Representing Objects¶

Project Goals¶

This assignment invites you to enhance, run, and observe three Python programs called create-dog-with-class, create-dog-with-dictionary, and create-dog-with-list. Instead of using the Poetry tool for managing dependencies and packaging these programs, which the technical skills advise as a best practice, these programs are a script, without any dependencies on other Python packages, that you can run with the Python interpreter. As you continue to practice a different way to run a Python program, this project invites you to explore how to use three different approaches to representing an object in the Python programming language. After completing this source code survey, you should understand how to express relationships between variables in three different ways and be able to articulate the trade-offs associated with each approach.

Project Access¶

If you are a student enrolled in a Computer Science class at Allegheny College, you can access this assignment by clicking the link provided to you in Discord. Once you click this link it will create a GitHub repository that you can clone to your computer by following the general-purpose instructions in the description of the technical skills. Specifically, you will need to use the git clone command to download the project from GitHub to your computer. Now you are ready to add source code and documentation to the project!

Code Survey¶

If you change into the source directory of your GitHub repository, you will see two Python programs called create-dog-with-dictionary.py and create-dog-with-list.py. Importantly, both of these Python programs should produce the same output! Your goal for this project is to add the source code required by the TODO markers so that the program produces the output that is given below this paragraph. When you are finished adding the required source code, both of the aforementioned programs should produce the following output. With that said, the first line produced by create-dog-with-dictionary should be Creating dog objects using a dictionary-based approach! and the first line produced by create-dog-with-list.py should be Creating dog objects using a list-based approach!. As you implement both of these approaches to representing objects, please take time to reflect on the relative strengths and weaknesses of both ways to store details about a Dog in the computer's memory.

The dog's name is: Bosco
The dog's age is: 6
The dog's breed is: Havanese

The dog's name is: Faith
The dog's age is: 14
The dog's breed is: Havanese

You will notice that the source directory also contains a Python program, called create-dog-with-class.py, that uses the object-oriented programming paradigm to represent the state and behavior associated with a Dog object. As for the two other programs, you should add all of the Python source code required by the TODO markers, ensuring that the program produces the following output. Two of the methods that you will need to implement in the Dog class include def __init__(self, name, age, breed): and def __str__(self):. The first of these methods is the constructor, or the method responsible for creating a new instance of the Dog class. The second of these methods is responsible for creating a textual representation of a Dog object that you can display in a terminal window or a graphical user interface. As you implement the Python source code for this project, you should note the ways in which the object-oriented approach to representing an object supports the combination of both state and behaviors.

Creating dog objects using a object-oriented approach!

Bosco is a 6 years old Havanese

The dog's name is: Bosco
The dog's age is: 6
The dog's breed is: Havanese

Bosco is a 6 years old Havanese

Hey, Bosco roll over!

Faith is a 14 years old Havanese

The dog's name is: Faith
The dog's age is: 14
The dog's breed is: Havanese

Faith is a 14 years old Havanese

Hey, Faith waive bye-bye!

Running Checks¶

Since this project does not use Poetry to manage project dependencies and virtual environments, it does not support the use of commands like poetry run task test. However, you can leverage the relevant instructions in the technical skills to run the command gatorgrade --config config/gatorgrade.yml to check your work. If gatorgrade shows that all checks pass, you will know that you made progress towards correctly implementing and writing about this project's program.

Project Reflection¶

Once you have finished all of the previous technical tasks, you can use a text editor to answer all of the questions in the writing/reflection.md file. Since this is a source code survey, you should provide output from running each of the provided Python programs on your own laptop and then explain how the program's source code produced that output. A specific goal for this project is for you to ensure that you can implement and understand multiple approaches to representing objects in the Python programming language.

Project Assessment¶

Since this project is source code survey, it is aligned with the remembering and understanding levels of Bloom's taxonomy. You can learn more about how a proactive programming expert will assess your work by examining the assessment strategy. From the start to the end of this project you may make an unlimited number of reattempts at submitting source code and technical writing that meet the project's specification.

Seeking Assistance¶

Emerging proactive programmers who have questions about this project are invited to ask them in either the GitHub discussions forum or the Proactive Programmers Discord server. Before you ask your question, please read the advice concerning how to best participate in the Proactive Programmers community. If you find a mistake in this project, please describe it and propose a solution by creating an issue in the GitHub Issue Tracker.