{"id":5205,"date":"2011-04-14T03:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/palblog.fxpal.com\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2011-04-14T09:59:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-14T16:59:36","slug":"a-magical-way-to-learn-computer-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/?p=5205","title":{"rendered":"A magical way to learn computer science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <a title=\"Ghosts of interns passt\" href=\"http:\/\/palblog.fxpal.com\/?p=2429\" target=\"_blank\">FXPAL intern<\/a> Jeremy Kubica&#8217;s <a title=\"Computational Fairy Tales\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Computational Fairy Tales<\/a> is a fresh new entry into the blogosphere that introduces a unusual way to learn computer science: read a series of charming fairy tales. Each post contains a few sentences of introduction to a computer science concept followed by a fairy tale illustrating that concept.<\/p>\n<p>I particularly enjoyed <a title=\"Loops and making horseshoes\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/loops-and-making-horseshoe.html\" target=\"_blank\">Loops and Making Horseshoes<\/a> which illustrates <!--more-->For and While loops through a blacksmith who gives orders to his dim apprentice. I&#8217;m not sure whether it was the intent of the piece, but the blacksmith&#8217;s frustration with having to repeat even the simplest instructions, <strong><strong> <\/strong><\/strong>precisely state the task to be repeated, and specify exactly when to stop reminded me of trying to communicate to a computer. The frustrations of having to provide exact specifications will be familiar to any programmer.<\/p>\n<p>My main disappointment with the series is that there haven&#8217;t yet been any fairies. At first it appeared there might not be any magic. The excellent <a title=\"caching and the librarian\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/caching-and-librarian-of-alexandria.html\" target=\"_blank\">Caching and the Librarian of Alexandria<\/a> discusses the magic of caching, but what\u00a0 Peter, the librarian&#8217;s apprentice, initially believes to be magic turns out, to his great disappointment, to be only clever caching strategy.\u00a0 There is magic, however,\u00a0 in the next tale, <a title=\"Pointers and walk-in closets\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/pointers-and-walk-in-closets.html\" target=\"_blank\">Pointers and Walk-in Closets<\/a>, which features a wizard who tries various magical solutions to enable his many possessions to fit in a small downtown apartment&#8217;s closet before discovering the true magic of pointers.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the tales feature <a title=\"dragons\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/Dragons\" target=\"_blank\">dragons<\/a>, princes, and knights. Others are  hardly tales at all.\u00a0 For example, the enjoyable  <a title=\"Computer memory and making dinner\" href=\"http:\/\/computationaltales.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/computer-memory-and-making-dinner.html\" target=\"_blank\">Computer Memory and Making Dinner<\/a> is hardly a story, but the extended analogy  it develops does a superb job in explaining the different types of  memory. Even the most pedestrian of the tales has its own kind of magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former FXPAL intern Jeremy Kubica&#8217;s Computational Fairy Tales is a fresh new entry into the blogosphere that introduces a unusual way to learn computer science: read a series of charming fairy tales. Each post contains a few sentences of introduction to a computer science concept followed by a fairy tale illustrating that concept. I particularly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[218,126,170],"tags":[290],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5205"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5218,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions\/5218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}