Week 16: Final project

This is the last week of the 16-week course. No new symbols are introduced. Your goal is to bring together everything you have practiced into one program. The program asks the user for a name and prints a short greeting. This small structure shows how text, parentheses, the plus sign and function calls work together. Your aim this week is to write the program fluently while keeping the rhythm you built over the previous fifteen weeks.

What you will learn

This week there are no new symbols. The symbols you need appeared in earlier weeks, so you can revisit their key positions there. Here is a short version of the final program:

name = input("Name: ")
print("Hello " + name)

The first line asks the user for a text value and stores it in name. The second line joins two pieces of text with the plus sign and prints the result. When you run the program, the question appears first. After you type a name and press Enter, the greeting is printed.

Technique tips

• Before typing, read the structure once: a variable name, an equals sign, a function call and a plus sign.
• For the plus sign, press Shift with the opposite pinky first, then the = key with the right pinky.
• Check the opening and closing quotation marks in each text separately. A missing one stops the program.
• Return your fingers to the home row between lines. In a longer program a steady rhythm matters more than a quick burst.
• After you type the program, run it and look at the output. If there is an error, find the line first, then fix it.

Lessons

1. Lesson 1 (10 to 15 minutes): Learn. Type the two lines of the final program slowly. Say out loud which symbols each line uses.
2. Lesson 2 (10 to 15 minutes): Practice. Type the whole program from start to finish three times. Check the quotes, the parentheses and the plus sign each time.
3. Lesson 3 (10 to 15 minutes): Review. Take the 2-minute test built from a short program of this kind. Note the line where you made a mistake and type it again.

This week’s goal

The goal is 25 wpm with 95% accuracy. The first star comes when you finish the lessons. The second star comes at 95% accuracy, and the third when you also reach 25 wpm. Keep accuracy first this week as well. Speed should build on the habits you formed over the whole course.