CS: study of computation and computational devices.

●​ Computational theory – what are the possibilities and limitations of computation?

●​ Computational application – how can we use computation to fulfill a specific need?
●​ Computational discovery – given data, can we find patterns and answer questions
through computation?
●​ Computational expression – how can computation change the way we communicate and
engage with others?
●​ Critical computing – how does computation affect our lives, and how should it be
regulated?
●​ Computation: algorithms and abstraction
Algorithms: procedures that specify how to do a task. Standardize processes and permit comm
●​ Represented as program code with an input, output, and steps
Abstraction: technique to make complex systems manageable by changing detail
Programing languages: use diff syntax but same algorithms
●​ Interpreter converters text into instructions the computer runs
●​ Data: info that can be changed and kept track of (numbers, text, truth values)
○​ Combined using operations
Strings: can be repeated using mult. with an integer
Errors: syntax errors show an inline arrow, for other errors, read the message
●​ 1. Line number 2. Error type 3. Maybe inline 4. Maybe error message
●​ Python first has to break your text down into tokens, then structure those tokens into a
format that the computer can execute.
●​ Special syntax errors: indentation and incomplete
●​ Runtime: name, error, zero div
●​ An assert statement takes a Boolean expression. If the expression evaluates to True, the
statement does nothing. If it evaluates to False, the program crashes.
Program state: how python keeps track of data
Statement: action taken by the program that can change the program state. Executes a change
●​ Expressions evaluates to a data value
Number system: rep # with symbols
Function: code construct that reps an algorithm. Core action that is repeated
●​ Input: displays, type, store
●​ Typecasting: change type of data value
●​ 1. ​ Name
●​ 2. ​ Argument
●​ 3. ​ Return
●​ 4. ​ Side effect
Argument: value inside parentheses, input
Returned value: what the function returns, output
●​ Functions evaluate to 1 return value; they are an expression, so can be nested
●​ Sometimes functions changes the program state: side effect
Libraries: prebuilt functions
Local scope: variables in function definitions (including parameters) are only accessible within
that function. Global scope: variables at the global (top) level are accessible at the top-level,
and by any function.
Kwargs: argument associated with a specific name instead o a position in the function call. Can
have default value
Parameters: abstracted arguments
Control flow: order statements are executed
●​ Redirected when function is called
Conditional statement: control structure that allows you to
make choices in a program.
●​ 1 if, 0 or more elif, 1 or 0 else
●​ Joined clauses are one control structure
Software: the abstracted concepts of computation- how
computers represent data, and how programs can
manipulate data. Hardware: the actual physical
components used to implement software, like the laptop
components shown to the right.
Half-adder: a circuit that takes two one-digit binary
numbers, adds them, and outputs two digits as the result
Full adder: a circuit that takes two one-digit binary numbers
and a carried-in digit, adds all three, and outputs two digits as the result
Inputs: X and Y are single digits of the numbers being added. C_in is the number
carried from the previous addition. Outputs: Sum is the right digit of the result; C_out is
the left digit, which will be carried to the next addition.
N-bit adder: a circuit that takes two n-bit numbers, adds them together by chaining together n
full adders, and outputs a n+1-digit result
While loops: need start value, an update action, and
a continuing condition.
●​ This changing part will be created by the loop
control variable, which is updated in the loop
body. We want to start the variable at x and
continue while the variable is less than or equal
to y.
●​ a control structure that lets you repeat actions
while a given Boolean expression is True
●​ Loop control variable: a variable used to manipulate the number of times a loop iterates.
Requires a start value, update action, and continuing condition.
●​ If we call input inside the loop body, we can get multiple inputs from the user and
process them like a data stream.
●​ result = 0 value = input("Enter a number, or q to quit:") while value != "q": num =
int(value) result = result + num value = input("Enter a number, or q to quit:")
●​ Loop control variable: which power of 10 is being checked Start value: 1 (100 )
Continuing condition: while the power of 10 isn't greater than the number Update action:
 multiply the power by 10 num = 2021 power = 1 digits = 0 while power < num: digits =
digits + 1 power = power * 10 print(digits) OR num times u can divide by 10
print("Total sum:", result)
For loop: a control structure that lets you repeat actions a specific number of times
●​ You usually use a while loop when you don’t know how many iterations are going to
occur. You can always convert a for loop into a while loop but not the
other way around.
●​ Range: a function that generates values for the loop control variable
in a for loop. Can take 1-3 inputs
○​ range Generates Loop Variable Values, consec. Values for
the loop control var
●​ def isPrime(num): if num < 2: >return False <for factor in range(2,
num): >if num % factor == 0: >return False <<return True
●​ In nested loops, the inner loop is repeated every time the outer loop
takes a step
Strings: real text data is modular- you can break it up into sentences, words, letters
"ABC\nDEF" # '\n' = newline, or pressing enter/return
"ABC\tDEF" # '\t' = tab
The \ character is a special character that indicates an escape sequence. It is modified by the
letter that follows it. These two symbols are treated as a single character by the interpreter.
Slice: access a subsequence of a larger sequence based on a given start, end (not inclusive),
and step
Index: access a specific value in a sequence based on its position. Positions start at 0 and end
at len(seq)-1. Non-existent indexes result in IndexError.