Programming Issues

[Jason Friedman]

> Ask the user for the amount of change expressed in cents. Your program must
> compute and display the number of half-dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels,
> and pennies to be returned.
> Return as many half-dollars as possible, then quarters, dimes, nickels, and
> pennies, in that order.
> Your program must allow the user to continue entering different amounts of
> change until they enter 0 to indicate they are finished. If the user enters
> a negative number, inform them of their mistake and ask them to enter a
> correct value.

Perhaps you can start with pseudo-code
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo_code) and ask for help writing
that in Python.  I'll get you started.

Ask for a number.
If number = 0, stop.
If number < 0, ask again.

With values 50, 25, 10, 5 and 1:
    if number > value:
        coincount = integer portion of number divided by value
        print coincount, value
        remaining number = ...

I've broken the pseudo-code into two parts because they are, in some
sense, different programs.
You might try to write one, then the other.
In other words, starting by writing this in Python:

Ask for a number.
If number = 0, stop.
If number < 0, ask again.
If number > 0, print number and quit.