COSC 101: Tools

Any tools introduced in class will be added to this website for your reference.

Moodle

You will use Moodle for assignments in this course, including submitting and receiving feedback and grades. Your instructors will also post grades for work graded elsewhere so you can use Moodle to keep track of your current grades in the course.

InteractivePython

The textbook for this course, How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition is a free, online, interactive textbook containing examples with embedded code fragments that you can run and modify. You will need to register and connect your account to your course section; details will be explained in class.

repl.it

repl.it is a website that we will (very likely) use for writing and running Python programs for homework problems.

Python.org

Python.org is the official website for the Python programming language.

Downloading Python

Optionally, you can download Python 3.11 directly from https://www.python.org/downloads/. This installation includes the IDLE program which is a program that you will use to write Python programs in lab. If you use a Mac, be sure to read the special instructions regarding installation.

Reference

The Python documentation website has loads of useful documentation. Especially useful references include the tutorial and the module index.

Python Tutor

We will use Python Tutor’s VISUALIZE tool in lecture and lab. This tool allows you to step through the execution of python code and visualizes what is happening every step of the way. This is also a very useful tool for tracing code when you are working through homework problems or studying for exams.