Welcome to “Fun with Python”, part 5. In this part, we will utilize the pygame module to visualize bubble sort and get more insights about how it works.
Theory and Foundations
Every CS student or developer has spent time studying sorting techniques and algorithms and the first and simplest sorting algorithm that gets presented is bubble sort.
Bubble sort is a sorting algorithm that compares adjacent numbers and swaps them if needed. This continues until all the elements are sorted. An example will make things clearer:
We start of with this sequence of numbers and we want to sort them resulting in an…
Welcome to “Fun with Python”, part 4. In this part, we will utilize web scraping and html parsing techniques to receive free merch from radio stations.
Theory and Foundations
Recently, I stumbled upon this video, in which Filip Grebowski email 50,000 companies asking for free stuff. A lot of companies have merchandise (aka swag), which they give to their employees or in various events like job fairs etc. So Filip scraped the email addresses (sort of) of 50,000 (sort of) companies and asked for a free chunk of swag.
The results were quite impressive. He even got a mini drone! After this video…
Welcome to the “Fun with Python” catalog. Here you can find all the “Fun with Python” articles with a short description. Enjoy!
Fun with Python Series
Fun with Python #1: Maze Generator
This is the first python article ever written. In this article we take a look at the maze generation technique called “Prim’s randomized algorithm” and we create our own mazes. Find it here.
Fun with Python #2: Rat in a Maze
This is the second part of the previous article. Here we are using backtracking in order to find a solution for our maze. Find it here.
Welcome to “Fun with Python”, part 3. In this part, we will utilize Python and the selenium module to give ourselves greater odds of winning a giveaway.
Theory and Foundations
I assume everyone knows what a giveaway is. Even if you don’t, I am sure you have seen posts with descriptions like:
- Follow @some_name
- Follow @brand_name
- Tag 3 friends
Usually, it is done either by a relatively new IG account that wants to get some followers or by an already established big account in collaboration with a brand in order to promote the brand. In the latter case the influencer is also paid…
Welcome to “Fun with Python”, part 2. In this part, we will take a closer look at backtracking by attempting to solve the Rat in a maze problem.
Theory and Foundations
First, we need to explain what backtracking is. The official definition is:
Backtracking is a general algorithm for finding all (or some) solutions to some computational problems, notably constraint satisfaction problems, that incrementally builds candidates to the solutions, and abandons a candidate (“backtracks”) as soon as it determines that the candidate cannot possibly be completed to a valid solution.
In other words, backtracking is an recursive technique, which attempts to solve problems…
Welcome to “Fun with Python”, part 1. In this part, we will automate maze creation, utilizing Prim’s randomized algorithm.
Theory and Foundations
Everyone, at some point at his life, has tried to solve a maze. As defined in Wikipedia, a maze is a path, or a collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. In other words, there is an entrance and an exit and starting from the entrance, you need to navigate through the complex paths and walls and find a path towards the exit.
Of course, there are variations of this simple game. For example you can have multiple…
Yes, I did. Now I cannot pet him without my nose running and my eyes getting dry. But let’s see how it all started.
The back story
Back in time, I was a studying electrical & computer engineering in the beautiful city of Chania in Crete. My roommate and I had a great relationship and an even better communication. So after many discussions (not) and much consideration (neither) we decided to get a dog. And so we did! You can see how beautiful he is. His name is Shelby by the way (not the car).
Orestis Zekai
Software Engineer, based in Greece. Love my job, spearfishing, my dog and the list goes on for eternity.
