Thinking about thinking about coding
A conversation about how to tackle a coding project in Snap!
Presented by:
Ursula Wolz
Ursula has been a member of the "Logo Community" since 1976. She taught computer science at the undergraduate level from 1990 until 2020 when a heart attack while walking up 6th ave in NYC from her class at the New School suggested a re-evaluation of her life style. At the time she was teaching liberal arts courses in Code Crafting (Fiber arts and coding) and Natural Language Processing. Since then she has been consulting on AI in the Textile Industry, AI in Education and is building software for wellness and fiber arts. Most recently she has been working on building a net-zero house on a budget, writing algorithms for 'partial information retrieval with provenance' and debugging bad customer service interfaces as a user. Her most recent Snap! related project that pre-dates Snap! is a "Smart Curriculum" for inspiring fiber artists to teach mathematicians and mathematicians to teach fiber artists. There's computer science in there somewhere.
No materials for the event yet, sorry!
In the past few years I've used Turtlestitch for 'serious' projects involving embroidery and quilting. I've also taught intro computer science for over 40 years. I've developed a systematic way of tackling a project by experimenting with 'hat blocks', then adding variables, then creating my own blocks only where necessary. I have a bunch of tricks as well, such as gathering my 'paints' (e.g. blocks I need) into the workspace and then duplicating them rather than switching between block categories. I'm sure other experienced blocks language coders have their own systems. I'd like to share them in a semi structured setting. I'll spend about 5 minutes demoing what I do and then open it up for discussion. Others are welcome to show how they tackle a problem as well. In the spirit of "you can't think seriously about thinking without thinking about thinking about something" the goal here is, as a group to identify techniques for navigating the blocks environment in a way that keeps the coder focused on the goal while simultaneously supporting the serendipity of discovery. A part of this, of course, is articulating how to deal with "why isn't this working?" This is a collaborative conversation, not a formal presentation.
- Duration:
- 1 h
- Room:
- Online Room 2
- Conference:
- Snap!shot 2024
- Type:
- Birds of a Feather