Week 12. FINAL POST

So this was my final week at University of Toronto. I think I had an amazing 5 years of studying and now it is time I move on to finding a job in the world and start my career as an CPA. CSC 148 was a pretty nice course to take as an elective. I liked CSC 108 better because it was more focused on learning how to program more. In the end it was a great leaning experience and I am sure it will help me in the future if anyone needs my advice on how to program a program. I enjoyed this class a lot the only thing that I did not like was writing the blog every week. Maybe next year they could make the students write a blog every 2 weeks instead of every week. I truly believe that writing the blogs did not help me in my studies at all. My time would have been better spent on reviewing the slides myself. In the end I would recommend CSC 108 and CSC 148 to any person that wants an elective because they are very easy courses and its a great learning experience.

Thanks for reading my blog have a great day :).

Week 11 Revisit

So its now just passed week 11 and the strike just finished because the union agreed to get a third party and get a final agreement in place so both parties will be happy and the education for the students can continue. Personally I believe that the union is just being stupid now because by having a third party which is not biased to any side, create an agreement will just end up getting some sort of average on the demands of both parties. But my grades can now be accumulated and marked and I can graduate this year so I'm happy for that.

This week post is supposed to be about a revisit to a previous slog and see if my views has changed. So earlier in week 5 I wrote about tracing recursion, I think my views have changed a little from when I first wrote that slog. I now believe that tracing recursion is more like a formula instead of treating each case individually. When I say that I mean I believed that tracing would get more complicated as the course progressed but now I am seeing that it doesn't get any harder. The tracer just has to see what the code is doing and write each step on paper. With that simple step the tracer should be able to figure out any recursion call.

That is my post for this week. There is only 1 more week of school and so there will only be 1 more post. Please leave a comment below.

Week # 10 and the strike continues

This week we learned about unitesting and assertions. Unitesting is really helpful because instead of writing your tests in the doc string and making extra lines you can just put all your tests in a separate file and test your program all at once. This saves so much space in your main program file and makes your program look much cleaner than having all testing in the doc sting. I am pretty sure I will use this concept in the near future to help me make sure my program runs correctly.

The second thing we learned in class in the past week was assertion statements. Assertion statements only stop your code while it is running and the assertion line gets something that is not expected. Like a False statement when it expects a True statement. Once it receives this unexpected bool it will stop the program and give an exception statement to tell you where it stopped. This concept is also very useful in programming because I used to do this exact same thing manually with printing statements. When using printing statements the output of the code becomes very messy and hard to deal with after everything is working good. Also after competing the code you have to make sure that all the print statements have been deleted otherwise the print statement will come up while a user is running the code. In the end assertion statements will save a lot of time and effort to make the code writing more efficient and productive.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Week #9 of CSC

Wow its already been 9 weeks of CSC 148. Exams are really creeping up quickly. So Last week Unit 3 of CUPE got into an agreement, which means for the most part school is back to normal. A few of the teachers assistance are back on the job because they figured out that the strike is not affecting the university as much as they wanted. The professors are cooping with the amount of TA they have access to so the strike should be over soon.

Last week we had a midterm test for CSC 148. I personally think I did not prepare properly for the test but lets see how it goes in the end. I really hope I do well in it. I don't think I prepared properly this time because it was very difficult to get a simple formula or a simple way to study for recursion. When writing a recursion function, the biggest hurdle to over come; is thinking on what the recurisive part of the function is supposed to do. Once that is part is completed then the rest of the function writes itself. For this midterm it is impossible to study all the recursive function in the world and that is why I found studying for this test very hard. Since some of the TAs are still on strike I expect the marking of this midterm to be delayed. So I will not know anytime soon what mark I got on this midterm.

Other than this midterm my week has gone great. This month has a lot of midterms and assignments due so lets hope for the best.

Thanks for your time please leave a comment below.

WEEK 8 Continuing with the strike

So this week was really different, especially for csc148. I didn't know how much I really needed the TA's support until this week got over. The labs in this course are really helpful because you can ask the TA a question and get an answer right away. (Without waiting for someone to answer it on the discussion board online.)

