Assignment 2 and Prob Set 4

We are studying program correctness - who knew that you could analyze program correctness mathematically? I already found it interesting when I learned that recursion is similar to induction! So mathematics actually is applicable in programming, not just to teach you how to think or problem solve. Program correctness is pretty neat. I remember learning about O(n) complexity and thinking, how can I use this? But only to be surprised.

The interesting thing about this is that we don't just analyze the accuracy of the code. We also look at the pre-conditions, post-conditions as well. So we study how to test the accuracy of the entire program altogether - great and useful stuff!

Fall season...

Now that the fall term is in full swing, I'm beginning to get a taste of what the rest of the term is going to be like. The workload gradually gets heavier, the concepts become tougher, and midterm season is kicking in. We had our first term test last week. Induction actually seemed to be getting less intimidating for me through the examples we studied in class, and through everything we've been learning in the problem sets and assignments. The test really put me to the test by pushing me to think and prove induction problems in a shorter time span. Although induction still remains a challenge, it is getting better for me.

We're on to studying recursive functions. Next to induction, this has to be the second most frightening topic for me. So far, understanding it has been fairly doable. We'll see how I fare on the third problem set. I know that with induction, I was able to understand it better this time around, so I can say with some confidence that hopefully recursion should also become better this time around for me.

Will update soon.