Monday 6 April 2015

Week 12

The topic assigned for this week is quite similar to what I wrote about last week - looking back over the course, considering any obstacles and successes. For more insight into how others' experiences differed from mine, I looked through some other slogs. This also helped provide some inspiration for my slog.

A classmate said in their slog (http://2015-csc148.blogspot.ca/) said it was not too difficult to learn a new language, particularly with prior experience in Java. I have never learned any programming languages besides Python, but I know that this would be an integral part of my career. More and more jobs are using computers, and each job uses their computer language of preference. To fit well into a workplace, it is quite necessary to be able to adapt well. This includes familiarity with multiple languages, and not fearing the idea of learning more. I hope that in future years at the University of Toronto, I will be exposed to more languages. I also plan to pursue my own learning of computer languages, perhaps as early as this summer.

To sum up the material from our last week, we covered big-oh for efficiency, and some more on abstract data types. Last semester in CSC165, I was introduced to big-oh and related concepts, so the idea was not too difficult for me in this class. I am realizing that efficiency is a huge part of coding. Not only must a program be able to perform the desired operation(s), but it must be able to do so as fast as possible. Now when I write code, I try to consider whether or not there is an alternative approach that would be faster.

Overall, the course has been quite rewarding. Lots of material was presented, but adequate practice was provided, so the course was not overwhelming for me. Assignments were tricky at some points. Pondering over possible solutions (especially with a partner) is exactly what will need to be done in future courses and in the workplace. I am happy that I could have such a great introduction to computer science. I will no doubt pursue it further!