when they aren't necessary to the program just yet. Maybe that's just me being lazy.");

System.out.println(post);

Turtle!

Its like Jeroo, but more fun. I honestly like this a lot, though perhaps not as much as just straight programming because of all of the extra rules, but at the same time drawing shapes using turtles is fun, so I'm not going to complain. I particularly like how it gives something that I think is necessary for a lot of beginners in programming, which is context. Not much context, mind, no grand sweeping plot or memorable characters, but some ability to visualize and conceptualize how the code translates onto the screen, which helps make the program make more sense.

Math and Methods

I don't have a whole lot to say about methods, because they're basically the same as in Python, but I do have to say that I'm grateful we're learning the specific syntax. I have a tendency to over complicate my solutions to problems just for the fun of it, and methods help me to at least condense my code. The math library is also pretty much the same, though the differences in data types have been slipping me up, like how I keep trying to use the results from random like they're ints, when they're actually doubles.

Java

Its not all that different from Python, to be honest. I was coming in to this class expecting to have to relearn a lot of things that are different between the two languages, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've been pretty much blowing through all of these labs and worksheets, with only the basic syntax of things tripping me up but the logic of it staying the same. Maybe that's just because its only really the first week of working with it, though. Perhaps the more complex parts of the languages diverge from one another, but the basic stuff seems to be the same thing with different names attached.

Final Blog Post

I thought that this semester was pretty good. I like python, so using it and learning about it for most of the semester was nice. I thought that the sudden jump to the app inventor at the very end was kind of abrupt, but we had to jump to it some way, so whatever. If I have one complaint about this semester, it would probably be that we almost spent too much time on python. After a certain period of time spent on just python, it all started to kind of blend together, and the individual lessons we were learning felt less distinct from each other. Python is a full programming language, so I understand the need to cover a lot of material, but learning about only python for nearly an entire semester certainly got tiring, if not uninteresting. Maybe we could have done a bit of processing either at the beginning or somewhere in the middle, just to switch things around and give a bit of variety, rather than putting the two new things both towards the very end and spending all of our time basically since we started Jeroo on the same programming language. There was variety in terms of what the different labs were about, and some of them (such as the one with the Caesar shift) taught me some interesting things that were only tangentially related to what we were learning at the time. So, in short, while I enjoyed the class and like programming in python a lot, I thought that maybe we could have mixed it up a bit towards the middle of the semester, so as to keep it all from running together. Also, though I think I’ve mentioned this in an earlier blog post, I wish we could have used Coding Bat more often. I liked the way that it helped to teach all the concepts we were learning, and the constant introduction of widely varied problems on the same subject helped to keep it fresh. They were like mini-labs, and I thought they were pretty fun. The extra involved with completed certain amounts of them was also something that I liked.

Make Quiz and Take Quiz

That was kind of frustrating, to be honest. I'm sitting there trying to figure out what's wrong for nearly forty minutes, and it turns out I could have figured out what's wrong in forty seconds. I suppose that's always true for programming, though. You have a sweeping, elaborate program, in which all is in its proper place... and one typo will send the entire thing crashing down, requiring you to pore over the entire code in order to identify the problem.

App Inventor

Its fine, I suppose. I think I would've preferred a final based on python, but this works too, I suppose. One of the main frustrations is that its a lot like scratch. It just seems like a really simple platform to base the final off of. Of course, making the final in python might have led to some lower grades over all as people run out of time on the final, but the App Inventor just seems a bit too far the other way.

Processing

Processing is lots of fun. I don't think I like it quite as much as Python in that python can do things other than make pretty pictures, but it was still fun to use. It was also pretty useful for figuring out some parts of java syntax. By looking through the tutorials and examples for this comparatively simple language I figured out some things that had been puzzling me about the layout of java, which was nice. Not to mention that some of the images and such that Processing could be used to make were very impressive. I in particular liked the fractals and geometric models.

Ivy Bridge

That new processor looks like it'll be really cool. Not only will it be a lot smaller than those that are around today, which will help to make things more compact, but it'll be a lot cheaper to charge. That will be nice, having something that draws off less power, costs less to power, and gives a larger interval in between charges. Maybe its just the fact that my laptop is beginning the final stage of its life and so has all of the charge retention of a wet rag that makes me fixate on this aspect above all of the others, but its still nice.

Blog Post

I'm running out of things to talk about in these things. I guess we might have just taken too long on this recent unit. Either I finished way too early and the fact that I haven't done anything but help other people out lately is my fault, or everyone else is moving really slowly. I suppose its better this, with me finishing early and running out of stuff to do is better than me turning in everything late, but all the same I'm still glad we're moving on to something new soon.

