#                                                                loops.py

# We know what import does, right?
#
import math

# Let's see what 'while' does in this program.  'while' is used to create
# a 'while' loop.  That is, two lines indented inside the 'while' loop will
# be executed repeatedly as long as the boolean expression (n > 0) evaluates
# to true.  So, for this style of loop to terminate eventually the value of 
# n (the loop control variable) must change inside the loop body (those two
# lines indented inside the 'while' loop) in such a way that the boolean
# expression is moving toward to evaluating to true.  If you call countdown
# with a negative number initially, what would happen?  Well, it will get
# into an infinite loop... sort of... it will run until the computer gets
# into a corrupted state or it runs out of memory depending on how the
# underlying interpreter behaves.  At least you see a possible problem!

# Here again, we define the function first ...
#
def countdown(n):
    while n > 0:
        print n
        n = n - 1
    print "Blastoff!"

# Then, we call/invoke/use/apply/execute/run the function ...
#
countdown(5)


# To generate a couple of blank lines in the output on the screen to make
# the output format a little more pleasing to the human eyes.
#
print
print

# Let's write a function that prints when called a log table
#
def print_table():
    x = 1.0
    while x < 10.0:
        print x, '\t', math.log(x)
        x = x + 1.0

# An annotation as part of output (human readability is important!)
#
print "print_table()"

# Actually generate the table by calling the function.
#
print_table()


# Let's improve the earlier definition of print_table by making it more
# general.  We will parameterize the function by allowing the from value
# and the to value to be user definable as the function is called.  This
# is one of the very important techniques in programming.
#
def print_table2(fr, to):
    x = fr
    while x < to:
        print x, '\t', math.log(x)
        x = x + 1.0

print
print

print "print_table2(10.0, 20.0)"

# As before generate a table, but using two values as actual arguments for
# the two parameters that we introduced in the definition.
#
print_table2(10.0, 20.0)



# Exercise 1:
# 
# Write a function that prints a table of a number, its square, and its square
# root in a range defined by two numbers.  For example, numbers between 10 and
# 20 and their squares and squre roots in a table.  Once the function is
# defined, call it and be sure that your program generates the table correctly.


# Exercise 2:
# 
# Write a function that reads two numbers from keyboard and use those two
# numbers as lower and upper limits of the range that you would need for the
# function that you wrote in Exercise 1 above.  If the input values that your
# function reads in are invalid, e.g., first number is larger than the second,
# your program must read a pair of numbers repeatedly until you have two valid
# numbers.  Once you have a good pair of numbers, then you can call the function
# defined in Exercise 1 above.  To make it a little more interesting, define
# a separate function that determines if two given numbers are valid or not,
# and use it as part of your reader function. Yes, you could easily do all that
# in a single function, but this will give you a chance to practise with
# multiple functions that make up a program.  In fact, as you will learn later
# if you continue to write more complex programs, this is a good way to deal
# with complexity in your program design.


# Exercise 3:
#
# See Section 6.17 of [DEM] if you want to see more exercise problems.