Mimir:Spring 2017 Nick Bielinski Log


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Week Ending February 20, 2017

 * Task:

Our tasks for this week was to look at chapter 3 "Imperative Programming" and see what we could find for expansion. Professor Jonas talked about a previous group focusing on one chapter and how they really got it to become a fully fleshed out chapter. That is our main objective for this semester. Just incase chapter 3 doesn't have enough work for us, we will also look at chapter 4 "Functional Programming". My tasks this week was to look at the Python section and see if we can expand out on it. It covers perl nicely, but I feel like it just glosses over Python, when I think it should be expanded to the size of the Perl section. Python is one of the biggest languages today, but I think it would still be good as an introduction for some people, and to show how languages are similar to each other when talking about the imperative paradigm.


 * Results:

I split up the Python section so that it matches with the Perl section. I think what is already in place is a good introduction to Python, but again something that can be expanded upon.


 * Plan:

My plan is for us to match the Python section to the Perl section, so it is more in depth. For me personally, I knew more Python than Perl, and it would be nice to see them both together so i can see the immediate differences between the two.


 * Concerns:

My main concern is having the information and the narrative flow throughout the chapters that we do. I think once we are getting close to the end I will go through the work we end up completing and read over it and check the narrative. grammar, etc. I'm fairly good at writing so I think it would be a good job for me to do.

Week Ending February 27, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to look at the examples Dunya had done with the Python section we are adding and to expand on it.


 * Results:

I looked through Dunya's section and expanded where I could find room. I went through and tried to make the section flow better, and for all the sections to look and feel the same. I was able to add in some places like the structure, data types, print statements and file input and output sections. I also went through and changed the code so that it reflects the current Python version of 3.6.0. In the examples there were print statements without parenthesis, which is how you do print statements in 2.7.x. There is no need to have the older version in our book.


 * Plan:

I plan to go through this part and further expand on it. I did a decent bit today, and will look at it again another day.


 * Concerns:

My biggest concern as I was editing and adding new parts is that everyone has a different style for how they want things to be setup visually in the book. I think we need to come to some sort of an agreement on a visual standard, so that we don't have to spend time going over previous parts and changing how it is formatted. Obviously we want the book to look the same all the way through.

Week Ending March 6, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to go through the Python section, and all of chapter 3, and see if there was anything I could improve upon. I am mainly looking to go through and add more narrative above each python section (or as many as I can) and go through the entire chapter and check for spelling, grammar, etc


 * Results:

I added more to the Python section, trying to give it more narrative. I still think I need to do some more. I need to look at it everyday so I get a fresh mind and think about what is written down differently.


 * Plan:

My future plan will be to reconvene with the group. We will check what we have done and discuss what we need to do to improve our chapters. I think we can aim for 2 chapters (3 and 4).


 * Concerns:

My only concern is whether we get enough content in each chapter or whether we hit the right point of what the chapter is supposed to be about.

Week Ending March 20, 2017

 * Task:

My task for this week was to look at the introduction section of the Python imperative programming section and see what I could improve.


 * Results:

The introduction was split into two separate parts. There was an introduction that was more of a narrative, more like you would see in a book, and another part that was just a bulleted list. I thought it would be better to make them the same, so I turned the bulleted list into a narrative, so it matched the whole section more completely.


 * Plan:

I am not sure what we will do going forward. We will have to find out during our next meeting. I think we might switch chapters, read through them, in order to give a fresh perspective on the chapters. That way we will know what we need to fill out more, redo, reword, etc.


 * Concerns:

I don't really have any concerns at this point. We are following along with what we have been assigning to people.

Week Ending March 27, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to start going through the Perl section in Chapter 3 and make sure the information was ok and that the grammar and spelling was fine as well.


 * Results:

The information seemed ok to me. It goes along pretty symmetrically with the Python section. MOst of the changes I made were making sentences flow better, or updating some grammar mistakes. For example, there were a 2 or three sentences in the intro that I thought stopped short. They were about 3 or 4 words and then the sentence ended, although it could have been combined with the following sentence.


