Assignment 1

Be sure to try the commands and statements we explored in class, and read the text.  

If you are brave or adept, you may wish to install Python 3 on your laptop.  We suggest the Anaconda platform, which you can download at

       https://www.continuum.io/downloads Links to an external site.

We'll go over this installation class later in the week.

You may use the web to help solve this assignment.  

1) Who created the Python Computer Language?

Where does he work today?

2) What was Aiken's Mark I?

What was it used for?

What has happened to it?

3) What does the unix command 'od' do?

How do the options '-c' and '-x' change things?

4) Write a Python program that start with the two variables

  a= "+"
  b = '-'

and creates the 45-character string below using as few steps as possible.

Print your string and the length of your string to verify your result.  
How many steps did you need?

"+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+"

There are different ways to measure the work you needed: you could measure the length of the program, the number of lines executed, or the number of operations. Tell us how you measured things.