Intro to
Programming
(with Python)

Fall 2014
course
navigation

syllabus

info

title An Introduction to Programming with Python term Fall 2014 credits 4 time Tues/Thur 11:30 - 12:50pm place Sci 217 level Introductory faculty Jim Mahoney repeat no, cannot be repeated for credit prereq none

text

Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science by John Zelle (1st edition for python 2.x; ISBN 1887902996)

blurb

This is a first class in computer programming, and as such a foundation class for further work in computer science. Much as a competency with English grammar is required for writing, an understanding of programming is required to for nearly all intermediate and advanced work in computer science.
A similar course is offered every Fall, though the language chosen varies from year to year. Python is a modern, elegant, high level scripting language, used for scientific programming, web servers, and all sorts of other things. It's been one of the most popular programming languages at Marlboro.
Topics will include program design, boolean logic, debugging, input/output, object oriented programming, as well as a variety of basic computer skills.
Expect weekly practice problems (for a single term grade based on how many are turned in), a small midterm project, and a final project.
We'll be following the text pretty closely, so check it out for more details. (We are not using the second edition, which is aimed at python v3; instead, we're sticking with the one published in 2003, which uses python v2, which is still the one commonly installed on most computers.)

approximate schedule

month chapter ----- ----- Sep 0 - preliminaries 1 - computers 2 - writing programs 3 - numbers Oct 4 - strings 5 - objects / graphics 6 - functions 7 - decisions 8 - loops Nov 9 - program design 10 - classes 11 - collections 12 - object-oriented design Dec 13 - algorithms / recursion - final projects
http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ fall2014/python/ syllabus
last modified Wednesday September 3 2014 4:10 pm EDT