CS 373 Fall 2022: Fernando Mercado - Week 2

 


What did you do this past week?

This last week I spent most of my time ironing out the logistics of this semester. I was added into CS370 where I'll be working with Dr. Bulko to develop an app that I'm excited for. I tried to prioritize my health by going mountain biking (which I've unfortunately gotten in the habit of not doing) a few days this week but was rained out a few times. Hopefully these next few weeks get better in terms of the weather. Most importantly however, I started work on project 1 for this class, setting up the repo and laying down some initial code.

What's in your way?

Thankfully there has been nothing in my way thus far, and I hope to keep it that way by staying on top of things because I know that when the semester starts ramping up I sometimes start to fall behind.

What will you do next week?

Next week my main focus will be the project for this class and I hope to do as much as possible as efficiently as possible by using assertions and unit tests to my advantage. I also begin work on my app and have to create an in-depth design document detailing every screen, menu, and button the app will have so that down the line, creating the solution will be as simple as following my design document's instructions for the functionality of the app. Additionally, I will reserve some time to start applying to jobs as it's that time of the year.

What did you think of Paper #1: Syllabus?

Compared to other courses I've taken, the syllabus for this class was extremely detailed and with the addition of the Perusall assignment for it, there was no ambiguity left for me to wonder about. I like these assignments as they don't feel like real work, and are an interesting way to truly read something and have a conversation with my peers.

What was your experience of assertions, unit tests, and coverage?

I had been exposed to assertions before through various other classes, such as Dr. Bulko's iOS Mobile Computing which I took this summer, where we used Swift's guard to achieve basically the same thing. Unit tests seem a bit tedious but are invaluable tools for development and I look forward to getting used to using them more before I go into a development job. Coverage was interesting to me because I was familiar with the concept of code coverage but was not aware that there was a tool to track it and I'm excited to see it in use more this semester.

What made you happy this week?

Nothing really remarkable happened this week but I am glad to be back on campus with my good friends and cherish the little moments that make up our time here. I'm excited to really make the most of my final year here at UT.

What's your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

In Swift, you can actually use emojis as variables!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CS 373 Fall 2022: Fernando Mercado - Week 8

Image
  What did you do this past week? Our group was able to set up a skeleton of our database and made great progress on the project as a whole this week. I have also been doing a lot of work on my iOS app, which the alpha release should be done this coming Monday!  What's in your way? Much like last week, my classes are all competing for my time and it seems there is too little time to go around. I think I need to be much more selective with what I devote my time to and even cut back on things I would usually do until this hump of work is done. What will you do next week? I will start building the beta build of my app, and finish out phase II of the project for this class. I will also be taking the Texas government UT test (to complete my AP government credit from HS). I have two essays due for classes and also of course, will be Leetcoding. What did you think of Paper #8: The Integration Segregation Principle? I like that the last few papers have all been somewhat continuations ...
Read more

CS 373 Fall 2022: Fernando Mercado - Week 7

Image
  What did you do this past week? My group finished up the first phase of the project. The process was very stressful and we have started earlier as a way to combat this happening again when time comes to submit. I'm also working on my iOS app and still working on Leetcode. What's in your way? This week was a challenge to balance my time. All of my project-based classes (all of my classes) have picked up dramatically and thus it was very difficult to allocate a sufficient amount of time to each of them. What will you do next week? I hope to continue working on the project for this class, and really wrap up a solid alpha build for my app to showcase. This week will determine how the coming weeks go based on how much work I can get done, so I will have to try my best to do everything. What did you think of Paper #7: The Liskov Substitution Principle? I thought the paper was an excellent addition to the OOD paper we read previously. The paper included some very applicable examples...
Read more

CS 373 Fall 2022: Fernando Mercado - Week 9

Image
  What did you do this past week? Team Queue made a lot of progress this week and I think we are set to finish on time for the phase II deadline. There's a lot of work yet to be done for the overall project's lifetime, but we are doing great work and I hope to continue on that track. I also did a lot of work on my iOS app WeGoGym, but after showing my alpha off I realized I need to redo a lot of the work which is unfortunate. What's in your way? This week I felt extremely unmotivated for no reason at all which put a major hamper on my productivity. What will you do next week? This coming week I will try to sustain the productivity streak I've been on these last few days for as long as I can. More applications and more developing of my app and website are in order. What did you think of Paper #9: The Dependency Inversion Principle? To be honest, the last few papers we've read by this author are very similar and a lot of the topics are so similar it's difficult to...
Read more