CT240 lab3

CT240 lab3

http://geminga.it.nuigalway.ie/~gettrick/courses/CT240/labs/l3.html

For this lab you must submit a printout of all source code (python files), and the result(s) of running the program on (a few) test cases. The source code must be well presented (indenting, spaces, reasonable variable/function names, etc.) and must include comments (as a rough guideline - aim to have nearly as many comments as lines of code). Any questions asked should be answered on a plain sheet of paper.
The above material should be given to Paul or left in the cardboard box marked CT240 in the mail room (room IT415) on the 4th floor of the IT Building before the deadline of 5pm Monday 6th. October 2008. You will lose 20% for each day (or part of day) the lab is late. If you have a genuine reason for submitting a late lab, please contact Paul before the lab due date/time.
Plagiarism (the unattributed copying of work from other sources (internet, fellow students,....)) will not be tolerated. Please see http://www.nuigalway.ie/engineering/documents/plagiarism_guide_students _v4.pdf. You risk getting zero for your lab if it is found to be plagiarized.

A palindrome is a word (or sequence of letters) that reads the same when read backwards: examples are dad, deed, navan, kayak etc.
By contrast, we define a word to be a near-palindrome if it reads the same backwards except for (exactly) one pair of letters - or put another way, if we only have to change one single letter to make it a palindrome. Examples are cavan (change the c to an n, or change the n to a c, to get a palindrome), abcdcea (change the b to an e, or change the e to a b...), door, trot,...
(Note that all 3- and 2- letter words are either palindromes or near-palindromes.)

Write a program that uses a WHILE loop to calculate if a given input word (string) is a palindrome. You should use the built-in python function raw_input to read in the string from the user, and the output of your program should be TRUE or FALSE. You must use a while loop. Do not use the reverse list method.

Write a program that uses a FOR loop to calculate if a given input word/string is a near-palindrome. (Remember: "palindrome" and "near-palindrome" are mutually exclusive: a word cannot be both). You must use a for loop.