CS371g Summer 2021: Shaharyar Lakhani — Week 2
Hey there! Welcome back to my blog for Generic Programming!
What did you do this past week?
This past week, I started working on our first project, Collatz. It’s the same problem as we had last semester in Software Engineering, but different in that we have to solve it in C++ instead of Python. To be honest, I definitely like Python better because of the language syntax, but I know that C++ is faster and safer due to required types for variables. I have completed 2 of the 3 hackerrank problems, and I plan on finishing the third one tonight.
What’s in your way?
There hasn’t been much in my way. I am doing an internship this summer, so I anticipate that it may be difficult to balance both this class and the internship at times, but I am trying my best to schedule accordingly.
What will you do next week?
Next week, I will work on starting the next project (if it is assigned by then), and getting ahead over the weekend so that the weekdays aren’t as daunting. I hope to also learn more about C++, the common functions used and their associated libraries. Overall, object oriented programming languages are pretty similar, but the difference is their syntax.
If you read it, what did you think of the Paper #2: makefile?
I thought it was a great paper to read because it gave me clarity on what to use for Collatz. Instead of writing a ton of commands on the terminal manually, this makefile grouped commands together so that I could run one line and execute all of the tests. Makefiles in general seem to be extremely useful.
What was your experience of assertions, unit tests, coverage, and IsPrime? (this question will vary, week to week)
I loved the way that these concepts were taught in class. I think professor Downing does a great job of walking through the topics and honestly, cold calling helps quite a bit. However, due to the class being 2 hours long, I sometimes have to go back and rewatch lecture.
What made you happy this week?
It was nice to complete my first official week of class and the first week of my internship! Obviously, doing both concurrently is making my summer quite busy, so I have started taking long walks in the evening as well, which I enjoy a lot. I think on average last week, I walked around 4 to 5 miles a day!
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
I would recommend using an online C++ compiler to test out code that you don’t want to create a whole project on your machine for. I think that online compilers are very useful because they are user friendly and don’t take up any storage. There are a ton of options to choose from, but my personal favorite is this: https://www.programiz.com/cpp-programming/online-compiler/.
