1.3.8 Activity response: While loops

Here I made a guessing game where you have to guess a number between 1 and 20 inclusive. It tells you if you guessed too high or too low, and even if you guessed a number outside of 1-20.

import random
def goguess():
    maxval = 20
    minval = 1
    target = random.randint(minval, maxval)
    print("I have a number between " + str(minval) + " and " + str(maxval) + ".")
    guess = int(raw_input("Guess: ")) #We put our first guess here because we check
    count = 1                         #the guess at the beginning of the while loop.
    while (not (guess == target)): #the while loop ends when you guess the number.
        if (guess <= maxval and guess >= minval):
            if (guess < target):
                print(str(guess) + " is too low.")
            else:
                print(str(guess) + " is too high.") # Tells if the guess is high or low.
            count += 1 #adds 1  to the count... count.
        else:
            if guess > maxval:    #Remind them if they guess outside the range.
                print(str(guess) + "is higher than " + str(maxval) + ".")
            else:
                print(str(guess) + "is lower than " + str(minval) + ".")
        guess = int(raw_input("Guess: "))
    print("You got it! The number was " + str(target) + ", and you guessed it in " + str(count) + " turns.") #This prints when the 'while' loop ends.

Conclusion question answers:

Q1: If you change between 1 and 20 from the previous program to between 1 and 6000, how many guesses will you need to guarantee that you have the right answer? Explain.

A1: To figure out how many guesses you need, you need find the first power of two above the maximum number. For example, guessing a number in a range 1-7 inclusive would take only three guesses.
2^guesses > max
2^3   = 8       > 7       --3 guesses for a range 1-7
2^5   = 32     > 20     --5 guesses for a range 1-20
2^13 = 8192 > 6000 --13 guesses for a range 1-6000.


Q2: Explain the difference between a while loop and a for loop.

A1: A "while" loop repeats constantly until a condition is met, whereas a "for" loop iterates through a list of values. In some languages like java you could use them interchangeably, but it's generally easier and faster to use whichever one makes more sense for the situation.

1.3.7 Activity response: For loops

On this assignment I only needed to do two of these three, but I went ahead and did all of them.

The first function, hangman_display(), will return the 'secret' string with letters that aren't in 'guessed' hidden or crossed out, much like in Hangman.
ex: hangman_display("aeiou", "hello world") -> "-e--o -o---"

The second, matches(), counts how many items between the two lists match, assuming neither list has duplicate items.
ex: matches([1,2,3], [2,3,4]) -> 2

The last function, report(), functions like the game Mastermind, returning how many items are the same in value and position, and how many items are in both lists but in different positions.
ex: report([a, b, c, d], [a, c, b, e]) -> [1, 2]

def hangman_display(guessed, secret):
    ret = ""
    for i in secret:
        x = 0
        for j in guessed:
            if i.lower() in j.lower():
                x = 1
        if x == 1 or (i in " !,.?"):
            ret = ret + i
        else:
            ret = ret + "-"
    return ret


def matches(tickets, winners):
    ret = 0
    for i in tickets:
        x=0
        for j in winners:
            if i==j:
                x = 1
        if x==1:
            ret += 1
    return ret


def report(guess, secret):
    ret = [0, 0]
    used = []
    for i in range(len(secret)):
        if secret[i]==guess[i]:
            used.append(i)
            ret[0] += 1
    for i in range(len(secret)):
        for j in range(len(guess)):
            if (not(j in used or i in used)) and secret[i]==guess[j]:
                ret[1] += 1
                used.append(j)
    return ret

Conclusion question answers:

1. This practice, known as "loop unrolling", is actually used in some cases to speed up program execution at the cost of increasing the program size. Using unrolled loops during development is tedious, boring and just plain inefficient- it'd be a royal pain to change an unrolled version of "for i in range(10):" to "for i in range(1000):", and even more painful to change anything inside said loop.
2. A grocery store computer might iterate over a list of items in stock.
3. Both iteration and data analysis deal with large amounts of data. Iteration reads from and/or changes information about each item, whereas data analysis only reads from them to get statistics.

1.3.6 Activity response: lists and tuples

Hilariously, I only used lists to test the second function despite the lesson being on lists and tuples.

import random
def roll_two_dice():
    a = random.randint(1,6)
    b = random.randint(1,6)
    return a+b

def guess_letter():
    letters = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
    return letters[random.randint(0,len(letters)-1)]

Question answers:

1. A can be printed and concatenated as a standard string, B can be appended and store different string lengths in each element, and C can only be read from.
2. Languages have different variable types because different variables' contents are incompatible by nature.  "A" + 32 + True - (1,2,3) = ????
3. Technically speaking, everything COULD be represented as integers since computers store everything as 1s and 0s anyways, but using integers to store a string would be incredibly difficult and inefficient.

1.3.5 Activity response: Strings

So recently I was asked to make a "Tweet verifier" in Python for a fictional "inspirational quote" contest. The Tweet needs to be 140 characters or less and needs a comma, a quote, a question mark and an exclamation mark.

