---

In lieu of a course textbook, assigned readings are mainly the Notes and Examples from lecture, which I'll try to keep posted ahead of where we are in lecture at any given time. It is a good idea to skim the assigned reading before the lecture for the main ideas, attend lecture, and then to go through the assigned reading again to fill in the details that you missed, both in your initial skim of the reading and in the lecture.

Date	Lecture Topics	Readings	Project Work
Week 1
Lectures	Course introduction What are software libraries? The value of abstraction Designing and writing larger programs Files, revisited File systems and related modules in Python's standard library Paths Exceptions and exception handling try statements try, except, else, and finally clauses in try statements Higher-level file access	N: Course Introduction N: Paths and File Systems N: Exceptions and Files
F 1/7			Lab sections begin meeting today Project #0 due 11:59pm
Week 2
Lectures	Testing Categories of test cases Automation of testing using the assert statement Recursive data structures File systems as a recursive data structure Recursive functions When recursion is — and is not — appropriate in Python Python programs that span multiple files Modules and the import statement Namespaces (briefly) if __name__ == '__main__'	N: Testing N: Recursion N: Modules
F 1/14			Exercise Set 1 due 11:59pm
Week 3
Lectures	Overview of computer networks (briefly) Network input and output Some necessary background on how the Internet works IP addresses, ports, packets, routers, etc. Sockets A socket's input and output streams Servers and clients Using sockets in Python Bytes vs. strings (briefly) An example Python socket "echo" client Using "pseudo-file" objects to treat socket input/output as text Network protocols The importance of knowing who and what to trust Public and private functions in a module Implementing a custom text-based protocol in Python More details about import and multiple modules Naming conventions for modules	N: Networks and Sockets N: Protocols
M 1/17	University Holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day — NO LABS TODAY
W 1/19			Project #1 due 11:59pm
F 1/21			Exercise Set 2 due 11:59pm
Week 4
Lectures	Why namedtuples are a limited way to create new kinds of objects Classes Objects and their attributes Constructors, initialization, methods, and the self parameter The difference between method calls and function calls Why we specify some parts of a class as public and others as private Naming conventions for classes More about classes Duck typing Interfaces Consistently designing multiple similar classes Using objects of multiple similar classes without explicitly knowing their types	N: Classes N: Duck Typing and Interfaces
F 1/28			Exercise Set 3 due 11:59pm
Week 5
Lectures	Pushing out the boundaries even further: the web URLs HTTP GET requests Writing a Python program that downloads a web page given its URL Why standards are so important on the Internet Why HTTP is for more than just web browsers Web APIs URLs with query parameters URL encoding (briefly) JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), and why it matters even if you're not writing JavaScript Using Python's standard library to access web APIs	N: URLs and HTTP N: Web APIs
W 2/2			Project #2 due 11:59pm
F 2/4			Exercise Set 4 due 11:59pm
Week 6
Lectures	Objects, references, and id Multidimensional data Multidimensional list algorithms Test-driven development Unit tests as a way of improving one's design Refactoring (briefly) The unittest module in the Python standard library	N: Two-Dimensional Lists N: Test-Driven Development
F 2/11			Exercise Set 5 due 11:59pm
Week 7
Lectures	When Python's standard library falls short Why we need third-party libraries Installing third-party libraries Virtual environments What libraries we might need if we want to implement games Writing a visual game in Python Getting started with PyGame Displays and surfaces The game loop Events Colors Drawing and animation Clocks The "Spots" game, using PyGame Models and views Keeping model and view code separate Handling additional kinds of events Using modules and classes to improve our design The fractional coordinate system Two-way coordinate conversions	N: Third-Party Libraries N: PyGame Basics N: The "Spots" Game
W 2/16			Project #3 due 11:59pm
Week 8
Lectures	Augmenting our games with additional features Two ways of handling keyboard input Mixers and generating sound Graphical user interfaces The tkinter module in the Python standard library Event-based programming Creating a window and letting tkinter manage it Widgets Behaviors and events Buttons, commands, and event handler functions	N: Inputs and Sounds N: Tkinter Basics
M 2/21	University Holiday: Presidents' Day — NO LABS TODAY
Tu 2/22			Exercise Set 6 due 11:59pm
Week 9
Lectures	Bound methods in Python The grid layout manager Model/view separation in a tkinter application Applying test-driven development to a "real" project Why model/view separation makes testing better	N: Tkinter Layout N: A Tkinter Application
M 2/28			Project #4 due 11:59pm
Tu 3/1			Exercise Set 7 due 11:59pm
Week 10
Lectures	NO NEW LECTURE MATERIAL THIS WEEK NO Q&A THIS WEEK
M 3/7			Project #5 due 11:59pm
Tu 3/8			Exercise Set 8 due 11:59pm
Finals Week
Tu 3/15			Final Project due 11:59pm