CST 338 Week 8

Week 8

Woo! It's the final week. I'm very happy to see it here. I did really enjoy this course, but I'm ready to move on to the next topic.

This week we had some flexibility (really, a ton!) with our final project and that was a bit difficult for me. I felt like I was too concerned about making a project that really stood out. In the end, I decided to go for simplicity and to get the project completed. I chose to implement a super simple command-line driven recipe book. The user can't write to it, but they can navigate between the pages. I think that's good enough for this time around.

Specific Prompts

They say hindsight is 20/20, what advice would you give to the next cohort regarding this course?

I have a few suggestions for the next cohort that takes this course:

1. The last assignment requires the use of an IntelliJ product called Android Studio. Begin using IntelliJ from the first day of class and this application will feel familiar.
2. As far as the actual studies go, begin each project early. The 4-hour estimates are way lower than the time that is actually required for each assignment.
3. Read each assignment over before/after you work on it for the day and make sure you follow the guidelines. Double check if methods are supposed to be private/public! You'll get some points marked off if it varies from the assignment description.

How much do you envision using the skills you gained in this course in your career?

This course covered a ton of material that's extremely useful in day-to-day programming. Granted, some of it's pretty Java-specific and many students may never come into contact with Java. Professionally, I've encountered many of the topics taught. I believe that knowing more of the design patterns would have also been useful and hope I'll get to see some more in future courses.

CST 338 Week 7

Week 7

This week has been easy breezy! I really enjoyed learning Android Studio and getting a simple little application running. Because I've been using IntelliJ (Eclipse was recommended) for this entire class, it was an easy transition to Android Studio (because they're the same).

The application we created doesn't actually do anything, but it's fun to see the possibilities. Looking forward to my last set of assignments and wrapping this course up!

Specific Prompts

Have you ever created an app before, either for Android or iPhone? How did it go?

This was my first time creating a phone application! I have created plenty of web application, but never a native phone application. I'd like to dig into it more, learn how sessions are kept and actions are performed.

Do you have any ideas for apps that you could create for recreation? What about business?

I have definitely come up with some phone applications. The primary one I wanted to work on is a coffee log where a user can record the type of coffee they drank and the grind, brew method, wash method, the region the coffee was grown, and all other kinds of coffee drinking details.

There are also some web applications ideas that I have that could easily be converted into a phone application, like my idea to create an emergency preparedness website. In a phone application, it could serve as the source for where the user's family wants to meet when a natural (or unnatural) disaster happens. It could also send the user push notifications when a natural disaster is expected and remind them of the items they need to prepare for their particular type of disaster for the case that it actually happens.

CST 338 Week 6

Week 6

This week has been difficult, but I think my team pulled through just fine. We worked on implementing our project in an MVC pattern and used multithreading to display a timer on the screen. I'm happy with how it turned out. This was our last group project of the course. It's been fun to work with a group again, but I'll admit that I am glad to go back to being a little hermit with my assignments again for a bit. The pressure of getting a good grade for myself and my team is too much.

Because our next class already opened up on the website, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to also get prepared for that and wrap up this course. I am hoping that I will get through the next couple of weeks without a problem. October is very busy for me socially and it definitely impacts the time I can spend on my academics.

Specific Prompts

What experience do you have with UML diagrams?

I had some experience with UML diagrams, but not for designing programs and class structures. I've primarily used them for databases at work and in some of my recent courses.

Are they used at your workplace? Have you done multithreading in any language before?

UML diagrams are known of at my workplace and occasionally used for database schemas, but not preferred. After several years of producing them, my company found that clients didn't care about them and the developers never referenced them. They found them to be unuseful.

I have used multithreading before at work (in Java, too!) and it has been fine. I've never really had to think about how it was all working. We typically use other libraries and packages that do most of the most difficult things for us. Also, we tend to use them for background processes that aren't so obvious. The most recent thing I can think of is pulling data from endpoints while the application is running and placing it in the cache it for the user to see. It makes the application appear much faster than it actually is.

Did you find Patterns to be helpful?

Yes. I really like patterns in general. They help keep everything in a nice, defined place. Otherwise, the programs can get very out of control. I will say, however, that there's a big difference from the MVC pattern we implemented in this course and what I have seen used in the real world. I think it's the difference between the old style and the new. In the pattern we learned in class, the view does not interact with the controller at all. The one I know in practice has the controller handle everything and the view and the model does not interact with one another.

