week 6

This week I got my test back. It was generally not bad but I made some stupid mistakes on the test. I didn't know that I need to describe the function of (require picturing-programs) as well, so I left it blank.  I lost mark for this. Also, I was confused about how to calculate fibonacci5. Now I know them so hopefully I won't make the same mistake since this time.

 This week was really hard for me because I had my German and Economic test on thursday and friday. During the classes I learnt some new functions on Dr.Racket. I learnt how to group values in to lists and structs, and the function of map. For example, to reverse the list of values and to extract the first item from the list and the the rest of the list as well. I also learnt how to create a struct consist of different of parts. For example, I could create a struct with the album name, the singer, and the time that is was published. Finally, I learnt how to transform the list into a new list using the function of map. I could transform a list of numbers into another list of numbers by using "add5" to them.

The quiz was all about these functions we learnt this week so it was easy. 

week 5

This week we have a midterm. It was all about reviewing the materials that we learnt from previous weeks, such as the history of computing devices, and the functions. I found that the most interesting part of this course is to use DrRacket to define functions that we learnt in class. It gives me a lot accomplishments when I actually can define a function correctly.

When I learning the history of computers, I found that some of the facts are really similar to each other. I am not very familiar with most of the content, so I needed to open many links on the website to get more information about those inventions. It's easier to understand the history than just memorizing it.

The test is not hard. Actually the binary part is what I didn't know before. But I realize it when I did the past test and I called my friend who took this course last year. He taught me about it and there is a question about that. So I was very glad that I learnt it before the test.

The week of getting harder

This week I actually didn't put much effort at the beginning cuz I thought that the history of computing machines were easy for me to memorize. I was too sleepy in class so I almost fell asleep during class. So I missed something about the handler. But when I went back home, I downloaded the document for tutorial 3 and I read the Picturing Program 6.1 and 6.2 carefully. So now I understand the concepts of handlers such as "on-tick" and "on-draw".

The  animation is interesting for me. I would like to try different time-intervals, different pictures and the different degrees of rotation by myself. It is kind of fascinating when you actually see an animation displayed in the window. But sometimes I forget the order of different functions and forget where to put a parenthesis.

However, it is a little bit hard for me to define "rotate-second" because I don't understand what it means. I just know the basic codes. I think I need to ask the TA about how to define more definitions by myself. I'm still a little bit confused of how to check-expect the definitions and the purpose of doing so.

I think for the upcoming test, I need to start memorizing the history about computing machines. I didn't read it at all so far. I will put more effort next week on this course.