CS373 Spring 2021 Final Entry: Ethan Lao
How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?
I thought the course did a great job of conveying the takeaways. I think the biggest one is about testing: it is always smart to think of the end goal result first before starting on the implementation, and consistently testing the code using a pipeline ensures that we are maintaining a consistent goal.
Were there any other particular takeaways for you?
The class taught me a ton about many general programming practices, which help make the code cleaner, more compact, and simpler to add features to in the future. Both the papers and lectures provided clear and understandable solutions to programming design issues, which I fully intend to apply in the future.
How did you feel about cold calling?
I felt comfortable about the cold calling, and Professor Downing makes it a relaxed environment to learn and ask questions. I thought it was a great way to add some engagement and interactivity into classes.
What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?
I thought that Docker was useful for creating a sharable “library” of tools so that the entire team does not have install the many tools onto their own machine. In addition, many other tools have support for Docker, like AWS, which is helpful for combining the many different tools.
What’s the most useful Web dev tool that your group used that was not required?
We found many tools that were extremely useful, such as Flask-Marshmallow and MySql, but I personally thought that Material-UI was the most useful. It is a library for styling the frontend (like Bootstrap), and provides many clean and recognizable components that look more professional than the basics Bootstrap provides.
How did you feel about your group having to self-teach many, many technologies?
I personally learn best from trying things out, so the format was very effective for me. Seeing what works best and what doesn’t makes things stick in my mind for longer, and it allows me to gain a more in depth knowledge of the technology than the limited amount of information that can be presented in lectures. However, I do feel that many of the practices I have developed for these technologies are not the best (since they are based on my understanding of the technology), and we did not have much time to fully understand all the coding practices.
Give me your suggestions for improving the course
I have enjoyed this class a lot, and not having tests relieved a lot of pressure to allow us to concentrate on creating the best project possible. However, I do think that it could be useful to provide more resources for learning about the many technologies (the articles posted on piazza were very helpful, and providing more would be even better!).
