CSC 148: The end

Throughout this semester, I feel as if I have truly strengthened my programming skills and overall computing skills. Even though I could not document each and every detail of this course onto my slog ( blame my terrible, terrible memory), I still feel like this blog helped alot, it jogged my memory whenever I would write and really motivated me to look through all my course notes that I would take during lecture. It has been a pleasure taking CSC 148, and I hope to continue my minor degree in Computer Science next year!

Sorting and Efficiency

Last week in class we learnt about various sorting techniques. For example, quick sort is a sorting technique with log2n, you would choose a pivot ( you could pick a pivot at random), N steps each time so, 0(n)log(n). However, quick sort is slower when the list is already sorted, if its either ascending or descending, which is one of the major problems with quick sort. Another sorting technique would include Merge Sort, which essentially splits a list in half and merges the sort, it keeps splitting until you have one and one. There is also another form of sorting algorithms called Radix Sort, it is used when you have a limited range of data and that your values are integers. This sorting mechanism is alot more efficient than Count Sort, however, it is alot more complex than all the other sorting algorithms.

Recursion

The topic of recursion is a very broad topic, it is the process of repeating items in a self-similar fashion. It can be viewed as an "infinite loop". In computer science, it is referred to a method of defining functions in which the function defined is applied within its own definition. That means that it defines an infinite number of solutions for your code! It uses a finite expression that sometimes refers to other instances, but there is no way a infinite chain can occur in your code. Recursion is more like a process of repeating objects over and over again. It is very useful when dealing with a code that contains numerous amounts of data, such as Binary Search Trees.

Tester For Programming

This week in tutorial, I learnt various ways to check whether or not my code for my program runs efficiently and if its running smoothly without any bugs or errors. To learn more about testers, my TA made us go through numerous processes and codes to check our program. In order  to answer the broad topic of testers, I went through the slides and lectures presented this week and went for extra help at the Computer Science Help Centre. This helped alot as I was extremely confused on how to check my codes, as I have alot of difficulty with understanding exactly how my program works. It is a very tedious procedure for me but Tester really does help!

SLOG # 1

The wonderful world of Python is widely known as an "object-oriented" programming language,  - but what does that really mean?  Object oriented programming is when the object is the centre of focus in a procedure within a given program instead of using them as necessary containers of information as part of the procedure of the program. For example, first you would define the object and then continue to plug in the logic to make the actual program work. So, an object would basically be considered as an instance of a class. So, the first step would be to define a certain class and then assign it with a couple properties, and then see where your imagination takes you!