Boston Python Workshop 5/Staff notes
Lecture outline
review Friday material
- math
- type()
- variables
- strings
- booleans
- if/elif/else
- functions
lists
- why use them
- initialization
- type() review
- len() review
- accessing elements
- adding elements
- changing elements
- slicing lists
- strings are like lists
loops and more flow control: for, while, break
- for loops
- range()
- if statements inside for loops
- for loops inside for loops
- while loops
- infinite loop
- break
- if statements inside while loops
- raw_input
dictionaries
- why use them, key constraint
- initialization
- adding elements
- accessing elements
- changing elements
- keys() and values()
modules
- why modules
- len and type are built in
- imports
- import random
- random.randint
- random.choice
- ColorWall example
- state_capitals.py
Where state_capitals.py from http://mit.edu/jesstess/www/BostonPythonWorkshop5/state_capitals.py is the grand finale and synthesis of lecture material.
Saturday Project outlines
ColorWall
- Review relevant material from lecture (e.g. dictionaries)
- Go over SolidColorTest and DictionaryTest in effects.py as a class
- Have students implement RainbowTest
If people finish (3) early, have them tweak existing effects or write a new one. Example tweaks including:
- changing the hue bounds in Twinkle
- change the math in Checkerboards
- write and customize (e.g. colors) your own message in Message
- Review relevant material from lecture (e.g. modules and imports)
- Go over search() and trendingTopics() in twitter_functions.py as a class
- Have students implement userTweets()
If people finish (3) early, have them implement trendingTweets() or customize the display of individual tweets displayed by search() (e.g. display the sender).
Wordplay
- Review relevant material from lecture (e.g. for loops)
- Go over words1.py through words6.py as a class
- Demo scrabble_cheater.py
- Have students explore other interesting word properties or play with scrabble_cheater.py (we've had people start Words With Friends games and cheat using the script)