Week 16: CST 205

A variety of subjects were learned in this class. We learned how to manipulate photos, and sounds in JES. We also learned about the software development cycle and a few basics on how to use GitHub. After that, we made a few simple games.

This class gave a good rundown of the basics of the Python language. Although it wasn't required or focused on, our team involved a lot of object-oriented programming in our code. We also worked a lot with the PyCharm IDE for its easy to use interface used by professionals and amateurs alike. I would advise a future CSIT-Online student to make sure they do the full 10+ hours of python preparation if they are not familiar with python. I would also advise someone to keep track of the new functions they have learned about and use the existing python 2.7/JES documentation for help learning about new functions. I had the most difficulty with the Labs where there wasn't as much guidance towards the end of the semester. If I got started earlier in the week, I would have done better. I also would have preferred if the TA had a group hangouts like the one we had for CST 300.

In Chapter 15, we learned about Classes and Objects. In Python, points represent a 2D space, they have parenthesis with a comma separating the coordinates. Classes are a programmer-defined type indicated by "class stuff: ". The class object can be used to create more objects. When you create a new object, that is called instantiation. The object is an instance of that class. Dot notation can be used to assign values to an instance. The elements are called attributes. Dot notation objects can be used in print statements to print the value of it. An object can be changed by reassigning one of its attributes or reassigning it with a function. Any object can be copied instead of aliasing. In a shallow copy, the object and reference are copied but not the embedded objects. In a deep copy, the object, the references, and the embedded objects are copied.

Some errors when debugging class issues will be attribute errors. This occurs when you are trying to access an attribute that isn't there. This is fixed by asking type(p); this will return the type of object. This is also fixed by using isinstance(p,Point); if this is is true, p is an instance of the class. The hasattr(p,'x') function will explain if an object p has an attribute 'x' (a string).