Learning Journal

I worked with Alexander Zambie and Sydney Stalker to review my project 1 code. My strategy to solve the assignment was to first establish the fields and method stubs based on the UML, then write the definitions of each method based on the given prompt. Both of my colleagues used similar strategies to mine to solve this assignment. Having worked on the assignment, I think I could have made more efficient methods if I had planned them out prior to defining them. According to my classmates, my code follows the Google Java Style pretty accurately. I was not familiar with the concept of automating style guide rules to my code. The most challenging part of this assignment was writing out the comments since it is a concept I have very little practice with. The most interesting part of this assignment was how quickly I was able to get the tests to pass, and this is also what I am most proud of about my submission of this assignment. The most I did to celebrate finishing this assignment was a b...

Summarize the feedback you received about your code from your peers Sydney : The variable names in my code are good and self-explanatory. The conditional flow in my takeDamage() method can benefit from being rearranged or rewritten to improve clarity. All the imports of my code are utilized and there are no warnings.   My formatting is clear and consists of nice structure and spacing. Alexander :  The variable names in my code are meaningful and clear. The logic is good and flows through the methods properly. No warning or unused imports are present. My code consists of clear formatting, great spacing, and proper indentation. Javadocs are clear and present for all methods. Identify any trends you noticed when evaluating the code of others such as: everyone struggled with sorting or unit tests that were hard to pass Both Sydney and Alexander had a tendency to utilize the keyword 'this' throughout their code when it wasn't entirely necessary. I was led to believe that the ...

HW01 was quite interesting and empowering once I was able to get all the tests to pass. The test I had the most trouble with was the badLineTest, which would not meet the expected result. I easily spent a good hour or two trying to debug my methods trying to figure out where the issue was occurring and burst out of my chair in overwhelming happiness when it finally passed. I was really satisfied to find all the tests on GitHub had also passed and that the main.java intended for the assignment was compiling. The one thing I wish I could improve on is maintaining focus throughout the lecture videos because I was struggling to answer the questions on my quizzes this week. I want to do my best on the midterm next week so I plan to rewatch all the lecture videos and review all the quizzes I have taken thus far to prepare. 

Performing the CodingBat challenges were not too difficult, but they did take me quite a bit longer than estimated. Most of my programming experience had been established over two years ago when I was getting my associate's degree in computer science and most of the language was C++ and one course on assembly language. Therefore, I am not only out of practice but I also had to spend the last five days completing an introduction to Java programming course on O'Reilly to prepare for this course. I didn't really plan out my approaches to the CodingBat challenges, but most of my immediate logic was perfect. The most consistent problem I came across was forgetting syntax, which I would argue is reasonable in my case. I think writing out the logic before writing out my first attempts could have potentially saved me some minor syntax and compiling errors. The majority of exercises I was able to complete within one attempt but there were a few that took multiple tries.