Singing out!

I already know how to program. I guess I didn't put as much time into this course as I needed, as my mark isn't off the charts. I learned about a couple new concepts like big-O analysis and some Python quirks. I can't wait until I start my own programming projects.
See y'all next semester!

Life Story

I want to learn computer programming to make video games. I cam with up several designs for video games I think would be fun when I was younger. I've held these ideas pretty top secret. I started teaching myself programming in gr.7 from books. I started with a game programming book, but it was too complicated, and I returned it. I then got C++ for Dummies. I started learning C++. I wanted to be able to publish my games, and I discovered Microsoft's XNA platform, that made making games a lot easier. I got a new book on learning C#. I even got a book on Visual Basic, but I now hate Visual Basic with a passion. After almost mastering C#, I got XNA game programming books. I made a few small games as practice, but never begun my long waited projects. One of my proudest accomplishments was building a graphical tile engine game. That was pretty fun to make. I wanted to take the comp sci focus program at my high school, but I moved and switched schools the summer after gr.9. In grade 12 I took gr. 11 & 12 comp sci courses online for fun. I knew I wouldn't learn much, and thought they might boost my average. They were in Java. I came to UofT to do the Pathologist specialist program. After not being accepted to it, I decided last second to take a comp sci minor. I figured I might learn something, it would be an easy credit, and one of my best friends was in the program.

Here We Go

I'm used to C style code where everything is private. I thought it was weird when learning it, and was frustrated. But learning programming right off the bat with everything private made it acceptable. I find it very foreign, and despite being easy to use, horrible that python is public. Python is not only public by default, but it has to be public. The best you can do to try to make something private in python is indicate that something should be treated a private, even though it is not. I would forgive python for making everything public by default if you could actually make things private! I can only image the troubles everyone in the class will have with adjusting to the real world of private programming if they are only coming form this Python background. I'm also used to the concept of properties. I've never really found the benefit of making all my variables properties. I remember glancing at my gr.12 friend's code at the lunch table in gr.9, seeing him only use properties. I often only see properties when digging down in libraries of code. Maybe after more coding I will one day jump on the property bandwagon.

Test 2

Test 2 wasn't too bad. I had to use a lot of try statements because the left or right child could not exist, but I needed to check it. For the second question I put the tree into an array then solved it. I solved the last question in 4 lines. I haven't got my marks back from the first test, I wonder where I can see it?

Ass. 2

Assignment 2 was fun. It reminded me how fun programming can be. The first part was pretty easy to code, and I felt accomplished after successfully testing it. The second part was rather difficult. I struggled with star compound statements. I couldn't figure out how to code so that it would recognize if a valid variable section was repeating. I can figure it out in my head, but I couldn't manage to put it into code.

^ Binary Search ^

Binary Search seems like an efficient search method, especially for large arrays. I wonder though when I would implement it in my own code. I can't think of a time I'd have a large list of non repeating numbers what I would need to quickly search. Although I can't think of a real world use for it, Binary Search is good to know, and perhaps I will find a use for it in my later programming career.

Re: Recursion

I never learned to use recursion when I taught myself programming. I'm finding it difficult to design with recursion in mind. I'd rather just solve any problem with loops. I don't see the benefit of using recursive methods. I find it hard to write them with the preset parameters, because they need to return a value. How am I supposed to modify a value recursively if I don't include it as a parameter?

Why Python? And Why it Sucks

Why are we learning Python?
No one actually uses Python in industry, and for good reason. It's a bad language. Everything is public, that's crazy! Any user can edit any aspect of your software written in Python. This makes Python useless for video games, security, and any professional program.

Why don't we learn a useful language like C++? The one that industry actually uses. Why should we learn Python exclusive quirks, if we will never ever use them? Some may say Python is useful because its easy to learn. Well why not just learn a useful language first? I learned C++ first.

OPP

Object-Oriented Programming is a programming feature that allows the coder to create objects. Objects are instances of a class that contain their own variables as fields. The object's class can have many useful functions. OOP revolutionized computer programming. Any modern, practice, and diverse programming language should have OOP capabilities. It is extremely useful for computer scientists. A real strength of OOP is combining it with inheritance. For example, in a video game, I could have a bad-guy class, a boss class that inherits from that class, and a boss object created from the boss class. I use objects all the time in game programming, for things like tiles, characters, items, etc.. In Python, every variable is an object.

Recursion and Recursion and Recursion and Recursion

Recursion is solving a problem by the same method applied over and over to solve smaller parts. Coders can make recursive functions that call themselves. Recursion can be useful for computer scientists. Computer scientists should definitely learn recursion, but they need not apply it. Any problem solved by recursive functions can be solved alternatively say with loops. Recursion is especially useful for nested data such as with trees. I wait to see how useful recursion can be.

Helping Out

Today I aided a visually impaired student with their 108 homework.

Hello World!