CS1110, Spring 2014: Initial Announcements Handout

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs1110/2014sp

cs1110 spring 2014 site:cs.cornell.edu

Labs (discussion sections) start next week, on the 28th. You can only attend the one you are registered for.

If you can't register for any of the scheduled labs on Student Center, register for the “TBA” section (DIS 209); this is not a “real” section, but rather a temporary solution that ensures that we can at least reach you by email. We anticipate opening additional lab sections, tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays 12:20 and/or Wednesdays 1:25, and will send email to everyone enrolled in the class on Student Center with final confirmation of what additional scheduled labs can be registered for.

It's not too early to try installing CS1110's required version of Python and Komodo Edit on your computer; follow the directions on the Python subpage of the aforementioned course homepage. Be sure to do this even if you already have some version of Python on your computer; it might not be the version we require.

If you'd like in-person help, the course consultants are holding drop-in hours Wednesday Jan 22 4-7:30pm and Thursday Jan 23 4-9pm, in the ACCEL lab Green Room (237 Carpenter Hall, on the second floor of the engineering library) to help you install Python “the CS1110 way” on your laptop. These sessions are meant especially for students who aren't comfortable with installing software packages on their laptops by themselves. See the consultants page for more details (the staff may enter which operating systems they are most expert in).

In order to alleviate a lot of confusion regarding Python files, you should configure things so that file-name extensions (like .doc, .pdf, .py, and .pyc) always appear.

To do this on Windows: First, open an explorer window. Use the menu item Tools and click on Folder Options. Finally, click on the View tab and uncheck the box Hide extensions for known file types.

If you use a Mac, click the finder icon (the "face") on your Dock to make the Finder menu visible. From the Finder menu, select the Preferences option. Finally, select the Advanced tab and check the box Show all filename extensions.

The main text for CS1110 is Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, by Allen B. Downey. It is freely available online under a Creative Commons license as either a PDF or an eBook. To get a free online copy, go to the author's webpage.

If you wish to buy a printed copy, you can purchase one from O'Reilly publishers or at the Campus Store, but the online version will suffice for this course, and the printed copy doesn't have the section numbering.