For some reason, my physical wellness behaves just like biorhythms, guess today I hit a record low, I'm very tired lately... just couldn't get enough quality sleep...
Today's lecture I didn't even bother copying it down or do the brainstorming excercise, that's how bad it was, but I still remembered Danny lectured about a more complicated case of an iterative loop.
Ack! Because of that I don't think I did well on the 207 midterms either, but what can I do?
Guess I'll have to sleep earlier today.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
A long entry
Ahh... a lot of things to write about:
First, the deadline for problem set 4 got extended until today (originally due on Fridays), being lazy as I'm usual was, I practically delayed doing it until Sunday, it wasn't that hard, just have a lot of explanation to do.
Second, assignment 2 was also due today (in the midst of me writing this...), I have to say those problems are extremely challenging (I have to thank whoever made this, as this assignment gave huge amounts of exercise to my brain). Strange note here, bonus marks? Oh well... I don't think I have enough stamina or brain power to do it after the horrors on that first question.
As for today's lecture, we started doing program correctness for iterative (as compared to recursive) programs. Like Danny noted, it really does get awhile to become comfortable doing such proofs as the program is longer and less straightforward compared to the recursive ones. Not only that, the fact that it is necessary to prove that the loop terminates threw me off, other than that it looks extremely similar to how you'd prove for a recursive program's correctness.
The prove of correctness, as I've observed, requires the student to have excellent and clear writing skills, which I lack both (which will undoubtedly gave me a disadvantage). Guess finding time to practice is my only hope...
First, the deadline for problem set 4 got extended until today (originally due on Fridays), being lazy as I'm usual was, I practically delayed doing it until Sunday, it wasn't that hard, just have a lot of explanation to do.
Second, assignment 2 was also due today (in the midst of me writing this...), I have to say those problems are extremely challenging (I have to thank whoever made this, as this assignment gave huge amounts of exercise to my brain). Strange note here, bonus marks? Oh well... I don't think I have enough stamina or brain power to do it after the horrors on that first question.
As for today's lecture, we started doing program correctness for iterative (as compared to recursive) programs. Like Danny noted, it really does get awhile to become comfortable doing such proofs as the program is longer and less straightforward compared to the recursive ones. Not only that, the fact that it is necessary to prove that the loop terminates threw me off, other than that it looks extremely similar to how you'd prove for a recursive program's correctness.
The prove of correctness, as I've observed, requires the student to have excellent and clear writing skills, which I lack both (which will undoubtedly gave me a disadvantage). Guess finding time to practice is my only hope...
Saturday, October 25, 2008
End of the seventh week
Date: Friday
Oh my, guess I'll never been free again until the end of school year - with midterms gone, assignments/problem sets of various kinds resume again.
We finished writing out the program correctness for the greatest common divisor, as well as starting on the divide-and-conquer (theory or algorithm?) for natural powers. As I've been through 2 midterms and lack of sleep throughout the whole week, it's natural for me to collapse (fall asleep) during the middle of the lecture, don't worry... I still picked up the lecture while resting~
Since the fourth problem set gets postponed, my natural inclination tells myself to put it off till the weekend. With both the second assignment and problem set due on Monday (at different times of course), it's very hard to decide which one to focus on.
Either way, I'm done writing here, got to go working on the assignments and problem sets.
Oh my, guess I'll never been free again until the end of school year - with midterms gone, assignments/problem sets of various kinds resume again.
We finished writing out the program correctness for the greatest common divisor, as well as starting on the divide-and-conquer (theory or algorithm?) for natural powers. As I've been through 2 midterms and lack of sleep throughout the whole week, it's natural for me to collapse (fall asleep) during the middle of the lecture, don't worry... I still picked up the lecture while resting~
Since the fourth problem set gets postponed, my natural inclination tells myself to put it off till the weekend. With both the second assignment and problem set due on Monday (at different times of course), it's very hard to decide which one to focus on.
Either way, I'm done writing here, got to go working on the assignments and problem sets.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
GCD
...This sure is a busy week...