 * Plan:

I'm not sure what my future plan is going to be. I'm not sure what we are going to do next. We did discuss last meeting switching who is looking at what chapters in order for us switch it up and get a different perspective.


 * Concerns:

No concerns I can think of right now.

Week Ending April 3, 2017

 * Task:

This week we did two things. We worked on the book a little more, and we also set some time aside to finish our GRC poster for the upcoming event.


 * Results:

I worked on the Perl section some more. Again it was mainly just grammar, run on sentences, changing words etc. The content I think is still pretty good for what we want. I also made a rough copy of what I thought our poster should look like.


 * Plan:

This week we will regroup and finalize our poster and we will get assigned new tasks for the book. I'm not exactly sure what we will assign to the various people since I'm not sure how much people did this weekend along with the poster.


 * Concerns:

No real concerns at this time.

Week Ending April 10, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to create some small problems to add to Chapter 3. I created small problem sets that can be done in Perl and Python.


 * Results:

I got rid of the problem sets from last year. They weren't really problem sets. Most of them were just questions about the text above it. I thought of some small problems that I think would be useful in order pickup the language in order to be useful in the class. Not all the questions are 100% imperative, so maybe I should change those for next time.


 * Plan:

The next thing I need to work on is getting the solutions for the problems. I have 6 of them, so I should probably have solutions for both Perl and Python, 12 in total.


 * Concerns:

No concerns at this point in time

Week Ending April 17, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to write the answers to the problem set for Chapter 3 that I did last week.


 * Results:

I have 12 answers total. Six solutions are in Python and six solutions are in Perl. I tried to make them look as similar as possible coding wise and variable wise so it will be easy to compare the two. For example I did a simple one to check whether a number was even or odd. That is the first question in the problem set.

Perl solution:

print "Enter a number to determine whether it is even or odd:\n"; my $N = ; chomp($N); if ($N % 2 == 0) { print "The number $N is even\n"; } else { print "The number $N is odd\n"; }

Python solution:

print("Enter a number to determine whether it is even or odd: ") number = input if (int(number) % 2 == 0): print("Number is even") else: print("Number is odd")


 * Plan:

The next thing we will have to discuss is whether we should make an answer key in the back of the book, or have the solutions at the bottom of the chapter they belong to. Regardless, it won't be that difficult.


 * Concerns:

No concerns right now

Week Ending April 24, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to go over Chapter 4 and look for grammar, spelling, sentence structure, voice, content, etc and see what improvements I can make. As we are winding down on the end of the semester it is important we start finalizing chapters that we have done.


 * Results:

I went through the entire page and edited what I stated above (grammar, spelling, sentence structure, voice, content). It was mainly grammar and making the text flow better. There were sentences that were very choppy when I read them, so I would rewrite the sentence (using the same content) so that it was easier to read, while still sounding formal for the textbook. I did not add much content overall to the chapter today.


 * Plan:

I may go back later and add some more content if on a second or third read through I read it differently than previously and find an area lacking.

No concerns right now.
 * Concerns:

Week Ending May 1, 2017

 * Task:

My task this week was to make the answer key section and fill in the answers for the questions I made for Chapter 3.


 * Results:

I just copied how the other supplemental pages were created, and then made the answer key page. I then made a section for Chapter 3 and stuck my code in there for Python and for Perl.


 * Plan:

My plan going into next week is to meet with the group again and continue finalizing and reviewing what we have completed so far.


 * Concerns:

No concerns right now

Week Ending May 8, 2017

 * Task:

My task for this week was to go through as much as I could in Chapter 5 and correct and grammar, sentence structure, etc.


 * Results:

I went through all of Chapter 5 and just tried to make things flow nicer, use different words, change up sentence structures etc.


 * Plan:

I'm not sure what our next plan is. I don't know if we have to continue after tomorrows class since it will be our last. Unless we think we could do a little more to do final touches before the semester ends.


 * Concerns:

No concerns