CSC104 Week #3 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT

DR. RACKET AGAIN!

Picturing programs and tick-handlers were the focal point once again of this weeks tutorial lesson. In class we made a basic stop watch using Dr. Racket. This lesson was good because it began reveal to us real applications for Dr. Racket as a programming tool. The class demonstration was somewhat confusing. After I attempted on my own and watched the tutorial videos as well as the alternate text and video resources, I began to pick up on how programs like the stop watch are constructed in Dr. Racket.

What I learned at the end of the tutorial assignment is that by using definitions and functions within Dr. Racket cohesively you are able to build upon and construct somewhat complex functions. The key really is to understand the language Dr. Racket uses as well as creatively using its functions.

CSC 104 Week #2 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT

The Dr. Racket tutorial for this week was very straight forward. Once I had picked up on the actual interface for using Dr. Racket the lesson came to me very quickly. Defining identifiers for values was very straight forward as it is the most basic element of Dr. Racket. Defining functions was a little tricky, but the tutorial videos made it straight forward and easy.

CSC 104 Week #3

In week three we continued with the evolution of computing hardware with the concept of "convergence" and the comparison between digital and binary computing systems. We also covered the contrast between magnetic rings and transistors. Simple operators such as, Boolean logic has become a large corner stone of the course and we learned that it used two values, "true" and "false", which can be combined. 

Boolean logic, was an easy concept to understand as it can only have combinations of two variables. Important factors of Boolean logic are the logic systems of "and GATE", "or GATE" and "not GATE", which are basic decision systems for Boolean logic variable. These were all rather simple to comprehend. A more challenging part of this section was Boolean Arithmetic, which is a bite wise operator. This, I felt gave me the most trouble. I didn't find too much information helpful within the course, however there were many sources on various programming websites that were helpful.

Binary to Decimal in BASE 10 also gave me some trouble. I had previous covered this in another course, so I knew the basics. What we covered in class was confusing, but after researching and refreshing myself on the basic elements of converting from binary to decimal I was able to overcome the challenge.

CSC104 Week #2

In the initial part of the course we explored the history of hardware that represents information. We learned that initial hardware used gears, pins and electricity. This was applied with the punch card system for keeping track of information. We then moved on to "programmable" and "electronic" hardware such as Zuse Z1. By the end of the first week we understood the basic evolution and inner workings of computing hardware.

This was generally straight forward and easy to understand as it was presented to us in a very chronological order. We were able to compare past computing technology with modern computers as well as see how elements of computing transformed.