My notes and practice from module 1
Chapter 1:
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Moore’s Law: Hardware costs have gradually fallen whereas computer capacities have doubled.
- Amount of memory that computers have for programs
- Amount of secondary storage
- Processor speeds
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Bandwidth: Information carrying capacity
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Computer Units (Most have multicore processors):
- Input: This receiving section obtains information from input devices and places it at the disposal of other units for processing.
- Output: This shipping section takes information the computer has processed and places it on various output devices to make it available for use outside the computer.
- Memory: Retains information that has been entered through the input unit.
- ALU: This manufacturing section performs calculations.
- CPU: This administrative section coordinates and supervises the operation of the other sections.
- Secondary Storage: This is the long-term high capacity warehousing section.
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Bit (binary digit): Is the smallest data item in a computer valuing 0 or 1.
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Characters: Digits, letters, and symbols.
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Fields: Composed of characters or bytes, group of characters or bytes that convey meaning.
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Records: Several related fields compose a record.
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Files: A group of related records.
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Databases: Collection of data organized for easy access and manipulation.
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Big data: Massive amounts of data.
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Relational database: Data stored in tables.
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Objects: reusable software components.
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Method: Houses the program statements that perform its tasks.
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Class: houses the set of methods that perform the class’s tasks.
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Instantiation: Process of building an object of a class.
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Method call: Tells a method of the object to perform its task.
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Attributes: Are specified by the class’s instance variables
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Inheritance: The new class (subclass) starts with the characteristics of an existing class (superclass) possibly customizing them.
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OOAD: Analyzing and designing your system from an object-oriented point of view.
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Operating Systems: software systems that make using computers more convenient for users, application developers and system administrators.
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Kernel: The software that contains the core components of the operating system.
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Windows = Proprietary operating system, controlled by microsoft exclusively
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Linux = Open source software
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Apple = Open source
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Android = open source
Python:
- Object oriented scripting language.
- Anaconda python distribution:
- Easy install on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Supports latest versions of python.
- The Zen of Python summarizes python creator Guido van Rossum’s design principles for python language.
- Python Standard Library: Provides rich capabilities for text/binary data processing, mathematics, functional-style programming, file/directory access, data persistence, data compression/archiving, and more.
- Integrated Development Environments: provide tools that support the entire software-development process.
Jupyter Notebook: An interactive browser-based environment in which you can write and execute code and intermix the code with text, images, and video.
CHAPTER 2:
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Python rules
- Statement: x=7
- Identifier: x. Cannot begin with a digit and python is case sensitive.
- Type: Each kind of data has a type
- For example: type(10.5) is a float
- Floating point number: Decimals
- Floor division: Uses two // and yields the highest integer not greater than the result.
- Remainder (modulo): Used as % and yields the remainder after division.
- Exponentiation: ** = x^y
- Dividing by zero is not allowed
- Traceback: Reports the error in python
- Python follows PEMDAS
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Print function: Displays its argument.
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String: A string of characters
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Escape Character: used as a \
- \n represents a newline character
- \t inserts a tab
- \ insert a backslash character in a string
- \” Insert a double quote character in a string
- \’ Insert a single quote character in a string
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Using quotes in quotes:
- print(‘Display “hi” in quotes’)
- print(‘Display\’hi\’ in quotes’)
- Can use triple quotes instead
- print(“””Display “hi” and ‘bye’ in quotes”””)
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Input: Allows users to input an answer
- Name = input(“What is your name?”)
- What’s your name? ‘Paul’
- Name
- “‘Paul’”
- print(name)
- ‘Paul’
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Getting an integer from a user:
- Value = input(‘Enter an integer: ‘)
- Enter an integer: 7
- Value = int(value)
- Value
- 7
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Boolean Expressions: Are either true or false.
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Docstring: Each script should start with a docstring that explains the script's purpose. Use triple quotes.
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= means is assigned to
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== means equal to
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Min: smallest value in a collection
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Max: Largest value in a collection
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Range: Range of values from min to max
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Count: Number of values in a collection
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Sum: Total of all values in collection
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Measure of dispersion: Range, variance, standard deviation