Reading Reflections

I think they need to be a bit shorter. Not a whole lot shorter, but a bit shorter. Whenever I'm writing them, I'll sometimes find myself having to really search for topics of reflection in order to make it long enough. That's not true for all of them, for some I find I have more than enough to say, but I still find myself reaching for ideas enough that I think its a bit of a problem. Maybe instead one and a half pages instead of two pages double spaced, I don't know, but I still think I would have an easier staying topical during them if I didn't have to write quite as much on them.

Strings

These string indexes are getting on my nerves. The issue is, I always forget that the indexes start at zero, as opposed to one. This means that I'll write out a perfectly nice piece of code, double check for errors, run it, and then have to go back and shift everything back one so it'll work. Then, when I'm counting from the back instead of the front, it starts at negative one, instead of negative zero, so that messes me up again. If only it would start at one like counting does.

Finch

I don't get why the finch can do some of the things it can do. I mean, the moving around and the changing colors on command I can get, that makes sense. But why does it have a news, and an earthquake feed? I don't see why they'd feel the need to combine them like that. I guess it makes as much sense as anywhere else you would put it, but it still feels pretty random.

Project 2

Just finished up Project 2, and I have to say that that was really frustrating. It wasn't project's fault, it was mine, but it was really frustrating all the same. It turns out that I had accidentally misspelled one of the names of my variables, and so it wasn't getting used at a key point in the function. This meant that it would spit out the wrong numbers again and again and again, and since the typo was so minor I couldn't see it. I spent forever poring over that code trying to find what was wrong, and it turned out that I had just switched two letters. I know it wouldn't be very practical, but sometimes I wish that python had a spellchecker.

Coding Bat

I'm going back through and completing all the blogs posts that I keep forgetting to post, so forgive me if this is all a bit dated. Anyways, on to the blog posts.
I like Coding Bat. The problems are kind of simplistic, sure, but they're good at teaching concepts, like strings, that I hadn't gotten into before it, and the problems can also be fun to solve. Not to mention the extra credit on assignments, I rather like that part too. So, if some of the things we cover in the future are also on coding bat, then I for one wouldn't mind doing some more on it.

Project 1

Well, the first project is now officially done. I'm not sure how much I liked it, but it was overall pretty good. I mean, I understand the need for a particular rubric in order to make sure people are solving the problem in the right way, but I'm just not quite sure how I like having a specific rubric like that. Its probably just that I've gotten used to the Lab style of grading, but it still kind of bothered me.

Loops

Some of the loops are kind of confusing. Its not so much the implementation of them, that's easy, but its knowing when to use certain things. For some reason, I just have a bit of trouble with while and for loops in particular, as the times when they would be appropriate can kind of blur together. It was a little bit aggravating on the project, as I didn't notice when it specifically requested a for loop, and had to set up a fairly convoluted while loop before I thought of using a for loop. Its not a huge deal, but it can be a bit irritating.

Coding Bat

I like Coding Bat. For one thing, it had extra credit involved with it, which is always a plus for me. Not only that, but I like the format of it. Rather than a single large problem for a particular concept, it splits it up into a group of smaller, disconnected problems. Not only does it keep things fresh, but it also allows a better implementation of a difficulty curve, as each problem can get harder than the last one, so as to keep it challenging. So, overall, I'm hoping we keep doing stuff with Coding Bat, preferably with extra credit involved again.

Meta!

I'm having a lot of difficulty coming up with things to write in these blog posts lately. I mean, I try to be relevant to what we've done over the last week in Computer Programming, but seeing as we just keep doing more things about Python, I just can't think of something to say about it. I could just keep reiterating things I said in weeks past, but that just seems kind of pointless. I guess as we learn new things about Python I'll have more to say, but as it is I've kind of hit Blogger's Block, which is why I have a late blog post at the moment.

Python

I'm liking Python so far. Of course, that's not saying a whole lot, but still. There is a somewhat higher level of abstraction involved in pure python as opposed to jeroo, but not to the degree of some other programming languages. It seems to be a very user friendly language, with a lot of the different possible operations being fairly intuitive once you know the basics, and its much easier to read as well. That said, I'm not totally sure about it yet. I mean, we've learned all the basics of the language from Jeroo, and I learned some of python on my own some time ago, but we still have gotten into any of the more complicated programming, and its functionality under those circumstances does make the difference between a good and a bad language, so we'll see.