Week 1: Grit and Computational Thinking Fundamentals with C

28 Jun 2025

At the end of week 1 (Week 2 actually), my enthusiasm about the course is still the same, if not more. Most exciting was writing code in the Visual Studio Code IDE, which I quickly customised to a dark mode theme! The course content reached deep into my long term memory, as concepts I learnt years ago, via a self-paced study through Sams Teach Yourself C in 21 Days, surfaced and got reinforced. I watched all the Shots and Section video which gave solid learning to solving Problem Set 1.

Fundamentals & C

The C Programming Language is introduced gently in the lecture video and a consistent comparison with Scratch made the transition very easy. Steadily the lecturer goes into depth with the language, without any sharp curves though. One key concept that I understood better this time, which I couldn’t wrap my head around when I first learned C, was Function Prototyping.

The command line (CLI) was covered foundationally as the lecturer demo’ed code. There is a Shots that goes into detail on the subject on Week 1 recommended material. Having dabbled with Linux, at one time attempting a collection of distros that could fit on a 1.44MB Floppy disk, to spinning a PosgreSQL instance on Digital Ocean inorder to toil with PostGIS. I know better that hands-on is the best way to take when it comes to the Command Line.

Measuring Grit with Problem Set 1

Following recommendations from the web, I decided to use only the course material to maintain focus. So far they have really proved to be sufficient to equip one to tackle the Problem Set.

The partial screen capture above was the beginning of an exhilarating experience of coding. While following a live (pre-recorded) coding session, the Section Video, I demonstrated grit, pausing the video and getting the solution myself first before revealing the Preceptor’s approach. I learnt to analyse code and comprehending what the program was doing through unintended consequence/ output. I took my first shot using ddb (duckdebugger) to better understand the loops I was using to implement a solution.

Through pure grit I solved the second of Problem Set 1 , going through the code, iterating and learning from unintended consequence. I stuck to the coding screen as I knew the solution was not far, I was just not getting something/ quite understanding what the code was doing. Albeit gently, my Computation Thinking is developing.

It was a satisfying experience to finally see the output as expected, a right justified pyramid!

Reflections

• This week I quickly realised more time needs to be committed to study to allow for tangential learning and deep dives in some areas.

• I learnt that you don’t have to get the solution at first go, at least as a beginner. Having walked from a problem for a few minutes …only to return with a clear mind which presented the solution as obvious, without rubber ducking.

• It helped that I have some programming experience, I would have needed more time to ‘get it’ on the theory part.

• Even though code compiles and executes, through use of CS50’s Design50 tool, it became apparent there was room for better design, one of the three, CORRECTNESS - DESIGN - STYLE, areas to give attention to when coding as learnt in the lecture.

• Week 1

Onward to Week 2…potentially revisiting this week’s submissions for better design.