We finished off proving the program correctness for the binary search function, I have to say it was long: it took off one side of a blank line paper! I can never do anything like that requiring to write so much. As well, we got started on the greatest common divisor (GCD) that has been delayed for some time.
Ack! Two midterms in one week, I really couldn't concentrate on today's lecture as my mind is split between studying and working on the assignment, oh well... time to end it here then.
We finished off proving the program correctness for the binary search function, I have to say it was long: it took off one side of a blank line paper! I can never do anything like that requiring to write so much. As well, we got started on the greatest common divisor (GCD) that has been delayed for some time.
Ack! Two midterms in one week, I really couldn't concentrate on today's lecture as my mind is split between studying and working on the assignment, oh well... time to end it here then.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Guest lecturer
Date: Meant to post it yesterday, but I'm just too tired and I forgot...
On Monday Danny was away to UTM doing some... fictitious research? Either way we have a special lecturer from UTSC, named Nick, to start on proving the correctness of your program.
It's something not that hard I guess, having seen precondition/postcondition everywhere when coding programs, yet I find it intriguing to prove how a program is correct.
It was... overall extremely interesting, Nick was a wonderful lecturer despite not many people shown up to this class (I assume they are away studying for the stat midterm, which is a killer). Wish we could have him again (or someone else) someday.
On Monday Danny was away to UTM doing some... fictitious research? Either way we have a special lecturer from UTSC, named Nick, to start on proving the correctness of your program.
It's something not that hard I guess, having seen precondition/postcondition everywhere when coding programs, yet I find it intriguing to prove how a program is correct.
It was... overall extremely interesting, Nick was a wonderful lecturer despite not many people shown up to this class (I assume they are away studying for the stat midterm, which is a killer). Wish we could have him again (or someone else) someday.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
First test results
Date: Friday
I'm always pessimistic about tests, but always ended up getting higher then hoped for. This is a good thing to lower your expectation in U of T slightly as you feel better when you are not looking too high up at what you are expecting, but still I need to improve as I think the TAs really gave us easy marks on this test.
As well, we handed the third problem set in. I'm a bit worried about what I conjectured because there has been a little bit of confusion with the term "closed formula", I ended up deriving a sum notation which on the discussion board is obviously incorrect, I really hope I didn't mess up on that.
Anyhow, we officially moved away from induction to time complexity proofs, which, I hope, is less abstract than the multiple flavours of induction.
...Kind of forgetting what I learned on Friday, because I'm spending time right now doing rough works for the second assignment, I have to say those questions are really interesting, especially the ternary trees one.
I'm always pessimistic about tests, but always ended up getting higher then hoped for. This is a good thing to lower your expectation in U of T slightly as you feel better when you are not looking too high up at what you are expecting, but still I need to improve as I think the TAs really gave us easy marks on this test.
As well, we handed the third problem set in. I'm a bit worried about what I conjectured because there has been a little bit of confusion with the term "closed formula", I ended up deriving a sum notation which on the discussion board is obviously incorrect, I really hope I didn't mess up on that.
Anyhow, we officially moved away from induction to time complexity proofs, which, I hope, is less abstract than the multiple flavours of induction.
...Kind of forgetting what I learned on Friday, because I'm spending time right now doing rough works for the second assignment, I have to say those questions are really interesting, especially the ternary trees one.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Refreshed
Certainly, after a long weekend of productivity, I managed to get some rest and caught up with all my courses, what a relief.
I felt different too, even though I'm physically tired, I still am able to concentrate on the lecture today mentally and perform above-average on the brainstorming session. I'm in a much better state compared to before, when I'm exhausted both mentally and physically.
We carried on with more recursion "unwinding" practice and proving the closed form formula... nothing new here, so I'll end my entry now, got to go study another midterm in this "Fantastic" month.
I felt different too, even though I'm physically tired, I still am able to concentrate on the lecture today mentally and perform above-average on the brainstorming session. I'm in a much better state compared to before, when I'm exhausted both mentally and physically.
We carried on with more recursion "unwinding" practice and proving the closed form formula... nothing new here, so I'll end my entry now, got to go study another midterm in this "Fantastic" month.
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