Computer programming with Python in TCD?

evercloserunion

Hi all, I've been trying to teach myself a bit of Python lately (I have no prior experience of computer programming or computer science) and it occurred to me today that there might be some past exam papers for TCD courses which have Python-related questions or problems, which could assist me. I checked a couple of papers, which appear to rely on Java, but there are several computer-related courses in TCD and I'm not sure if the languages taught changes from time to time so I figured the best thing to do would be to ask here.

So is there any course in TCD which teaches Python, the exam papers for which I might find on the net?

Mark200

I'm pretty sure the current Computer Science degree doesn't cover Python at the moment - but maybe it did in the past.

Don't know where you could get past papers. The CS papers used to be available to everyone on the internet but I think they're only available through local access now.

boblong

The solutions to any of the programming questions should be language agnostic, so why not just answer the Java questions in Python?

To answer your question, I am not aware of any. There's definitely an emphasis on compiled languages in CS anyway.

evercloserunion

Mark200 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the current Computer Science degree doesn't cover Python at the moment - but maybe it did in the past.

Don't know where you could get past papers. The CS papers used to be available to everyone on the internet but I think they're only available through local access now.

Oh I can find the exam papers on the net alright, I know where to find them (same place as all the other exam papers). It's just that there are about 5 courses that look like they would involve computer programming, so trawling through the JF/SF/JS/SS papers for every year would take a while.

Boblong, pretty good idea. Thanks guys.

Dante

You could try trekking down to the netsoc room, I vaguely remember our programming lecturer ranting on about the netsoc doing a load of tutorials on python earlier in the year. I've no idea where that room is though.

rjt

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

You could try trekking down to the netsoc room, I vaguely remember our programming lecturer ranting on about the netsoc doing a load of tutorials on python earlier in the year. I've no idea where that room is though.

It's in Goldsmith - go left inside the main doors and it's the door at the end of that corridor. Not sure what times it's open.

ronivek

Or you get get yourself a cheap Python book; especially considering you have had no previous exposure to programming I wouldn't recommend jumping in to questions without any real guidance.

In terms of Python I believe it hasn't been taught formally since the 90s; and many of those exam papers are not online.

thebossanova

Not sure if netsoc were doing tutorials, but i know ducss were doing some games tutorials using python...
http://ducss.ie/?paged=2

boblong

thebossanova wrote: »

Not sure if netsoc were doing tutorials, but i know ducss were doing some games tutorials using python...

Netsoc gave Python tutorials, and DUCSS gave Python tutorials using pygame, which were great. I recommend this book for OP.

romperstomper

MIT open courseware is your friend for this:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-189January--IAP--2008/CourseHome/

evercloserunion

Thanks guys, yeah I've been looking at a few of the resources you mentioned. I've been using the MIT OpenCourseware thing, it's fantastic. I've also been looking at a couple of tutorials. The books mentioned here look good, I'll look into them. I might also see if the NetSoc have any materials on it (I really should have joined them at the start of the year).

I find the basic mechanics of the language fairly easy to grasp, but far more challengig is realising the potential of Python's large standard library and (even more difficult) thinking like a computer programmer. I reckon the best way to do that would be to actually try and solve problems using Python, hence my looking for the exam papers.

Thanks again!

The Insider

http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/introduction.html