Useful Links

When it comes to writing code, the internet is my favourite side-kick. I've posted the links I use the most when I need help, so far they are a little mainstream and probably all of you guys use them but I will try to add up some more later on!


Help With Python (Table Of Contents)

Python Visualizer

Pics That Make Me Smile

Introduction

Dear TA's, fellow students, and people who ended up here by accident because they typed the worn URL:

Before coming to U of T, I had no idea of what computer science was all about, much less Python or any type of programming. However, coming here I realized I had to take CSC courses, and as a huge surprise for me, I enjoyed them. 

Last semester I took CSC 108, which introduced me into a world of strings, classes, methods and more. Now, 6 months after downloading Python for the first time and starting my CSC 148 class, I have a few things to say:

• First of all, computer science rocks! The satisfaction of writing your own code and fixing it until it's error-free (and doing what you actually want it to), its tremendous!!! It is like creating your own virtual little piece of world, and I encourage everyone to try it at some point.
• Second, since most of the readers of this blog have already tried programming, (or at least that's what I would expect from my classmates), is that I have found that writing code can be tricky! Thinking about the best way to organize the steps your code should follow to make your code efficient and simple at the same time, can take a while, and that when it comes to readability, the best test to do is to write it, leave it for some time and then come back and reader as if you were an outsider. If you understand it the first time you read it and you don't think it has more steps than it should, then you're on the right track, if you notice something that could be change, think about a way to do it and experiment with it.
• Third, getting into more details, class are specially tricky! I have found them one of the most tedious things in programming (probably because it is the newest method and the most broad one so far). Every time I'm creating a class I have to think about what the appropriate way to define the methods is, and even about simple indentation protocols and docstring rules. Hopefully this will get easier as the course moves on and as I do more and more exercises, but so far this is what has been going on.
• Fourth, talking more about the class structure and less about Python, I am scared. I am scared that the 10 am lecture will get so full that no more people will fit in it and there won't be a seat for me. As a MAT 137 student, I have class Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9-10 which means that I can't get early to the 10 am CSC 148 lecture and that I depend entirely on God to get a seat everyday in the lecture. Hopefully people will realize that going to the 9 am lecture is also good or they will come to love the Wednesday afternoon prof (which I don't know but have heard, its not the most organized).

Anyways, I tend to drift away from the subject a lot and I fear that if I keep on writing this blog will stop being about CSC 148 and become my personal diary, so I feel this is enough for an introduction. Take care guys, see you next time.