Hey folks, I’ve noticed that textbooks and other gear (iClickers, calculators, etc.) are the subject of many questions. I’ve written a quick guide on how to make sure you’ve got everything you need without burning a McMaster sized hole in your wallet. Textbooks Textbooks are an important part of first year, and also a very expensive part. Since there are ~1000 first year engineering students, textbooks are necessary to ensure everyone has »
So I’ve had a few people express interest in a “how to survive engineering 1″ tutorial. Here it goes! Keep in mind that all of these tips are just an opinion, and they should – as any other advice you receive – be taken lightly. I’ll start with some more common questions, and will include some personal advice I have found to be useful in my time as a student and as a developing professional. »
Introduction Objects can be one of the most difficult programming concepts to understand. Once it clicks, however, it really clicks. I recommend you read and pay close attention to the textbook, and utilize your resources until you understand objects and classes, as your upcoming evaluation will rely heavily on your understanding of these concepts. Before you begin, please read the Python documentation 9.2. Python Scopes and Namespaces. This stuff messes a lot of people »
Introduction This will be a short tutorial, as while loops are pretty easy. You MUST understand conditionals to continue. While loops rely on an expression to operate. As long as the expression is True, the loop will run. When the expression stops being True (ie. it is False), so does the loop. WHILE loop structure The basic structure of a while loop is as follows: while (expression): # Do something This will execute the code inside »
Introduction Loops, functions, and methods have allowed us to deal with a wide range of problems. Usually, these problems have a simple logic flow, which usually involves taking data, performing some action, then outputting the data in some manner (print, write, etc.). Although these skills are important, there are still many problems we are unable to solve. Digital logic provides a way of thinking that allows us to break complex (often non-numerical) problems into smaller »