Transcript The Scala Experience Safe Programming Can be Fun!

Computing for
Engineers in
Python
Autumn 2011-12
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Welcome!
• You are about to take a new programming
course in Python
• This is the first run ever of this course
• The idea is to enable you to use programming
as a tool to solve “real world” problems
• Hard work is required!
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Course Objectives
Develop basic computing skills
(programming, algorithms, applications)
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Administration
• Instructor: Assaf Zaritksy
• assafzar AT tau.post.ac.il
• Office hours: by e-appointement (also TAs)
• Shenkar building 405a
• Teaching Assistants: Noga Levy, Yoav Ram
• Web via Moodle: http://moodle.tau.ac.il/
• Everything is there!
• Course material (lectures, practical sessions, hw, code
examples from the site: http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/courses/pyProg/1112a/),
forum, homework submission and grading
• Your responsibility to be updated!
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Practical Sessions
• In a standard classroom
• Purposes:
• Practice topics that were presented in class
• “Preparations” for next week’s class
• Background for homework assignments
• Learn practical tools
• Lectures will be harder to understand, and it is ok…
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Homework 1
• N = 11-13 assignments
• Some assignments will contain a set of short
technical tasks, the rest will be “interesting”
• Each assignment is worth 1-3 points of the final
grade for a total of 15-20 points
• Each assignment is graded to one of four grades
(0,60,80,100), no bargaining!
• In order to pass the course you must pass the
final exam and at least N-2 assignments
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Homework 2
• Submission in singles via Moodle
• It is allowed (and encouraged) to talk, share
ideas, and help friends. No code-sharing!
• TAs will answer hw-related questions in the
forum (make sure no one have asked the same
question before)
• Staff emails are to be used only for personal matters
• No code in the forum! Do not send code to the staff!
• We try to answers emails within 48 hours
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Homework 3
• Each student has 5 grace days for late
submission throughout this course
• If you submit late for a valid reason, attach a
“late submission” note with your submission –
no need to mail anyone!
• Approach the grader directly with homework
submission/grading problems [email protected]
• Miluim, long illness periods – you decide
whether to get a PTOR or submit late
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A Personal Note on HW
• It will take you a lot of time and frustration
• It is an engineering difficulty: figuring out
what's wrong with a system and how to fix it
• You're engineers: make it work!
• There is no other way to learn how to program
• Believe me…
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Exam
• Exam on 27.2 (Moed B on 4.4)
• Final grade is composed out of homework and
final exam
• You must pass the exam to pass the course
• Written exam
• No references
• Includes all course material: class, practical
sessions and hw
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Working Environment
• Lab 008
• Home versus labs
VS.
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Syllabus
Tentative, not in order, probably too ambitious
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Python programming basics •
Using packages
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Recursion
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Sort & search algorithms,
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runtime analysis
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Dynamic programming
Error handling
Input/output
Graphical user interface (GUI)
Simulation
Optimization
Data analysis
Control
Signal processing
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Resources
• Course slides and pointers to relevant bibliography
• Many Python references, but many of them are in fact
manuals for the language
• Recommended book and manual:
• Think Python, by Allen B. Downey, which is available
online (basic)
• Python 2.7 documentation, http://docs.python.org/, is the
official language manual, and a very useful resource
• Dive Into Python by Mark Pilgrim, available online (more
advanced)
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Questions?
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Preface
• We assume no prior knowledge in
programming
• However, we advance fast
• The only way to keep on track is to practice,
a lot!
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Plan for Upcoming Weeks
• Week 1: quick overview of Python, in a more
“organized” manner in tirgul
• Week 2: more basics (class + tirgul)
• Week 3: simulation (class), more basics
(tirgul)
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Today
• Basic terms
• Python basics: learn by examples
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Variables
Lists
Strings
Functions
Branching (if)
Loops
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‫‪Computer‬‬
‫מכונה המעבדת נתונים על פי רצף פקודות נתון‬
‫מראש‬
‫מחשב = חומרה ‪ +‬תכנה‬
‫אמצעי‬
‫פלט‬
‫מעבד‬
‫(מדפסת‪ ,‬מסך‪,‬‬
‫דיסק קשיח)‬
‫(עכבר‪ ,‬מקלדת‪,‬‬
‫דיסק קשיח)‬
‫זכרון‬
‫‪18‬‬
‫אמצעי‬
‫קלט‬
‫‪Algorithm‬‬
‫סדרת פעולות סופית לביצוע משימה מסויימת‬
‫‪Input‬‬
‫‪Output‬‬
‫‪Algorithm‬‬
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Machine Code (Language)
• Computers understand only machine language
• Basically looks like a sequence of 1’s and 0’s
• Very inconvenient to work with and non intuitive
• All other computer languages were created for
human convenience
• The computer does not understand C/C#/Java/Scala
• Must be “translated” into machine language
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Programming Languages Basics
• A computer program is a sequence of instructions
(texts) that can be “understood" by a computer and
executed by it
• A programming language is a machine-readable
artificial language designed to express computations
that can be performed by a computer
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There are Many Programming
Languages
Over 500 different computer languages
are listed by Wikipedia
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Language Selection
• Goal
• Runtime vs. Development time
• Operating systems
• Platforms
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Python
• Python is a general-purpose, high-level
programming language
• Conceived in the late 1980’s by Guido van
Rossum at CWI in the Netherlands
• Numerous users in many domains
• Used as a first programming language in many
universities (MIT, TAU CS)
• the origin of the name is based on the television
series Monty Python's Flying Circus
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Last Note Before Starting We Start
“Stolen” from Benny Chor’s slides
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Hello World!
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Hands On
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Functions
Spaces / indentation!!
What are functions good for?
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Passing Arguments to Functions
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If/Else
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Formal Definition
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Logical Operators
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Python is Lazy…
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Handling Mistakes
• Understanding interpreter’s messages (see
previous examples)
• It will take you some time to gain
experience…
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String Type
http://docs.python.org/tutorial/introduction.html#strings
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Strings Structure
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Strings Built In Methods
http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.2/lib/string-methods.html
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How Would I Know?
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Built-in help (not very clear at all times)
Python documentation http://docs.python.org/
Your favorite search engine
The course’s forum
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Lecture 1: Highlights
• Basic terms
• Functions
• Control structures (if/else)
• Strings
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