Step 7: Thinking and Birthday Message

  • CS20-CP1 Apply various problem-solving strategies to solve programming problems throughout Computer Science 20.
  • CS20-CP2 Use common coding techniques to enhance code elegance and troubleshoot errors throughout Computer Science 20.
  • CS20-FP3 Construct and utilize functions to create reusable pieces of code.

Tutorial

You may have noticed that Reeborg takes a bit of time between each command; that is because it must “think” about what you are asking it to do. However, one can change the amount of time Reeborg takes to think by using the think() function with an argument, like this:

think(500)

The number 500 which appears between the parentheses is what we call an argument of a function. The smaller the number, the less time Reeborg will take before considering each action. A value of 1000 means that Reeborg takes about 1 second to think. Sometimes, Reeborg has something to think about that you are not aware of, so it may sometimes seem to think for longer than you’d expect it to. Calling think(0) tells Reeborg to move as quickly as it can.

../_images/think.gif

Your Turn

Open Step 7 on the Reeborg environment.

../_images/step7.png

Reeborg has just turned 18 and wants to let everyone in the universe to know it. Reeborg thinks it would be a funny joke to plant daisies on the front yard to celebrate. Reeborg is a robot and only knows binary, and 18 in decimal is represented as 10010 in binary.

Define these new functions:

  • draw_one() to plant the number 1 with daisies
  • draw_zero() to plant the number 0 with daisies

Use the functions you have created to plant Reeborg’s birthday message. Each instruction should properly position and orient Reeborg for the next digit. Be sure to use comments and whitespace to increase the readability of your solution!

Next Section - Step 8: Asking Questions