CS 371P Fall 2019 — Week 10: Alvin Lo

Alvin Lo
Alvin Lo
Nov 4 · 2 min read

What did I do this past week?

This past week I spent some time on Phase III of the Software Engineering project with my group and continued to refine and clean up code from Phase II. I also wrote a short paper for one of my other classes this week and attended classes as usual for most of this week. I also registered for some classes, but most of the classes I want were already waitlisted. Over the weekend, I spent Halloween with my friends, played my first IM game for basketball this season, and attended HackTX for a bit.

What’s in my way?

Next week is a busier-than-usual week for me. I haven’t really started the Darwin project yet, and on top of the Software Engineering project I have a test in my statistics class. I haven’t attended some of the lectures for the class due to other commitments, so it will be interesting to see how much content I would have to learn before next Thursday.

What will I do next week?

Next week I hope to finish Phase III of the Software Engineering project and the Darwin project. I will also have to spend a bit more time studying for my statistics exam to ensure that I am knowledgeable about the new content of the class. Outside of class, I hope to get some practice time with my IM team before the second game of the season, and find some time to relax in between.

What was my experience of the vector implementation?

I found the implementations shown last Friday and this Wednesday to be mostly expected, but the swap implementation in the last lecture to be particularly interesting. Taking advantage of the C++’s handling of reference counting and the call stack, swapping the input vector’s pointers was one of the more elegant solutions I’ve seen in a while. Overall, I would say that I have learned a surprising amount from this week’s lectures.

What’s my pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip this week is to ask for help when you need it. Although this may sound very general and cliché, some people may try to work through problems themselves and spent a large amount of time on it, when asking for help from others would’ve saved a large chunk of that time. It’s important to find that balance between working on a difficult problem individually and seeking out help when needed.

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    Alvin Lo

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