Reading / Journal 5

Class Methods ✏️

Journals are a combination of a few things. First, the "journal." This is a very small weekly assignment where you write 200+ words (option 1) or submit "tinker" code (option 2). Second, the "reading." This is where I direct you to read from a book, an online article, or watch a video, and I supplement those with my own lecture notes, graphs, figures, quotes, or so on.

All other assignments and lectures build upon these. Usually, there will be more reading at the start of a unit and less at the end.

Reading

Early on in the semester, we read that a type has two components: a value (or way of representing a value); and a set of operations we can perform on those values.

For example, a Plant is a type.

First, I can represent the plant in a program by its nutrient levels, the color of its leaves, its height, and so on. This isn't as good as the real plant sitting next to my desk in real life (oh shoot, do I need to water that?), but these numerical values can represent that plant good enough for whatever logic we need to have the computer do for us.

And second, there are operations that I can perform on Plants that may or may not make sense to other types, and vice versa. For example, I can't add two plants together. It makes no sense to just add their nutrient levels, colors, heights, and so on together. What in Earth would that be representing?? But, I can water a plant, I can fertlize a plant, and I can let a plant photosynthesize. All of these operations have some change on the representation of the plant: They all make meaningful changes to the values representing its nutrient levels, color, height, and so on.

This week's reading fleshes this concept out a bit further, drawing on what we read last week about modules.

Now read Chapter 7 from our textbook

Journal

Choose from one of the following two options as you best see fit:

Option One: Submit a brief "200+ Words" reflecting on the reading and/or the course as a whole. These 200+ words are expected to come completely from the student, ignoring words from quotes/etc. The format of these assignments is up to the student as it best helps them: bulleted point notes on the reading; questions directed at the instructor of course material; a paragraph reflecting on the Lab assignment for the week; a poem; a summary of recent technology news; anything, so long as it is turned in on time, is relevant to the course, and meets the required length.

Option Two: Submit a brief "Tinker" where you have attempted to "program" something, using the tools of the course, that is not directly related to another course assignment. Include screenshots of the input work done and the output result (even if it does not work), along with a brief statement of your intentions, the approach you took in getting it to work, and your thoughts on your result so far. Make sure it is clear what code came from you and what came from online/the reading/etc.

Submission

Submit your journal as a Word/PDF (NOT a .pages) document to Blackboard.

Grading

Journals are each worth 1/100 towards your final grade. Grading is pass/fail based on meeting the requirements of the chosen option.