Talking to the Computer
Phase II begins! Put down the turtle and pick up words. Make the computer print messages, ask you questions, and remember your answers.
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Working with Words
Strings are the computer's words. Glue them together, measure them, make them LOUD or quiet, and repeat them — the start of real text programs.
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Numbers and Math
Make the computer your calculator: add, multiply, divide, and find remainders. Plus the big gotcha — turning the text from input() into a real number.
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True or False: Asking Yes/No Questions
Before a computer can make decisions, it has to answer yes/no questions. Meet True and False, the comparison signs, and the words and, or, and not.
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Making Decisions with if
Now your program can choose. Use if, elif, and else to do different things depending on the answer to a yes/no question.
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Build-It Project: A Quiz Game
Put input, if, and a score together to build a real quiz game that asks questions, checks answers, keeps score, and tells the player how they did.
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Repeating with while
A while loop repeats as long as something stays true. Build a countdown and a real number-guessing game that keeps asking until the player gets it right.
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Lists: Holding Many Things
One variable can hold a whole collection. Meet the list — store many values, grab them by position, add new ones — the start of working with real data.
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Looping Through Data
March a loop through a whole list — print every item, add them all up, count the ones you care about, find the biggest. This is what data analysis is made of.
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Dictionaries: Labels for Your Data
Lists keep data in order; dictionaries label it. Store 'Ada → 90', look things up by name, and loop through labeled data — a key skill for real datasets.
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Functions That Return Answers
In Phase I your functions drew shapes. Now they compute and hand back an answer with return — so you can use the result, combine it, and build real tools.
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Build-It Project: A Chatbot
Build a chatbot that reads what you type and replies. Combine a while loop, keyword checks, and friendly responses into a program that holds a conversation.
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Capstone: A Text Adventure
The big finish for Phase II — build a branching choose-your-own-adventure game with choices, an inventory, and multiple endings. Then get ready to build games in Phase III.