Why Computer Science?

I've always had an interest in things computery. When I was 13, my life goal was to work for Microsoft, but I never was particularly encouraged to do so. Also at 13, I wrote a LOT. My family saw this and urged me to pursue something along the lines of language. I'd tossed around this idea in my head and thus listed out the different "majors" one could have that related to linguistic ability. I could pursue English as a major, but I never found it interesting to compose large pieces of writing. Creative writing would also be required somewhere...

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Holy Crap, I Learned Recursion!

After an extensive (about a week) amount of time I decided to go forth into the unknown and learn: recursion. It was VERY confusing to me at first. VERY! But... I finally got it. I may need to review what I have learned, but I think I have it down. It was a scary adventure and I may eventually write about recursion down the road as I get comfortable using it so that those who do not understand it can possibly learn it from me. Recursion seriously had to be pounded into my head several times before I got it. At one point I was pretty sure I would...

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The Hangman Program

While this program was difficult for me to write, I learned a lot of new things while writing it such as a do while loop. There was a way to avoid creating a do while loop, but it was good to learn something new so I'm glad I used it. Creating this program has really shown me that there are a large number of things you can do to arrays. This is also the first time where I've really experience the fact that in programming there are more than one ways of doing something. The hangman program can be found here: https://gist.github.com/7288...

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War Game Program

It was actually fairly easy for me to write, but with the help of a friend who writes awesomely in Ruby on Rails, I was able to learn a better way to write this program. The program can be found here: https://gist.github.com/7248...

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First to 100 Game Program

This one was monumentally more comfortable to write than the lottery program although it uses similar elements. I have a few questions that I will ask about things I can do to make the program smaller, but I am still proud of this program despite its size. The url: https://gist.github.com/7213...

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The Lottery Program

So you may have noticed I haven't posted for a while. Why? The lottery program. Yeah. It was a dreaded horrible beast. I saw there for weeks, really, staring at the lines of code I'd spewed forth, stressing, rewriting, throwing things (okay, not really.) And then I was told to take a break. I did... a long one. It would be just fine if I could just write every program in the book just not this one. It was impossible and a stupid task. But alas, I could not excuse myself from the project so I sat down to it. Ever have one of those moments when...

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Dice Game: Ifs & Loops

I had a little fun with some 'ifs' and 'while loops' with this program. When I first started the program I became somewhat frustrated. I stopped and slept on it. When I came back to the code, it was sooo easy to piece together. The break was a really good idea. The code: count = 0 count2 = 3 guess = 0 while guess <2 || guess >12   puts( 'Pick a number 2-12: ')   guess = gets.chomp.to_i end dieTotal = 0 while dieTotal != guess && count != 3   count = count + 1   count2 = count2 - 1   die1 = rand(6)  ...

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Quiz Program (Loops)

This one was difficult for me, but not as much as the last time I encountered loops. I think after a few more small programs with loops I'll feel more comfortable with this. I created a quiz about me. Feel free to run it and take it. (It's in Ruby.) puts( '     <(^.^)> LITTLE KNOWN FACTS O\' MELANIE <(^.^)>') puts puts( 'To play, select the letter that corresponds with your answer then press return') answer = '' while answer != 'c' puts( '#1 Gym class sux. How would Melanie get out of running laps in Elem school?') puts puts(...

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Random Number Game

It was a little difficult to come up with how to assign the random number to the variable -- it was a durrr moment for sure. So without further ado here is the first part of the program (or problem #2 according to that post I linked to above:) randomNumber = rand(10) randomNumber = randomNumber + 1 print( 'Guess my number! Enter a number (1-10): ') userNumber = gets.chomp() puts( "Your number is #{userNumber}. My number is #{randomNumber}. This program is not yet advanced enough to tell you whether you are correct -- but you should be able to...

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Getting in the Groove (Embedded Variables)

Yeah, I'm still on the whole embedded variables thing, but this is SOOOOOO much easier. Today I worked on getting used to doing things this way. It'll take a bit of time to memorize, but in the meantime I created a mad lib to kind of get used to it. Enjoy! #  Is it customary to start variable counts at one? (ie. noun1) or #  at zero (ie. noun and the second being noun1) or how else is this # handled? print( 'Enter an adjective: ' ) adjective1 = gets.chomp() print( 'Enter a verb ending in "ed": ') verbEd = gets.chomp() print( 'Enter...

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Embedded Variables in Strings

So I'm learning Ruby again, but this time I've got a program in mind. It will take a lot of brushing up and general learning before I will be able to start the program. I already know how to write the program without an interface, but I want to build an interface too, so it'll take a bit of work. I think once I get this particular program coded that I'll know enough about programming to be able to work on other programs so that will be really nice. Tonight I started reading "The Book of Ruby" which is a big step up from the last book I read,...

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