Comp 150 - Introduction To Computing, Online, Summer I 2020

Dr. Harrington

http://luc.zoom.us/my/anharrington is the URL for class meetings.

The class meets online in Zoom Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 5:00-5:30PM CDT at http://luc.zoom.us/my/anharrington. If you have not used Zoom before, be sure to look at the section on Zoom in the syllabus.

This page is the center of public information added throughout the course. Initially, please see the Course Syllabus, about course content, administration, and requirements. That page will introduce and point to the other important documents. Looking at them as they are introduced in the syllabus is an easy way to keep on track. Alternately, or later for reference, you can look at the sublist underneath the syllabus link below -- links to the other documents.

Look at the Prep assignment due at the start of the first class!

Read carefully the Course Syllabus. Links discussed more completely in the syllabus, are also listed below for quick access:

• Daily Reference: Schedule and Assignments
• Python tutorial online
• Python tutorial example zip download
• Videos for most course content - download and unzip. More discussion of videos is in the Python Tutorial.
• Zoom help
• Sakai
• Piazza
• Pair Programming: How to Pair Program, Administration
• Class notes (first day and after Python)
• Examples *not* from Python Tutorial: (Referenced files to download, mostly from after Python)
• Http://python.org Home site for the Python language, where you can find out more and download the latest production version (3.8.2 current in May 2020).
• http://www.pythontutor.com/ A wonderful site where you run code in your browser step by step and may save and email a URL reference to any step.

Below are other free online references for Python. All except the official Python Tutorial at python.org are intended for people with no programming background. None of what follows is required for the course - they are here for people who want to look further and look at alternative sources.

• An interactive web version of Fundamentals of Python Programming starts with pretty much the same basics as the Hands-on Python Tutorial, but in a somewhat different order (functions much later...) with a different graphics library, and goes much further and deeper, and allows you to program totally inside the browser, and has embedded videos. (I have used this in Comp 170.) The larger projects listed as applications have an emphasis on scientists managing data.
• Another Creative Commons text derived from the same original source, a more traditional text format with chapter exercises; available as pdf, too.
• A later variation on the same source, more like "How to think like a scientist, programming in Python". This includes modules for working with large data sets.
• An online interactive presentation with online exercises, covering pretty much what I do, though they do functions much later: http://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/ They incorporate the pythontutor.com functionality referenced above. The page has a link to a large collection of videos, Python from Scratch.
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-Programmer's_Tutorial_for_Python_3 Another introduction to Python basics in different words. No graphics, few major examples, lots of basic syntax.
• Socratica Python videos: Engaging, amusingly snarky woman introducing lots of Python syntax rapidly, different order from class, some well beyond our course.
• Official Python 3 Tutorial moves very fast for someone with no programming background. It covers a lot, very concisely, going well past our course!
• http://codecademy.com step by step.
• Software Carpentry - Python is an intro for data scientists using the numpy library and the nice development/display environment ipython.
• A long further list at http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers