Explorers, Your mission this week:

• Complete the two-player War card game. Online rules are available if you are unfamiliar with the game.
• Layout the objects and methods you would need for an adventure game, like we discussed in class. You don't need to worry about the actual Python code just yet. Some simple lists in an email would be fine.

We will now switch to the book I gave you in class, Think Python. Use the online version to cut and paste the examples.

Note: Week 4 was an open coding session with no specific assignment.

Team Python,

This week we reviewed my solution to the tic-tac-toe program. You can try to modify this code to improve the computer's strategy or extend it to support 3D tic-tac-toe. I will upload the other solutions later this week.

• Finish the reading the remaining sections of the tutorial.
• Work through the three programs described in the handout. For the Rock-Paper-Scissors, try to prove by experiment that the odds of winning are 1 out of 3.
• Send us any code you create or any questions you have.
• We can now move to the "real" Python documentation. Start using the official tutorial and library reference to answer your questions. If you can't find something in the documentation, let us know.

Python Explorers, even though Liverpool has canceled classes, we will still have our meeting tonight.

Team, thanks again for your participation tonight. We reviewed last week's assignment and worked on a program that plays Tic-Tac-Toe. For next week:

• PLEASE email us with any code you create or if you have any problems.
• Read the tutorial up to page 71.
• Sign up for an account on sf.net and email us your username.
• Complete a program that plays Tic-Tac-Toe OR complete the Rock Paper Scissors program described in this PDF.
• If you finish, consider writing a program that calculates the odds of winning Rock, Paper, Scissors is 1/3 if both players choose randomly. You will need to have the computer play itself many times to show this.
• If you have trouble, take a look at the other two problems in the handout (guessing game and pig latin). You should be able to complete the guessing game. The pig latin one is more challenging (we'll tackle it next week). Good luck!

Explorers, thanks for helping us kickoff this year's Python project.

Your mission this week is to install Python on your computer and try out some example programs in the tutorial.

If you have any questions, please let us know by emailing python (a)(t) post6201.org.

• Check out http://python.org for download links for a variety of operating systems. The Python 2.6.3 Windows installer is what most of you will need.
• Please read the first seven chapters of the Non-Programmers Tutorial for Python PDF Link
• At the very least, try to create the "Area" program described at the end of chapter 7. Email it to us for extra special credit.

Finally, you can subscribe to the Python Project RSS feed by using http://www.post6201.org/backend/6201python.rdf in your favorite news reader!

The first Python project will be Thursday, October 1st, 7-8:30PM. Please arrive on-time so we have enough time to complete the security sign-in and other administrative details.

We will start the meeting at the same place First Night was held. You can find a map and directions in the First Night Info-Packet.

Please bring a picture ID with you for identification purposes.

If you want to continue your project, please email us at the usual address. We have heard from Andrew and Tom so far.

The final Python project meeting is TONIGHT, Thursday 12/18, 7-8:30PM.

We will have pizza, discussion, and possibly games (both Python and other).

Here are some links to the projects I talked about last week:

http://subversion.tigris.org/ - Version Control
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ - Version Control GUI

http://python6201.sf.net/ - Online Python repository

Next steps:
http://www.wxpython.org/ - GUI library you can access via Python (try the demo!)
http://pygame.org/

Python Team,

This week's meeting will be held on WEDNESDAY, December 10th, 7:00-8:30PM. This will replace our usual Thursday night meeting.

Do not worry if you can't make it. You can send any code questions to the usual email address and we will be sure to help you.

Next week, we will have our last meeting on Thursday, December 18th.

Team,

Next week I want to see your updated design documents for your game.

Here is the link to the text adventure introduction I promised, please note it has THREE parts (check the nav bar on the right):
http://coolnamehere.com/geekery/python/ifiction/

That is all.

Explorers, your mission this week is to read a few tutorials on OO programming. We will discuss it further next week. If you have any questions, please contact your advisors using the usual methods. That is all.

• Start with the chapter 12,13, and 14 of the book How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - You may want to keep this link around for future reference.
• Here's a link to the classes section in the official Python tutorial: Python Tutorial

For an assignment, try to design a Hero and BadGuy class following the example in class.

How would you use an OO design for a card game like Blackjack or War?