CSC151, Class 2: Introduction to the Class

* Homework: Survey
* Homework: Read about HTML
* Reflections on yesterday's exercise
* The parts of an algorithm
* General course overview
* Paradigms of computing
* Some course details
* Lab: Getting started in the MathLAN (maybe)

What, if anything, did you learn from yesterday's exercise?

* Define constraints in what you're doing
  * Include all of the details
* Make sure that the "computer" understands all of the aspects of the problem
* Make sure that you describe even the smallest detail; be very precise b/c computers follow the letter of the law
* Name each piece of data uniquely so that they are not confused
* If you're going to apply the same procedure to different things, make sure they're similar in the important ways

* You can have fun even when things are going horribly wrong.
* You create better results if you work together.
* It's often easier to "program" if you can update as you go

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Other observation: There were some common structures that
we used in writing PB&J that we might use in other algorithms

* Subroutine: We might apply part of the algorithm to different pieces of data
* Variables: We need to name things
* Sequential control: Read a set of instructions from top to bottom
* Repetition: Do things again and again until some condition holds
* Conditional: Decide what to do based on a condition

All languages include these five basic concepts in some 
way or another.

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* Never buy pop-top jelly

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Details of the course:

* A course in computer science is a course in algorithms
* How to design algorithms / how to solve problems
* How to express those algorithms in a programming language
  Scheme: Simple to use but powerful

* Why to express algorithms for the computer
  * We know some reasons: For really repetitious tasks, the computer is often faster (and remains so); humanistic reason: don't make people do repetitive tasks; capitalistic reason: computers are cheaper; there are things humans can't do; computers are likely to be more accurate than humans

Experience shows that CSC151 is different than other
Grinnell courses

* Much more collaborative work than most courses
* Computer science seems to exercise a different part
  of your brain than most courses
* You usually know when you're wrong  

Ask other people for help

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Syllabus is not yet ready

Typical day:
* Ten minutes of lecture discussion
* Thirty minutes of lab work
* Five minutes of reflection
* Daily reading for the next day

Plus:
* Weekly homework