CST 338 Week 5

Week 5

This week has been very wild! I ended up taking a vacation day on Wednesday (when the content came out) because I had weekend commitments that were very time-consuming. I'm so glad I did. I don't think I wouldn't have been able to finish off my work if I hadn't. I also had to create a video this week discussing how I was planning on working on the assignment for this week. It's attached below. I find it challenging to talk about how I plan on solving the assignment without showing some code and giving too much detail. My team really helped me through this week and I am so glad that I get to work on these projects with them.

Specific Prompts

GUI is learned late in the game with Java. Do you think this is helpful or harmful and why?

When working with Java, I do think it's helpful to learn to program GUIs. Especially if you're coming from a language that isn't as verbose (like Ruby, JavaScript, or Python). However, it does feel like a totally different thing so it may be perfectly fine to learn the event-driven style prior to the functional way of programming with Java. Although, learning it in parallel may work too (but I could see it getting confusing). In the end, I think it's important for each person to consider what works for them and what they're interested in. If they have a great idea for a GUI to build, they should work on that and skip the console stuff. Same applies in reverse. Whatever keeps you interested and excited.

Why do think that coding the Swing elements in Java would be more difficult compared to some other languages?

Java is very verbose and usually requires a lot of additional steps and lines of code to accomplish something that something, like Python, can do in a few lines. Depending on your background, it may be extremely challenging to using Swing elements in Java. If someone comes from a Ruby background, they're going to have a hard time. They will probably have a pretty easy time and would prefer it if they are experienced with Java, though. Just depends on the perspective.

CST 338 Week 4

Week 4

This week has been pretty difficult for me and I expect next week will be more challenging due to personal life conflicts with school. Despite that, while difficult, I feel that I was able to contribute to the group assignment pretty well this week. We worked really hard and I'd like to say we did everything correctly, but I'm still expecting to get a few points knocked off because that's how the past couple of assignment have been. My team has been great though and really powering through.

For the project, we focused on implementing a class based on the methods defined by an interface. We additionally got practice working with multiple java objects and having them interact.

Specific Prompts

Give an example of polymorphism and what what be inherited between classes.

An example of polymorphism would be a ProPlayer that inherits Player. ProPlayer would inherit the methods defined in Player, like getName(). However, ProPlayer can override methods in Player to create their own implementation. ProPlayer can add their player number to the getName() method. The only exception to this would be if the methods were defined as static.

After the learning this week, can you identify the difference between Abstract classes and Interfaces? Be specific.

Abstract classes and interfaces are similar in that they both will essentially contain method stubs that are intended to be implemented by a derived class (actually, they're enforced). The difference is that an interface is completely full of these stubbed out methods and an abstract class may have complete methods in addition to their stubbed out methods. Any class that inherits either of these will be required to implement the missing classes. In Java 7 and lower (I believe) one could only implement multiple interfaces and one abstract class, but I think Java 8 allows you to inherit multiple abstract classes now. The main difference is the method implementation differences, but there are other, more detailed, ones too.

CST 338 Week 3

Week 3

I've really enjoyed the time that we've been given in this course to focus on programming assignments. This assignment was surprisingly time-consuming and required a lot of focus. The assignment prompt wasn't as explicit as it had been in the past. It's been really great though because my group has been very on it and we are continuing to finish prior to the due date, which allows me to be obsessive (I am about everything) and check everything again before we submit it. I'm after those points!

The assignment focused mostly on loops and arrays, from what I can tell. We implemented 3 classes that work together (Card, Hand, and Deck). I like that this assignment was just the foundation for a future game and can be used with any card game. I think it displays the potential benefit of OOP very well.

Specific prompts

What is the largest multi-dimensional array that you have used?

A 3x3 array is likely the largest multi-dimensional array that I've used and it was most likely for an assignment. I find myself using objects the most frequently and don't usually need to model anything larger than a 2x2.

What is the largest that you think would be unwieldy and why?

I would definitely say that a 3x3 and up would be considered unwieldy. As multi-dimensional arrays grow, they quickly become more and more difficult to contain in your head. If the person writing them struggles to understand what they are, the person reading them will likely have a much more difficult time. I like to think I'm constantly writing for a future reader. That helps me keep my code in line and (hopefully) legible.

