COSC 341/342  WINTER 2015

Python mini project

Distributed 1/8/2015      Due 1/15/2015

Write Python code for at_len() to count the number of 'atomic' elements in a
list.    
An 'atomic' element is a number, boolean, string.
A 'non-atomic' element is a list.

Examples (note, len() is a built-in function):

len( [1, 2] )  ---> 2
at_len( [1, 2] ) ---> 2

len( [ [1, 2], 3 ] ) ---> 2
at_len( [ [1, 2], 3 ] ) ---> 3

len( [1, 2, 'three', [1, 2, 3, ['a', 'b'] ], 5] )  --> 5
at_len( [1, 2, 'three', [1, 2, 3, ['a', 'b'] ], 5] )  --> 9

Use the commenting facility to provide help() for this function.
The function should be stored in a file that you can open in the IDLE environment.
The file can remain on your hard disk (don't publish to the Python community).


Remarks:
- You will probably want to use the built-in function isinstance().
- You will probably want to use recursive code for at_len().
- Trouble with the recursion? Take a look at Head First Python, chapter 1,
dealing with nested lists.


Turn in:
- Hard copy of code.
- Screen shot of sample run on the above lists.