CSC 151.01, Class 03: Getting Started with Scheme

Overview

• Preliminaries
  • Notes and news
  • Upcoming work
  • Extra credit
  • Questions
• Lab
• Debrief

News / Etc.

• Please take a card from the stack and sit at the corresponding computer!
  • The names are dead computer scientists. We’re a kind of creepy department that way. Bios are available.
• Today we move to the standard class format. You learn better by doing than by listening, so we’ll have you do labs, and then debrief at the end.
• I am no longer distributing labs in physical form. You should be able to read the lab on the computer.
  • If you need a physical copy, let me know, and I can make a few.
• The self checks in each reading are for your benefit. You should do them (and I may ask you at the start of class what you figured out), but you need not turn anything in.
• We will have a quiz on Friday (as we will every Friday). This week’s topics include
  • The parts of an algorithm.
  • Very basic Scheme (things from today’s lab).
  • Course policies.
• I added a “Book an appointment” link to the “Primary” menu on the course.
• You should be able to view the “live” version of each eboard by clicking on the “Source” link in the list of eboards. (I’m working on making this cleaner.)
  • Sam demos.
• The CS department maintains a mailing list of events and opportunities (and other things of potential interest).
• Starting this week, I will be in 3813 from 9:00-9:50 a.m. every Thursday to answer questions. I wouldn’t quite call it a review session, but it serves that kind of purpose.
  • Yes, I’ll still post an eboard.
• Starting next week, we will have mentor sessions on Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 8:00-9:00 p.m. Wednesdays will be more Q&A, Thursdays will include sample quizzes.
• We have tutors available Sunday through Thursday evening from 7-10 p.m. in Science 3813/15.

Upcoming Work

• Assignment 2. Due next Tuesday!
• Reading: Numbers in Scheme
• Reading: Symbolic values in Scheme

Extra credit (Academic/Artistic)

• Rosenfield MLK day talk TONIGHT at 7pm, JRC 101
• Thursday extras, Thursday, 4:15 p.m., Science 3821: Summer Research Opportunities in CS
• One of the Camille A Brown events
  • Dialogue/Conversation: Arts & Activism. Friday January 27 4:15-5:15PM, BCA 152
  • Master Class (Open to All): A Journey through Juba and Other Social Dances. Saturday January 28, 11-12:30PM, Bucksbaum Dance Studio
  • Performance: Black Girl A Linguistics Play. Saturday January 28, 7:30PM Roberts Theatre.

Extra credit (Peer)

• Open practice for Ritalin Test Squad, 2-4 Saturday in the Wall.
• Swim meet next weekend.

Good things to do

• Still trying to come up with some (beyond the extra credit activities).

Questions

• It will take awhile to get used to the syntax, particularly “operand first”
• Why do we write #lang racket? DrRacket supports multiple languages; this informs it as to which one we’re using.
• Why two panes? One for the long-term definitions, and one for playing experimentally.

Lab

• If either partner has not finished yesterday’s lab, finish that first.

Debrief

• The “{ { … } }” is a problem with our site-building tool.
• How did you check the answer on the square root?
  • Test in Racket, using *, expt,
  • By hand