In one of my other courses the TA posted up an announcement on Portal and she said she was not going to strike anymore and that her office hours will resume like normal. I really hope all the TA's do the same thing and that way all the students will get the support form the TA's they need.

I truely believe that many of the TAs really did not want to strike but since they are apart of a union they were forced to strike. If all the TAs start backing down and start with their normal office hours then I believe that the strike will finish and everything will be back to normal.

Other than that the course this week was a little bit more challenging than normal so I will have to revisit the lab 07 and work on it a bit more. I think I was really close to getting the solution correct but I just ended giving up in the end.

I hope the strike ends early or the TA of this course also start with their normal hours again. Lets hope for the best for this coming week and see where it take us.

Week number 7 ........ STRIKE

This week I was suppose to talk about OOP. I did this last week and so I would like to be graded on that post for the requirement.

This week is going to be a surprise to me because I have never attended school during the time that the TA's are on strike.

My courses have done different things to keep the learning process continuing during this strike. With CSC class everything is the same but there will be no quiz at the end of the week and  the lab will be canceled. I have 2 other economics courses in Mississauga and those courses do not have any tutorials so they are running as usual. The professors said they will increase their office hours to help the students with completing the homework assigned. Finally the professor for the math course I am taking said he would get back to is on Monday night on how to  deal with the strike. The math professor is really dependent on the TA's and so he has to really change the marking scheme in the course to let the student get their grade for the course.

My thoughts on the strike are personal and I think that what the TA's is asking for is not fair. They are asking for more money to support themselves but they are not thinking what it is going to do to the university's funds. They are complaining about not getting paid enough for the work they are doing and that they are paid under the poverty line. Even though they are earning $40 and hour and minimum wage is $11 per an hour. If they think they are not being paid enough they should stop working for the university and start working for another company.

The main reason I do not like this is because in the end the university is a not for profit organization and the main source of revenue is from students tuition. I am already paying deferred fees of above $14,000 a year. When I started university 4 years ago I was paying $12,000 a year and  the cost went up $2,000 without TA's going on strike with the TA's going on strike the cost will probably go up $500 next year plus the amount the university decided to pay the TA's.

Object-Oriented Programming

This week I will start by talking about object-oriented programming. 

Let us start off by explaining what object-oriented programming (OOP) is:

Programming is usually modeled around actions and logic. OOP, however, uses the concepts of objects and data rather than the usual programming model (actions and logic). These objects are data structures that contain different types of data, capsulated within classes or objects. The code itself is written in methods under every class instead of functions. One of the major bonuses that come from using OOP is that the methods in the class can modify the data held in the class. Computer programs in OOP are often designed by making the different objects interact with one another to create the main program. 

OOP has really helped programmers to advance the world in programming by making it easier to create your own classes and make them do exactly what you want them to do. With OOP, you can create sub-classes of a class without re-writing the _ _init_ _ method. By doing this, there is less chance of humans making a copying error when re-typing the _ _init_ _ method. Since every method in the class only uses the data established in the _ _init_ _ method, the other data in the main program is safe and will not be changed while running different classes. This also benefits programmers in the way in which, for example, two variables are the same, and the method only changes the variable in its own class.

Thank you for spending you time reading my blog. Please leave a comment below.

Tracing Recursion

So far, my experience with this course has been a good one. Because I do not necessarily have a concern at the moment, I will talk about what I learned this past week.

The past week, I learned about tracing recursion.

At this point, the concept of, and understanding tracing recursion is not too complicated. It seems pretty easy; which could be because at this time, only two functions are being used.  However, as I think about it and look ahead, adding more functions will definitely complicate it, just as math may get more complicated as you add more functions within a single question.

When I started studying for the recursion lesson and lab, everything made sense. For this lesson, everything was explained well, and in a way in which I found easy to understand and comprehend. The only difficulty I had, however, I was the format in which the professor wanted the answer to be in. 

