Software Engineering Final Entry

Jesus Martinez

What did you like LEAST about the class?

This is pretty difficult question considering I enjoy most, if not all, of it, down to the pressure by the imminent deadline. The rush was so exciting! But if I had to choose one thing, it would be the cold-calling in class, although I eventually got used to it and stopped feeling nervous every morning. It was very unfortunate how I came prepared for 3 weeks waiting to get called because I knew I was going to miss one class, but never got called. The day came up when I was absent, and I WAS CALLED. My name did not come up again after that so I was unable to make up for that absence.

Another minor part that left my group upset was how vague some of the requirements for the phases, more specifically, the integrated searching. Initially, we had a model-wide search in the data tables. We were then told that the search had to be more Google-search-like, meaning the search had to include results filled with the individual instance pages from every instance within that model with every searched keyword highlighted. My group was able to satisfy the requirements, but we ended up trashing many lines of code that took hours to implement.

What did you like MOST about the class?

I did enjoy many aspects of the class, including working on a useful group project, learning about regular expressions, refactoring methods, and finally getting a chance to learn more Python and SQL.

The part I loved the most was finally being forced to learn the React JavaScript framework. I have always wanted to learn more about it but had other projects in the way. I did get started with React Native for mobile apps but not actual React. I spent a lot of my days messing with the capabilities of React, so much that my group named me the head Front-End Developer. A reason I love this part most is because I am now using React for other real-world projects. I am currently assigned to work on 2 projects and I am looking forward to picking a few more during the Summer.

What the MOST SIGNIFICANT thing you learned?

To be honest, it has to be python. Prior to this class, I had not touched the language. All I know about Python came from this class and subsequent stack Overflow visits. I am amazed by how versatile a modern language can be after many years and C/C++ development.

How many hours per week did you spend CODING/DEBUGGING/TESTING for this class?

On a typical week that did not contain a deadline for any of my classes, I would estimate about 15–20 hours.

How many hours per week did you spend READING/STUDYING for this class?

In the first few weeks, I’d say about 3 hours each week to read Extreme Programming Installed. After finishing that book, I’d spend about an hour or less just skimming through the weekly readings since I’ve read them before.

How many lines of CODE do you think you wrote?

More than likely a few thousand. My main duty was dealing with the front-end which included CSS styling and building components for refactoring the pages.

What required tool did you NOT know and now find very useful?

It has to be Docker. I dual-boot Ubuntu (for projects) and Windows (gaming and minor updates to projects using a VM) so it is very useful to have both

What’s the most useful WEB DEV tool that your group used that was NOT required?

While Material-UI was certainly a big help on our path to create a unified design, I’d have to give the crown to Chrome Developer Tools (With React Tools). They helped so much with debugging not only JavaScript code, but the CSS as well and allowed to easily create a mobile-friendly UI/UX, even though I now feel it was not required since a great majority of the groups didn’t really bother with a mobile-friendly site.

If you could change ONE thing about the course, what would it be?

I do understand the push to build websites with civil service, but this did lead to a good amount of overlapping content. If I remember correctly, there were three groups that researched on congress and that was only in one section. I think some students can come up with ideas that may not fit the requirements of a “civil service website” and still be a topic that will generate traffic and be useful to a certain community.