Thinking about objects

One of the most important concepts in computer science is to start thinking in objects where structures are the basic building blocks. Structures are the simplest objects that can be defined by users. In this example you can see that you can define a dataType called rooms and those rooms have a structure inside holding many different simple dataTypes like int, bool, and float. Each declared identifier of room type will have the same structure inside, but the values are assigned to reflect the specific room characteristics. The period character in this case is used as a member operator to have access to each identifier inside the structure. 

‪#‎include‬ <iostream>
#include<string>

using namespace std;

//Create a container that will hold individual room specific contents
struct room{
                   bool table;
                   int chairs;
                   float classAverage;
                   bool projector;
                   int windows;
                   int doors;
                   string keyNumber;
                   string roomName;
};

int main(){
         room D155;                    //Create a specific room and set its unique characteristics 
         D155.chairs = 25;
         D155.classAverage = 93.75;
         D155.keyNumber = "78M";
         D155.windows = 0;
         D155.projector = true;
         D155.table = true;
         D155.doors = 1;
         D155.roomName = "D155";

         cout << "The room number is:" <<D155.roomName<< endl;
         cout << "The room holds " << D155.chairs
                 <<" and the class average is: "<<D155.classAverage<<endl;
return 0;
}

Random numbers

Measure the randomness of random number generators. If you find out that random numbers are not really random, then it means you can predict the next value. That would be great in playing casino games or breaking encryption.

‪#‎include‬ <iostream>
#include<time.h>

using namespace std;

int main(){
              srand ( time(NULL) );
              int zero=0,one=0, two=0, three=0, four=0;
              int Richland = rand() % 3;

              for(int i=0;i<100;i++){
                       Richland = rand() % 3;
             
              switch(Richland){
                         case 0:
                                   zero++;
                                   break;
                         case 1:
                                   one++;
                                   break;
                         case 2:
                                   two++;
                                   break;
                         case 3:
                                   three++;
                                   break;
                        case 4:
                                   four++;
                                   break;
                        }
               }

            cout<<"The value of zeroes: "<<zero<<endl;
            cout<<"The value of ones: "<<one<<endl;
            cout<<"The value of twos: "<<two<<endl;
            cout<<"The value of threes: "<<three<<endl;
            cout<<"The value of fours: "<<four<<endl;

            return 0;
}

Raptor

You guys can practice your flow charting skills with this great tool that can actually create a working application from flowchart and even create a good enough code in C#, C++, and Java.

Great learning tool - http://raptor.martincarlisle.com/

Java 01 - Getting Started

If any of you will be taking Java this semester, then you need to get ready by configuring your environment at home.

http://youtu.be/u4pYCtbsFO4

You can also download a live operating system that is pre-configured for C++, Java, and Python programming.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7on8PrpfneCZ0Jxb0t6cE9wSmM/edit

You can view a video on how to setup and use the live environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joPZf8iVtAc 

Java 02 - Javadoc

In order to use Java and learn the Java documentation process, you might need to be able to know how to navigate in a command line environment in order to understand the easier method of using your IDE that will create the documentation for you. If you have taken C++ and you were annoyed by the header and comments that you had to write, now you will love the java documentation that will take all those comments and convert them into documentation automatically. 

See a video of this process.
http://youtu.be/xqSzQBrFT-M

Check the facts and think critically

Once I was at a conference and the speaker gave a strange analogy of how fast hard drives need to work. He said, "Reading of bits on the hard drive plate is like a fighter jet flying at MOCK-4 1 foot off the ground counting every grass blades on the ground.". Can this be true, can we calculate if he was correct or just exaggerating? How would you start designing this program?

By my calculations, for a 3.5inch hard drive, the outer edge is traveling at 78mph and the inner track at 33.45mph. MOCK-4 is a supersonic speed 3069mph. If I'm correct, he was WAAAAY off. Can you check my values?

Label, For, or While loop performance test

• This conversation deserves a blog entry.  
• A: If you find different ways to accomplish the same thing, make sure to test the performance of the code each way at least 3 times and average the results just like in other science classes like physics. I do not see any noticeable difference in any of these implementations. Do you?

  
  
•    B: I think in a small project label goto won't be that big a difference but in a massive project it might make a difference 
• A:  A loop is nothing else, but an if statement with a jump. What you do after the comparison and before the jump does not matter. It will not be a jump that slows your code down, but the block that does the work. If you find an example and you can test for performance issues, than we have a case, but until then this is just a rumor. You will also investigate if the code is using the stack or using dynamic heap memory, since that will affect the performance of a code running, but not he simple jump.

Test results do not show any difference.  Any suggestions, comments?  Please, include sample code and/or testing methodology to show any difference that you might believe exists.