Lectures
The first week we only have one introductory lecture. I will talk about my plans for the course and give you an intuitive understanding of what programming is.
Computer exercises
On Friday you meet with your TA for the computer exercises that will get you started on the important hands-on part of the course. We have prepared the following exercises for you:
First, Download and install Python. This should just walk you through installing Python on your own computer so you can try your First Interactive Session with Python. Then get acquainted with Writing Python code in files.
You will probably be able to complete the exercises for this week at the TA session, but in the future we strongly recommend that you prepare for the TA sessions by working out as many of the exercises you can before meeting with the TA.
If you want access to the Dept. of Computer Science UNIX system, talk to your TA and we will get you a login. We recommend that you install Python on your own machine, though, unless you are familiar with UNIX, since UNIX can have a steep learning curve and there is no need to add that on top of learning Python if you can avoid it.
Reading material
Apart from the pages I put up I recommend chapter one of the online book: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.
Weekly assignment
We haven't really started yet, so there is no weekly assignment for the first week. Use the extra free time to familiarize yourself with the Python shell and the IDLE editor.