Comments on assignment due week 2, Oct 18: print_grid

Problem statement: http://staff.washington.edu/jon/uw_python/fall_2011/assign-2.txt

My solution: http://staff.washington.edu/jon/uw_python/fall_2011/print_grid.py

1. Printed is better than handwritten -- it is easier for me to read.

2. Better to turn in the program output too - to show that it works (or how it doesn't)

3. Be sure to follow the directions: 

    Write a function print_grid that takes one integer argument ...

  This means your solution should include the line:

    def print_grid(n):

  you could use a different name than n for the parameter, but everything else on the line 
  should look exactly like this.

  To produce output (to test the solution) you need at least one other
  line of code that calls this function with some particular argument value for n, 
  for example:  

    print_grid(11)

  Some of you did not write a function, but instead wrote a script with statements 
  to print the grid at module level (not in a function).  This does print the grid
  but is not a solution to the problem as I posed it.

  Some of the purposes of this exercise are to demonstrate the distinction 
  between a function and a script, and the distinction between defining a function
  and calling the function.

4. Some of your solutions were based on the author's solution to his 
   similar exercise at thinkpython.com/code/grid.py.  

   This does not work well because his solution does not easily generalize -
   it is not intended to print different sized grids, depending on a parameter.

   Sometimes small changes to the problem statement can result in large changes in the 
   solution!

   Also, the author's solution is awkward and verbose because he doesn't use loops -- 
   because his exercise is in chapter 3 but he doesn't introduce 'for' until chapter 4,
   and 'while' in chapter 7.  But those chapters were included in the reading assignment, 
   and the solution is simpler and easier to generalize to different sized grids if 
   you use 'for' or 'while'.

4a. Some of your solutions use the parameter to change the width of the grid,
    but not the height.  These were usually solutions based on the author's,
    which doesn't work here.

5.  Some of your solutions make grids larger than 11 by adding more panes (not just
    four like in Downey's example).  Not what I expected, but that's fine -- I 
    said "do something reasonable".