What does inheritance do for your classes? Have you used it in the past? How?

Inheritance allows like objects to share the same code through a base class. This can be useful, but it often leads to giant messes of hard-to-follow hierarchies. I very seldom use inheritance and, in my specific profession, generally just define completely separate classes. Sometimes I will extend classes, but I can't think of a specific example for when I used inheritance outside of course work.

CST 338 Week 2

Week 2

This week has been great. We were assigned new teams, which was the first time since this program started and I am very glad to switch it up a bit. Working with my new team was great. Everyone is familiar with git and we utilized GitHub to keep track of our code and share updates between each other. It worked out well.

The material for this week has been Java-specific lectures. I'm very familiar with Java (though I haven't used it in a while), so it hasn't been an issue for me and I feel like I'm cruising along. Working on the program was very refreshing and I found myself getting into finding all of the bugs and squashing them! Once I start, it's really hard to put it down and it made me a bit sleepy at work the following days. I am going to try to settle down and give myself same rest in future weeks.

Specific prompts

OOP is not in all languages.  Have you used one that does not?

Many people don't follow OOP with JavaScript. I use JavaScript very often and most of the time it is not in an OOP way. However, I may be known to utilize prototypes to facilitate an OOP-style language. Other than that, I don't have any experience outside of OOP (unless you count bash).

What was your experience?

OOP has been drilled into my head over time in all of my previous courses. I find it very difficult to not follow it now. I don't feel like it's intuitive and reading through the code can be very difficult. I work with several people that have functional programming backgrounds and I always have a difficult time reading through their work. However, I find it beneficial for me to have exposure to their coding style.

How extensively have you used OOP outside of the classroom?

I have used OOP more outside of the classroom than within it. I work with large applications daily that rely on this principle. It has led me to believe that it's a strong foundation and many people would benefit from understanding it. I'm actually really glad that I am able to go back through and learn it from the ground up again because it never hurts to relearn something. There may be little bits that I have missed.

Are you experience with UML diagrams and do they help?

I'm experienced with UML diagrams, but I wouldn't call myself an expert. I often draw little (simpler) UML diagram for my own reference at work when I'm learning a new application. If the database isn't too large, I'll keep a little picture of one near to understand the application better. Having said that, my work does not use UML diagrams at all. They used to create them, but found that they were never referenced by programmers and the clients didn't care what the database looked like so they were not useful and were a waste of time (money). For my work context, my company is 19 years old and we're contracted out by other companies to build web applications.

CST 338 Week 1

Week 1

Here week go again with a new course! We began this course with a pretty straight-forward string manipulation assignment that is going to be our only solo assignment for the course. Starting week 2, we will be grouped into new groups for the following assignments. We haven't had to work in groups for the past couple of classes and I have enjoyed it because I can work on my homework on my own time. I'm not super excited about having group work again, but I understand the benefits of doing so.

The solo project went fine. I read in the material that we will be deducted points if we use functionality that hasn't yet been taught. That makes me a little nervous and I found myself going back to the lecture notes often to make sure that I wasn't using something that wasn't there. I have taken several courses in Java and have worked with it professionally (and still do every so often). It makes it a bit difficult to remember where we're at in our guided instruction.

Specific prompts

Have you used Eclipse before?

I have used Eclipse in both courses for school and professionally. However, I switched to IntelliJ and found that I prefer it for Java development. I primarily switched because the dark theme that I was using at the time for Eclipse wasn't consistent with the toolbars. So, the text editing portion of the editor was dark and the navigation and side panels were white. I look at a computer a lot and prefer dark themes for things that I spend a lot of time looking at. After getting used to IntelliJ, I couldn't turn back. Everything felt so much more natural in it compared to Eclipse. For this course, I will continue to use IntelliJ, while using the same style settings that the professor prefers.

What languages are you proficient in at this point?

The language that I'm proficient with varies depending on when you talk to me. Two years ago, prior to working my current job, I would have replied with Ruby. Shortly after, I would have said C#. Now, I would likely respond with Javascript or Java because that's what I've been using the most lately. If I were to list languages on a resume right now, I'd likely only put Ruby, Java, and JavaScript.

What is your desired field of Computer Science at this point?

I'm employed full-time as a web developer. I'm very happy with it and don't see that direction changing anytime soon. However, I'm not opposed to changing my career goals and I probably will at some point.