Welcome to WAT Camp 2014.
Hello Everyone! This is the crash-course for CS61A: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. I will be posting all the materials (lesson plan, handouts, assignments, etc.) on this site during our time at WAT Camp.
We will also be using Piazza during our time here so please refer to it periodically: https://piazza.com/wat_camp/spring2013/watcamp/home
Below, you will find an outline of what we will cover at WAT Camp and links to the materials we will use each day.
Class Outline
- Elements of Programming
- Functions
- If and while statements
- Lambda functions
- Environment Diagrams
- Sequences, tuples
- Lists, Dictionaries
- Objects, Classes
Pre-WAT Camp Assignments
I want to make sure you do a few things during the next couple days to avoid wasting time on logistical issues.
Please make sure you have the latest version of python installed (I believe it is version 3.3). If you do, when you type "python3 -V" in your terminal, it should list 3.3 as the version installed. If this is not the case, please go to this website and update it: http://www.python.org/getit/
I am more familiar with this process on Macs, but if you run into any trouble with your respective operating system, let me know.
For more information, please read "1.1.2 Installing Python 3" from Fall 2013 course page: http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/fa13/
Find a text editor you will be using to write your code in. A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files. This just means it makes your code easier to read and edit. I have used TextWrangler before, but there are many others you can choose from. They are usually free and easy to download online. Some others I have heard about are: Sublime, Notepad++, Vim, etc.
Now that you have python3 and a text editor, I would like you to create a file called "hello.py". In this, I would like you to write a simple "Hello, World" program in python. If you are not familiar with this, it is just a program that prints the string "Hello, World". This is fairly simple and shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 lines. Then, I would like you to practice running this file from your terminal. Navigate to the directory with the hello.py file and type in "python3 hello.py" on the terminal command line. The string "Hello, World" should now appear. Congratulations! You've just run your first python program!
If you have any problems with ANY of these steps, let me know either through Piazza or through email (tsion@berkeley.edu).
Please try to get this done whenever you have time so we can spend more time on more conceptual topics.
Good luck!