As I mentioned in previous posts, I use my time after class to go back to the lesson, work on problems, labs, and go through elements that I have difficulty with. After this lesson, I went home, and began to try and better understand exactly what the professor expected. By doing so,  I was able to understand through trial and error, and realized that what the professor wanted wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be; I just needed to focus, and really concentrate. 

The time I take after class to further understand the material discussed in class really helps me understand what was being taught to another level. I enjoy going back to lessons in a relaxed environment, taking my time to go through each element I didn’t quite understand as I may have hoped to. I plan to continue to carry out this routine every week to make every effort in ensuring as requirements are met, and that I gain a firm understanding of what is being taught.

My experience over the first few weeks.

For this week’s post, I will be writing about my experience with the course over the last few weeks.

I find CSC to be quite interesting, and even more so after taking CSC108 last semester. Though I am not required to take this course, I chose to do so because of my requirement of electives, and wanted it to be a class I’d enjoy. My major is quite different from CSC, as I am an accounting student, majoring in economics at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus. 

After the winter break, it was difficult to get back into ‘school-mode’. My holidays were relaxed, and were generally spent performing leisure activities. Going back to school required that I put those leisure activities aside, focus on school, and stay on track. I felt overwhelmed when I went back to school, so much so that everything, including school content, felt difficult and complicated. As the weeks went on, I began to get used to the routine. Though I may sometimes struggle now with my course load, I am at a much better place than I was during the first week.

Currently, the material being covered in CSC148 is not too difficult, and taking CSC108 definitely helped. There were times, however, in which things seemed very complicated. During my first week of laboratories (labs), I didn’t understand everything the way I should have, which in turn, made me confused and had me making mistakes. I understood that I was confused, but also knew that I had to think of a way to understand better, and make the course work well for me. After the first lab, I came home and began to try and figure out my mistakes, correct them, and hoped to avoid them for future labs. By trying it at home, I was able to successfully complete the assigned work. This made me realize what worked for me – working on the content at home, and being prepared for the lab; using that time as a time for further questions. 

This however, was the way in which I felt worked best for me, and may not be the best solution for everyone. Our struggles are a chance to make improvements to ourselves and this is the way in which I felt was best for me.

Why Geeks should write?

This week, I will blog about why geeks need to know how to correctly write in English.

The term ‘geek’ could mean various things, from someone who is obsessed with computers and technology, or someone who has no social skills.

Personally, I believe every professional should know how to write properly in English. Canada may be a diverse country, knowing English is very important, as it is considered to be the language of Canada. In English, there are 3 main aspects which are closely related: Reading, Speaking and Writing. All these aspects are used on a day-to-day basis.

Canada relies on those speaking the countries language; being English. In most cases, employers seek that professionals be able to read, write, and speak fluently in English. Because many professions require this, it is essential to be fluent in all aspects of English. When working with Canada, there will be various different employers, co-workers, and customers. Being fluent in English allows you to be able to communicate with everyone, even if they are of a different culture than your own. This is important, as in most, if not all cases; you will be expected to communicate with everyone, and not a set few amount of people.

Geeks may be smart in terms of technology, however to be considered ‘smart’ knowledge has to surpass one field. In other words, if one is smart in regards to technology, but does not have the language skill of being able to express themselves in words (both speaking and writing), the person may not look so smart; but rather, the opposite. This comes to play when writing resumes, cover letters, proposals, summaries of work, and more. This also plays a role in communicating with peers, employers, and more. English cannot be avoided, as it is required on a day-to-day basis for various different purposes.

Occupation aside, it is also important for geeks to communicate with other people outside of the workplace. By doing so, they learn from each other, share ideas, thoughts and suggestions. Having a social aspect to life is also important not only for geeks, but people in general.

For these reasons, it is important for geeks to be able to write well in English. This can be done in various ways, including taking classes containing written portions, as well as participating (both in and out of class) regularly to exercise the English language. Often, if one can speak English well, it will be easier to write; as opposed to someone who cannot speak English. For this reason, it is important to be fluent in speaking, reading, and writing English.