CSC151.01 2006S, Class 56: Wrapup

Admin:
* Congrats to Jose and Alexi for the best solutions to problems 1 and 2, respectively.
* Good luck on your finals.
* Our final: 9 a.m. Tuesday.
  * If you want to take the final at a different time, you need to get the form to me today!.

Overview:
* The subject matter of the course.
* Evaluation forms.
* Final comments.

/The Subject Matter of the Course/

//The Scheme Programming Language//
* Basics:
  * Use define or let to name things
  * Write functions using lambda
    * Variable-arity functions use variant syntax
  * Types (and procedures on those types)
    * Numeric types (integers, reals, complex, ...)
    * Symbols
    * Strings
    * Characters
    * Lists
    * Vectors
    * Procedures
    * Ports
    * ...
  * A host of procedures: (At least fifty, perhaps up to 100)
  * Collections
    * Vectors as mutable fixed size collections
    * Lists are fixed content dynamic size collections
    * Trees are just weird
  * Recursion
  * ...

* High-level idea:
  * You can build most Boolean functions from and, or, and not.

//Functional Programming//
* Functions can be parameters to other functions
* Functions can return other functions
* Core higher-order functions:
  * map
  * left-section and right-section
  * compose
  * fold
  * apply
* Anonymous functions
* Principle that functions should not mutate their parameters

//Computer Science//
* Binary search (is the coolest concept ever)
  * A great idea of computer science
  * Supports the more general idea of "divide and conquer"
  * And other techniques for searching
* Algorithms in general
* Sorting algorithms
  * Quicksort
  * Merge Sort
  * Selection Sort
  * Insertion Sort
* Algorithm analysis (by running and counting steps)
* Unit testing for "verification"
* Job areas (agh!  we don't talk about this at Grinnell)
* Find and fix bugs
* Objects and a bit of OOP
* A bit about what else people do in CS
* Work from the base case upwards as a problem solving technique
  "Bottom-up programming"

//General Skills//
* Think on your feet.
* General problem solving - Turning a problem into an algorithm into code
  * Solve statistical problems (and visualize them)
* Think about overarching concepts
* Dealing with mean facutly members who won't let any stupid subject drop
* Group work is important
* Moving from theory to practice
* Persistence and patient
* Interacting with other people

COMPUTERS ARE SENTIENT AND MALICIOUS