tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post1506394866537672218..comments2023-07-10T07:12:16.641-04:00Comments on The Female Perspective of Computer Science: Pseudocontext in Computer ScienceGail Carmichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14173555781667297996noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-39030489426068648012011-01-05T13:28:52.709-05:002011-01-05T13:28:52.709-05:00i loved your list of examples! i plan to work on t...i loved your list of examples! i plan to work on the '8 puzzle' in my spare time :)<br /><br />a few more... iirc my first python script was to solve <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8794" rel="nofollow">the "coconuts" problem</a>; other interesting problems include solvers for "sudoku" and "kakuro" games with input format specified to make the problem tractable even for an undergraduate assignment...Collinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754585516151204932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-26631863094106805582011-01-04T17:16:02.712-05:002011-01-04T17:16:02.712-05:00I'm not sure either. There's no doubt that...I'm not sure either. There's no doubt that we have to simplify things from the real world in classroom assignments (for example, it's unlikely you would have been able to worry about scalability and security in your assignment as Facebook has to). And interesting applications like this make a big difference I think.<br /><br />I'm starting to wonder if the issue for us isn't pseudocontext as you've defined it, but simply "how interesting is this context to modern students." The theatre example, while not a perfect representation of how such a system might be implemented (though I admit to being overly picking in analyzing it), is a lot more interesting than the spell checker idea, and I'd say even less misleading.<br /><br />I took a quick look at FacePamphlet and it looked like a reasonable representation of the components that should be involved. It even seems to match with reality fairly well, at least in terms of what you'd want out of the end product. Maybe that's more important than how it's programmed in finding pseudocontext - is this a product you'd actually want to build.<br /><br />Still more thought needed - but I feel like I've got a little further! Thanks Dan! :)Gail Carmichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14173555781667297996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-53738013391576858572011-01-04T17:03:14.823-05:002011-01-04T17:03:14.823-05:00Interesting analysis, Gail. I'm not sure what ...Interesting analysis, Gail. I'm not sure what the analog from math is here.<br /><br />Not for nothing, I just finished my first quarter of CS. Java. The last assignment was a Facebook knock-off called <a href="http://nifty.stanford.edu/2009/sahami-face-pamphlet/" rel="nofollow">FacePamphlet</a>. I can't even begin to wonder if it was pseudocontext. I enjoyed it. I felt like I was solving a real problem, even if that problem was vastly simplified (no persistence, for one thing) and the tools we used to solve it (arrays and GCanvas) weren't used by Facebook programmers. Should CS teachers reject that kind of simplification?Dan Meyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11323257310042023350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-50443075526052328832011-01-04T11:26:17.579-05:002011-01-04T11:26:17.579-05:00I like these sort of problems. :)I like these sort of problems. :)Gail Carmichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14173555781667297996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-24884350433006592972011-01-03T23:43:53.475-05:002011-01-03T23:43:53.475-05:00here's a problem that's real because i act...here's a problem that's real because i actually wanted something to do this: given the <a href="http://www.jumble.com/games/info/13" rel="nofollow">JUMBLE game</a> and a collection of letters (e.g., 'mugpin') whose original word I couldn't figure out, what's a better way to find said word than typing<br /><br />$ grep '^......$' /usr/share/dict/words | grep m | grep u | grep g | grep p | grep i | grep n<br /><br />? Then generalize the scheme for words with repeated letters like 'uncocat'<br /><br />my hack is <a href="http://collinpark.blogspot.com/2011/01/jumble-and-python.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.Collinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754585516151204932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-23724080179376213862011-01-03T13:42:59.138-05:002011-01-03T13:42:59.138-05:00Sounds like something from Daily WTF - good point!...Sounds like something from Daily WTF - good point!Gail Carmichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14173555781667297996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1685560256628587439.post-80076881650623090012011-01-03T13:41:54.194-05:002011-01-03T13:41:54.194-05:00I believe that students who aren't taught with...I believe that students who aren't taught with realistic assignments will develop unrealistic solutions.<br /><br /><i>"I mean, it's possible, but nobody would actually ever do that."</i><br /><br />Never say never! I was on a code review team looking at code written by a large multinational corporation, and I saw a bubble sort implementation used to sort a Collection of objects. Not only did the programmer ignore Java's Collection.sort() methods, the programmer implemented one of the least efficient sorting algorithms!Thomas Corthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04128980269134005040noreply@blogger.com