#python for informatics

[duckromancy]

During my downtime at work (there seems to be a lot of it lately since conference season is wrapping up), I’ve been studying Python.  Before taking it on, I’ve had very little computer science experience. Unfortunately, a lot of coding courses tend to assume you have that experience, so it’s been fairly difficult finding a Python course that’s noob-friendly.

But I think I’ve finally found one that’s really great for people with little comp sci experience (and also people who aren’t that great at math, like me).  There’s a free course online called Python for Informatics, located at http://pythonlearn.com/. I’m roughly a quarter of the way through the course, and so far all the content has been both useful and easy to understand. If you’ve wanted to get into coding but you weren’t sure how to start, this is a great resource. I highly recommend it!

[mattsiunami-blog]

Code: The Foundation

Over the past week, I have completed the first four chapters of python for informatics. At first, I skipped over the exercises at the end of each chapter because setting up python and picking from the huge amount of text editors seemed daunting. I’m going to focus this post on an alternative that is much easier to begin putting theory into practice.

I quickly found that learning code is impossible without putting it into practice. Like any new language, you need to practice speaking it. Instead of downloading a python interpreter and running all the initial setup, I found a website called https://trinket.io/  that offers the same functions. I also found the ability to save programs really helpful to keep a record in case I wanted to go back.

Here is one of the first exercises from Chapter 2.

When learning to code, I find that having projects to work towards breaks up the monotony. I really like that the book gives a couple of real life exercises that review all the concepts from the chapter. This first project was a simple calculator for finding your income per week. I could think of multiple easy ways to improve this which I might try later.

The feeling of getting this program to work was exhilarating. Though simple, each mini project motivates me to learn more and more. With the foundation of the language built, it’s time to dig a little deeper.

Week 1 Concepts: Variables, Expressions, Conditional Statements, Functions

Resources

Youtube Channel:

Charles Severance has solutions to many of the python exercises if you are struggling through them.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRFEj9H3Oj4JXIwMwN1_ss1Tk8wZShEJ

Book I’m Using

Online(Free) : python for informatics

Book(Amazon) : python for informatics

Python Compiler Online

https://trinket.io/

[parallaxreaction]

I practiced all the things!

I also did the syntax section in codecademy before working through these problems, so I consider this a pretty productive day. :) 

It all turned out to be pretty straightforward (which I expected, since I've seen these concepts before) - but it's a boost in confidence to find out that I still remember it.

I'm also going back to these simpler problems to work on my problem-solving skills - to learn to put one foot in front of the other when I code, rather than trying to do everything all at once. My tendency is to try and optimize my code while I'm still in the process of trying to solve the problem. It's not really an issue with simple code, but I've noticed this tendency trips me up when I'm trying to debug more complex programs (i.e. things that contain nested loops and functions). When something isn't working, it can be hard to figure out the source of the problem if I've "brain dumped" my code as it were, rather than working more systematically (i.e. by focusing on solving the simplest component of the program, getting it to work, then building up more complex functionality from there, testing as I go.)

As a writer, I also have the tendency to edit as I'm still working out my ideas, even though I know that editing while writing a draft is a recipe for frustration. I also end up trying to write the perfect thing right at the outset because that's what I see the outlines of first when I approach a problem. That is, when it comes to more complex writing (whether in Python or otherwise), I can see the big, ideal thing I want to achieve (and I have some clue as how to get there), but I have to make a focused effort to really break down all the steps (without hyper-focusing on any one) and to piece out a sequential path for getting there. I think this is also why it can be difficult to see alternative (including simpler) approaches to a problem - I'm so invested in how great my idea's going to be (when I finally get it to work) that I'm reluctant to consider alternatives. 

So I'm trying to work on becoming more systematic in my efforts, starting with easier programs. I've tried to work out alternative approaches as well, to encourage more flexibility in my thinking.

Anyway, here's the code:

#Exercise 2.2: Write a program that uses raw_input to prompt a user for their name and then welcomes them.

name = raw_input("What is your name?\n")

print "Hello " + name

#Exercise 2.3: Write a program to prompt the user for hours and rate per hour to compute gross pay.

#(v1)

Hours = raw_input("Enter hours worked.\n")

Rate = raw_input("Enter hourly rate.\n")

Hours = float(Hours)

Rate = float(Rate)

Pay = Hours*Rate

print Pay

#Exercise 2.3 (v2)

Hours = raw_input("Enter hours worked.\n")

Rate = raw_input("Enter hourly rate.\n")

Pay = float(Hours)*float(Rate)

print Pay

#Exercise 2.3 (v2, with round function, rounded to nearest whole number.)

Hours = raw_input("Enter hours worked.\n")

Rate = raw_input("Enter hourly rate.\n")

Pay = float(Hours)*float(Rate)

print Pay

print type(Pay)

print round(Pay)

#Exercise 2.5: Write a program which prompts the user for a celsuis temp. Convert the temp to Fahrenheight and print out the converted temp.

temp = raw_input("Enter a temperature in Celsuis.\n")

temp = float(temp)

temp = temp*1.8000 + 32

print temp

#Exercise 2.5 (alternate formula). This one also works.

temp = raw_input("Enter a temperature in Celsuis.\n")

temp = float(temp)

temp = temp*9/5 + 32

print temp

#Exercise 2.5 (optimized)

temp = raw_input("Enter a temperature in Celsius.\n")

temp = float(temp)*9/5 + 32

print temp