CS373 Fall 2018: Andrew Harmon

Week 1, September 4th

Andrew Harmon
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

What did you do this past week?

Other than the usual first days of class, I finished a 2,500 mile road trip the Monday before classes began. A friend and I drove from Vancouver down the West Coast to Los Angeles before heading inland towards Austin. Since I was interning in Seattle over the summer and I wanted my car with me, I decided to drive up from Austin back in May (I also wanted to see a part of the U.S. I’d never before been to). It was an incredibly scenic drive but I was glad to be done with such a long trip…until August rolled around and I had to do it again. With some time to spare before classes, my friend and I decided to make the most out of the trip and visited as many cities as we could along the way. We ended up hitting a pretty lengthy list: Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and finally Austin. All together it was an incredible 10 day trip but not one I’ll be making again anytime soon…

What’s in your way?

Until SWE projects really kick into high gear, job applications and interviews will be the main thing on the agenda for the time being. Although I’m pretty tired of this fall ritual by now, I’m definitely more positive with the process this season than last after gaining more experience under my belt.

What will you do next week?

More job applications and interview prep. I’m also looking forward to actually getting into class content and assignments. Beyond that, I’m looking to visit some family in Houston which should make for a nice weekend trip.

What are your expectations of the class?

I’m expecting a lot of time spent frustrated with my front end code because I can’t get the UI just right! A more serious answer would be that I’m expecting a lot of time spent on the projects and a lot of communication between team members. While I’m feeling so-so about the time requirements, I look forward to working with a team for the next couple months (the “team” aspect was definitely my favorite part of OS projects).

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

I recently read an interesting guide on creating a REST API for mobile apps. It’s a bit of a long read but I’d like to draw attention to the sections on URL endpoints and HTTP requests/responses. The guide gives some handy advice on how to properly approach both of these design elements. Although the guide is focused on mobile apps, much of the same advice works for web apps (such as the one we’re about to build).

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