The code:

from __future__ import print_function
def CheckTweet(Tweet):
    com = ',' in Tweet
    quo = '"' in Tweet
    que = "?" in Tweet #These are true of the character is in the tweet.
    exc = "!" in Tweet
    length = len(Tweet)<=140 #This is false if the tweet is over 140 characters.
    over = str(len(Tweet)-140) #Store how many characters the tweet is over the limit.
    errors = []
    if not com:
        errors.append("a comma") #Put what's missing in proper english in a list.
    if not quo:
        errors.append("a quote")
    if not que:
        errors.append("a question")
    if not exc:
        errors.append("an exclamation mark")
    if com and quo and exc and que: #If nothing is missing...
        if length:
            return "Tweet verified. You're good to go!" #AND if it's short enough.
        else:
            return "Sorry, but your Tweet is " + over + " characters over the limit (140)." 
    else:
        msg = "Sorry, but your tweet needs " #Starting off the 'missing stuff' message
        
        if len(errors)==1: #Add commas, periods and 'and's between what's missing to make proper english!
            msg = msg + errors[0] + "."
        elif len(errors)==2:
            msg = msg + errors[0] + " and " + errors[1] + "."
        elif len(errors)==3:
            msg = msg + errors[0] + ", " + errors[1] + " and " + errors[2] + "."
        else:
            msg = msg + errors[0] + ", " + errors[1] + ", " + errors[2] + " and " + errors[3] + "."
        if not length: #If you're ALSO over the limit, add this in a second line.
            msg = msg + "\nAdditionally, your Tweet is " + over + " characters over the limit (140)."
        return msg
 
tweet = raw_input('Your Tweet: ')
print(CheckTweet(tweet))

Conclusion question answers:

1. There are 41 characters in "How many characters are in this sentence?", and it doesn't matter how many bytes Python uses to store each character; either way, Python would return the same number of characters.
2. In lines 1 and 2, variables A and B are assigned 'one string' and 'another' respectively. In line 3, variable C is assigned a combination the first three characters of A ('one'), ' and ' and the contents of variable B ('another') to get 'one and another'. Line 4 prints characters 7-10 of variable C, which is just 'd a'.

Blown To Bits: Chapter 2 questions

1. Judge and justify whether the use of hidden RFIDs be restricted or not.
2. Paraphrase the "Fair Information Practice Principles".
3. Predict how similar George Orwell's society in 1984 will be to our own in 15 years.
4. Try to analyze and determine where other people and companies could find information about you. 
(example: Facebook, RFIDs, GPS)
5. Compile a list of different technology and devices mentioned in this chapter used to identify people.

Blown to Bits Chapter 1- Response to Tim's Questions

1. A Koan is a question or statement meant to make you really think about the topic at hand.

2. 

3. Technology is both good and bad in certain aspects. It's bad for the fact that it can be used to commit crimes: downloading music illegally, pirating expensive software, phishing and scamming are a few crimes that can be committed online. On the other hand, technology is also very good, helping people communicate from halfway across the globe in a second, keeping store inventory, and generally being a useful tool in our everyday lives.

4. Moore's Law will likely continue in its current pattern until we start hitting size limits. At certain, tiny sizes, even if wires are totally sealed, electricity can bleed over into other wires. At that point, we'll have to wait for quantum computing to develop before Moore's Law resumes.

All of these answers are in response to Tim's questions.

App Design

Matching Game

To make this app we thought of a few different ideas (such as a timer), but settled on a matching game app. There wasn't much we could add to it, but I thought of and added a score counter about halfway through.

To be honest, we didn't use much teamwork because most of the work was in the coding itself, and after I started writing the first few blocks of code nobody else could figure out what I was doing. Next time I'll see if I can get more involvement in the art of the game, or split up the coding.

The 'problem' my app solved was boredom. While other apps do it way better, this is a good start..

The biggest challenge in making the app was figuring out how to detect matches. Each card has its own number 1-16, so cards 1 and 2 match, cards 3 and 4 match, etc. The final 'if' statement ended up looking like this: 

if (((cardA % 2) == 1) AND (cardA = (cardB - 1))) OR (((cardB % 2) == 1) AND (cardB = (cardA - 1)))

Given more time, I could improve the game by making better card images, adding an image to the back of the cards, and making a title screen.

You can download the app here!

Also, today's my birthday! \o/

Blown to Bits questions

1. Describe what a “koan” is.

2. Draw a graph roughly depicting what Moore’s Law looks like.

3. Debate and weigh the good and bad aspects of technology, and whether you would describe technology overall as good, bad, or somewhere in-between.

4. Predict how Moore’s Law may continue in the future. Will it continue on its current path, or will it eventually level out?

Blown to Bits quote response

So today our Computer Science teacher, Mr. Palmer, gave us this statement:

"Computing will transform society."

I personally agree with this statement, mainly because... it already has.

 Technology has already shaped a lot about how we live our day-to-day lives, and to expect technology to NOT continue changing it would be ignorant. In page 7 of the 'Blown to Bits' packet, it says "Vast as world-wide data storage is today, five years from now it will be ten times as large." Why would we make such massive data storage and more powerful computers if we weren't going to use them?

Scratch-Man

Scratch-Man

A pac-man clone by Che' Young, Tim Coon Jr. and Connor Noble

Final game at: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/27387904/

To start this project, we brainstormed a few random games and genres, and then decided to do 
Pac-man as a Scratch game. We came up with new ideas as we worked (dogs for ghosts, fish for fruit) and split up the creative responsibilities between the three of us.

Our team worked pretty well together since we were already doing what we enjoyed, with Tim doing the art, music and sound, and with myself doing the programming.

Pretty much everything went well, except for trying to incorporate Connor's work, since his computer was disconnected from the internet.

The most difficult part was getting all of our work combined, such as getting Tim's sound and music to work properly.

To improve our game, I think we could spend more time making a lives system and a game over screen, along with a high score submission.