Hello!
- Welcome to the  Path to Programming; the audio supplementary materials
  for introduction to computer science!
- I am a former student that took this introductory course and today I
  want to talk to you about the skills you need to make the best of this
  class.
- Learning computer science can be challenging for many reasons. It’s
  almost like transporting yourself back to elementary school to learn
  math or writing for the first time because the concepts are new and
  you’re going to be expressing them in a way that is probably not
  familiar to you. So you really want to familiarize yourself with the
  programming language.
- In this class you will be using Python, but this goes for any
  programming language. An easy way to start familiarizing yourself with
  Python would be to memorize the available commands.
- Every programming language has a vocabulary of built-in commands that
  you'll need to learn to use, because you will be using them very often.
  The built in functions that you  might end up needing are: max (finds
  the of the several items that has been passed into the parameter), min
  (finds the smallest number that has been passed into the parameter),
  int (takes any number, or a piece of text that spells out a number, and
  gives back an integer), float (takes an integer or string that spells
  out a decimal number and gives back a floating-point number), len, str,
  round and print, input (Entering a print statement and the user can
  enter an answer) and more! Make sure you understand what each of these
  built-in functions do and make sure you know when to use them.
- For example you could use max along with len to find the length of the
  longer of two pieces of text.
- We will get more into the specific uses of the functions but what’s
  important for now is that you know what these built in functions are
  called and what each function does briefly. Understanding the built in
  functions ties into understanding data types and what operations to use
  with them.
- A data type is something every value in python has. It basically
  describes what kind of  Knowing the type of data can help you choose
  the right operator.
- There are four basic operators in Python these are +(plus), -(minus),
  %(remainder), *(times) and /(divide).
- They don’t just act like the mathematical operators we know, because
  they interact with different types of data differently.
- For example the plus operator can be used to concatenate (combine) strings.
- One thing that I didn't pay enough attention to in the first few weeks
  of learning how to code was the memory model. The memory model
  demonstrates how a program would run and how assignments happen when
  you declare a variable. The memory model explains how the computer
  works when your program runs.
- The first few weeks it seems really trivial to use the memory model but
  this is actually the perfect time to get acquainted with it. It’s
  important to use the memory model because programming has a lot of
  variable assignments that occur.

- Another skill that you'll need to build up is working memory to hold
  several variables in your mind at once and understand how a sequence of
  several instructions will operate on them. Understanding your variables
  and what values they hold can help you understand how your code runs as
  well.
- But variables aren't the only thing we use in Python. We can also just
  write expressions to calculate values, and we don’t need to assign them
  to a variable. The reason we use variables is to make sure that they
  are stored in the memory, so that we can access them later on without
  having to write the whole statement over again.
- And obviously understanding what you’re doing with each line of code is
  one of the most essential parts of programming. There are so many
  things you will learn throughout introduction to programming and
  understanding what each function does, whether you define it or it’s a
  built in function is essential for you to be able to write code that
  not only works but is also efficient.

- Everything we talked about so far is more so on the side of
  understanding the basics of  programming.
- We touched on understanding the programming language, important
  features of the language include built in functions and user defined
  functions.
- If you really get to know the functions then you will know which
  operations to use with them.
- Another thing we touched on was making sure that you understand each
  variable you declare, know how to follow the statements you are making
  and an easy way to do this is by using the memory model.
- But coding is not just about the programming language you use, it’s
  also about you, the user, and how hard you work beyond the computer
  screen.

- An essential part of learning how to code is having good teamwork
  skills, including the ability to ask questions about what you don't
  know, and the ability to answer questions gracefully and learn from the
  process.
- The biggest advice I can give you as someone who previously took
  introduction to programming is to never be afraid to ask questions.
  It’s easy to think that the answer to your question is obvious, or that
  it is not the most complex question of all time. But those things do
  not matter, if you are curious about it and you have the opportunity to
  ask it, never pass up on it. That’s why your instructors are there for
  you, they want to answer all your questions no matter how big or how
  small.
- Learning something from scratch is always hard, so never doubt the
  validity of your questions. The more questions you ask the easier it
  will become for you to answer the questions that you or others have.
- Beyond asking questions a very important part of intro is team work.
  Working in a group is often a great opportunity to see the way other
  people view the process of coding. You can always learn something from
  your partner or teach something to your coding partner without even
  realizing it.
- Maybe the way you think about the memory model is different then your
  coding partners and you can really help them understand things more
  clearly with how you think about it. Or maybe your partner is really
  efficient about when they use their variables after executing a bunch
  of statements.
- An important point to remember is not everyone is at the same level
  even if it is an introductory class, so never feel discouraged if your
  coding partner has more experience, or has a different approach then
  you. At the same time, if you end up feeling like your partner doesn't
  understand things, instead of trying to go ahead and solve things on
  your own, take the time to explain things to your partner.
- The best way to learn something is to teach it, and in the process,
  you'll find that you will be able to build more solid foundations for
  your own understanding, even if you are explaining a concept that you
  feel is pretty "basic." Finally what will help you the most during this
  class is to have strong planning habits (for example, writing
  documentation and comments before writing code).
- Commenting is often a part of programming that the user can easily
  neglect because when you understand a problem and how to solve it you
  often don’t feel the need to explain how you've gotten there. But not
  everyone has the same thought process or problem solving process, which
  is why it is very important to describe exactly what you are doing, so
  that the purpose of your code is understandable in every way possible.
- As a plus, explaining your process and plan using comments and
  documentation before you write your code will help you reach a correct
  solution more quickly and will help make sure you understand the
  problem that you're trying to solve.
- Besides having generally good planning skills make sure that you have
  the most clear and effective approach, by applying the key case based
  problem solving steps. The problem solving steps are simple and they
  include:

1. Before attempting to solve a problem you really have to understand
   what the problem is asking for.
2. Before trying to code something from scratch, think of a way to solve
   the problem and how you would approach it yourself if you didn't have
   a computer. That's the hard part, figuring out how to solve a complex
   problem, the easier part is telling the computer what to do in order
   to solve that problem.
3. If you’re struggling to solve the problem on your own, gather
   relevant examples that can help you. If there’s a similar problem that
   you solved in class go over what the idea behind it was and look at
   the code to see how those ideas were implemented in the code.
    - Don’t only look for the similarities of the current and previous
      problems but also look for differences and try to understand where
      these differences are coming from. This is why understanding the
      built in functions, and understanding variables is important
      because you as the programmer will determine what tools you need to
      solve the problem. The more you understand the functions the easier
      it will be for you to ‘diagnose’ what you need. This way it will
      become easier for you to propose a solution to the problem.
3. Program your solution (Write down the instructions in computer code.
   You'll need to exercise your knowledge of a programming language to
   understand how to translate your steps into steps the computer can
   carry out.)
4. Test your program to make sure it works (Use your examples from step 1
   and see if the program behaves correctly.)
5. Fix your program (If your program doesn't work, or only work
   sometimes, first figure out exactly why, and then decide which step
   you need to revisit.
    - Sometimes you just need to tweak, other times you need to go back
      to step 1. But don't worry, your incorrect work isn't wasted: it
      has already helped you build a deeper understanding of the problem
      that you're working on.)

- If you can follow these problem-solving steps in order, you should be
  able to solve a wide range of different problems, and as you learn more
  and more about specific functions and language constructs, you'll be
  able to expand your vocabulary and keep solving more and more difficult
  problems. But if you develop bad habits and try to jump straight to a
  solution, you may find yourself getting stuck a lot or spending a huge
  amount of time to solve problems as they get more complex.
- Pay attention to all of the basics we've discussed here and the process
  of learning how to program should go smoothly!