How bullets work
A look at how shooting games program bullets. Whilst A-level students don’t often make 3D shooters, it’s an interesting thought process and showcases the level of detail you have to be thinking about when programming a game.
Getting data from websites
Interesting video from Tom Scott which covers various things. In a broader sense, ideology. In specifics, sharing data between web servers/services. In terms of specifications, A-Level interfaces (not the interface between human and machine, but the interface between one system and another). It’s a good watch, and an essential watch for A-level students.
Maths Challenge 1 in Python
Matt Parker does some awesome maths stuff, particularly his spreadsheet standup routine which is an excellent look at how images are stored and displayed. This is an interesting puzzle, and one that can be modelled in Python….your task, is to model it in Python! Give it a go and I’ll do a couple of videos …. Read More
9 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Programming
Some good tips for starting out, when you’re moving from junior coding at GCSE into proper programming at A-level. Watch and learn sixth formers. You need to be programming cool stuff for at least a year to be ready for your programming exam.
Programming Challenges
The best way to improve your programming is to try new challenges. The below are some websites that offer challenges to help you improve and see how good you are! https://coderbyte.com/challenges http://www.programmr.com/exercises?lang=python https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/py-if-else/problem https://www.practicepython.org/ https://codingbat.com/python https://projecteuler.net/ – Caution: A-Level only
Learning Python
A nice video playlist on learning to program with Python. It takes it from the start, so if you’re struggling in KS4 or want to learn more before the GCSE, then it’s a good series. Let me know if you have any other good tutorials that you found useful. There is also several other links …. Read More
4 Common Mistakes Python Beginners should Avoid – Towards Data Science
https://towardsdatascience.com/4-common-mistakes-python-beginners-should-avoid-89bcebd2c628 The article says beginner mistakes. That’s a bit harsh. I’ve been programming for nearly 20 years (admittedly only in Python properly for 5) and I got caught out by the default arguments being mutable. I was traversing a map, using a default argument and ended up traversing a map of 5 items about 16 …. Read More
Declarative Vs imperative code
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/nobody-cares-whether-you-used-imperative-or-declarative-programming-66c396ecce06 I was talking to the year 13 class about declarative and imperative code. Academically it’s a clear distinction. In A-level it’s Python Vs Haskell. In conversation it’s SQL and RegEx Vs traditional coding. In reality it’s all just code. There are some nice functions that do Python in a declarative manner, but as long …. Read More
Break statements and why I’ll dock marks for them
Right, break statements and why they’re bad. Generally it’s indicating you’ve got a problem with the flow of your program and you may need to restructure. Imagine the following that hunts for a number, it’s an odd program, but it’s an illustration. # x = some number you’re hunting forx = 56for i in range(100): …. Read More
Lists and dictionaries
If you’re in Year 11 or above you’ll know what lists are…or you should have done Computing. Your loss. Or you did do Computing and weren’t listening. Your loss. So a list you can create like so: myList = [4, 8, 12] Nice and easy. You can then access the first item of the list …. Read More