Question

So I just watched the first class of MIT 6.00. I see the first assignment is making a program that asks to enter and print your name. Is this something that we'll learn in the lectures to come? because based on the first lecture there's no way i'd be able to do that. Is there any sort of other materials I should be using besides watching the video lectures? Thanks in advance for any help

Answer 1

You can check out when Problem Sets are due here: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/calendar/

Having said that, most likely they want you to start searching and understanding what is programming and the fact that you should be able to google and look for help with classmates. Having said that, if you want help in Python, go check "Learn Python the Hard Way" from Z. Shaw, "Think Like a Computer Scientist" in the related resources tab on OCW.MIT, and you can check Python videos on YouTube. I would suggest khanacademy and thenewboston channels.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply...i'll give those all a look

Answer 3

and the readings:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/readings/

Answer 4

And yet another option: in the pset0 pdf, they give you a specific hint for that problem: check the input and output section of the python wikibook
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming/Input_and_output
and also the variables and strings section
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming/Variables_and_Strings

Answer 5

Yes, the readings. I didn't find that link until I'd finished all the problem sets. That would have helped a lot, and it's VERY not obvious on the web page.

Answer 6

dmancine, you did ALL the problems without the readings?!?

Answer 7

Yes. But I've been a professional software engineer for 13 years. I already knew programming concepts, so I just had to translate them into python. And I could get that from Google and the python docs. But I knew what I was looking for.

I was wondering how they'd expect a beginning programmer to get through those assignments with just the info from the lectures. But I thought maybe because it's MIT they expected a lot from the students.

I finally saw the link to openstudy and then the link to the readings right above it. I think I was on PS12 at the time. (I guess the Internet has conditioned me to not look at the sides of a page, because it's all ads and crap.) Then from openstudy I learned where the links to the handouts were. I left some feedback on OCW that said they should make those things a little more conspicuous.

Answer 8

dmancine- OK, whew. I was feeling quite inadequate ;)