SciMeth 204 – Course Materials

Required Textbook (available on-line for free):

Title: Think Python 2e
Author: Allen B. Downey
Publisher: Green Tea Press

Supplemental Material:

Title: No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering
Author: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Journal: Computer
Publisher: IEEE

Copies of Lecture Slides:

Available on-line - speak to one of the course instructors for details.

Previously this course relied on knowing your way around the UNIX operating system, since UNIX servers were used for doing homework and the final project. Since Python is now widely available on a range of computer platforms, from personal PCs to supercomputers, use of UNIX is no longer required. Some students may still prefer to do their homework on a Linux or UNIX system, and hence the following reference texts may prove useful on a case-by-case basis. None of these are required reading. Of course there's also a wealth of information on these topics available on the web.

Title: Learning the UNIX Operating System - Fifth Edition
Authors: Jerry Peek, Grace Todino & John Strang
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
ISBN: 0-596-00261-0
Price: $19.95

Title: Learning the vi and Vim Editors - Seventh Edition
Authors: Arnold Robbins, Linda Lamb, Elbert Hannah
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
ISBN: 0-596-52983-X
Price: $34.99

Title: An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi
Authors: William Joy and Mark Horton
(28 page "white paper", available as a PDF file)

Title: Learning GNU Emacs - Third Edition
Authors: Debra Cameron, James Elliott, Marc Loy, Eric S. Raymond, and Bill Rosenblatt
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
ISBN: 0-596-00648-9
Price: $39.95