'CS61A: Lecture 1'

The Instructor Team

• John Denero (he/him) - denero@berkeley.edu
  • CS 61A Instructor
  • Researches language models and how people use them
  • Office hours 1-3pm Tuesdays in Warren 101B
• Shm Almeda (they/them) - shm.almeda@berkeley.edu
  • Office hours 3pm -4pm Monday (location TBD)
• Jedi Tsang (he/him) - Jedidiahtsang@berkeley.edu
  • Researches computing ethics
  • Office hours 1pm-3pm Thursday (location TBD, Either Evans or Soda)

About the Course

Lecture, Videos, and the Textbook

• Videos are posted to cs61a.org and are essential viewing for before coming to lecture. All course content is covered in videos.
  • Around 1/2 hour.

• The textbook is located at composingprograms.com. Similar content to videos

• Lectures will review the most important concepts from Mon, Wedn, and Fri.

Problem-Solving Practice

• Problem solving is effective to learn how to solve problems
• Lab Monday and Tuesday labs have required attendance unless Mega Section.
• Discussion: On Wed/Thurs/Fri: attendance is required (unless mega)
• There are weekly homework assignments and 4 larger programming projects
• One-on-one assignments during office hours.
• Grading is on an absolute scale. Based on how the people did in the previous semester.

Discussion Sections

• Mostly lectures that discuss the content taught during lectures.
• For regular, assigned a group number shared with 6-7 students, a room, and a time. 2-5 groups per room.
• Most discussions have a TA in the room, rest have a Zoom room with a TA
• Given a worksheet filled with example problems that are supposed to be solved together with additional instructions.
• These problems are not graded.

Asking Questions

• Post any questions on Ed.
• Email the professor at denero@berkeley.edu
• Email staff members at cs61a@berkeley.edu

What is the Course About

• Manage computational complexity
• To master abstraction: Assign something a name and rely it to always perform the desired functions, without knowing how it is being completed.
• Techniques for organizing complex programs: Change programs without breaking them.
• Introduction to programming: Fast-paced learning
  • Full understanding for Python fundamentals
  • Large projects to manage complexity
  • Learn how computers interpret programming languages
• Languages used: Python, Scheme, & SQL

Should you take CS 61A?

Syallabus

• Syllabus: cs61a.org/articles/about/
• No formal programming-related prerequisite.
• cs61a.org/articles/advice

Course Policies

• Syllabus: cs61a.org/articles/about/

Collaboration

• Some projects can be completed with a partner
• Discuss everything with each other, learn from fellow students
• Academic misconduct
  • Do not look at someone else’s code! (Exceptions: lab, your project partner, or after you already solved the problem.)
  • Do not tell other people the answers
  • Do not ask ChatGPT and other tools to write code for you

Content

Type of expressions

• An expression describes a computations and evaluates to a value.
  • CS uses the call expression f(x)
  • All expressions can use function call notation

1 + 1                                 # Addition
253*8                                 # Multiplication
2 ** 5                                # Exponentiation
1 * 2 ** 3 + 4 * ((5//6) + 7 * 8 * 9) # Pemdas

- Call expressions are just a simple function.
- The `operator` module contains additional operators for arithmetic expressions.
- Call expresisons can be nested as well ```python 1 + 2 * 3 + 4  mul(add(1,2), add(3,4)) ```