Well, it's almost been a fortnight of classes for CS 371p - and my first impression is that this isn't the standard object-oriented class I thought it would be. I had the idea we'd be going over inheritance, polymorphism, abstraction, yada yada yada. It's refreshing to have these ideas be presented (I'm hoping they will be in due course) as something straight out of Google Code Jam. Project 1 is chugging along nicely - in fact, the course seems more related to software development than OOP, but good programming practice is just good programming practice, so I can't complain! Also, like it or not, Prof. Downing keeps you on your toes with his questions. The quizzes are neat in that they are actually ideas for you to optimize your code (damn it Collatz V2, I'm going to get you!). I'm surprised at the level of detail Prof. Downing is explaining the code - this is the first course I've taken that where every line of every function has been examined in such excruciating detail. I wonder if this is simply for the first project or if the entire course is structured this way - we'll have to wait and watch.
In the meantime, here's a visualization of the Collatz fractal:
In the meantime, here's a visualization of the Collatz fractal:
