CS371g Summer 2021: Shaharyar Lakhani — Week 5

Hey there and welcome to week 5 of my CS371g blog!

What did you do this past week?

This past week, I completed the 4th week of my summer internship. I can’t believe that I am already almost to the halfway point. Time really flies. I also worked quite a bit on the Integer project, and I really like it so far! Hopefully I won’t be trying to finish at the last minute this time, although it seems like no matter how early I start, this always ends up being the case.

What’s in your way?

Currently, nothing is in my way. I am trying to maintain a balance, and I think I have been successfully doing so. My summer schedule has been occupied by my internship, this class, and going to the gym, and everyday feels productive which I absolutely love. I guess I just like being busy!

What will you do next week?

This upcoming week, I will try to finish the Integer project and get a head start on the next project if it is assigned. Almost 3 down, and after that, only 2 to go and I am done with college! It’s kind of crazy to think about.

If you read it, what did you think of the Paper #5: Continuous Integration?

I thought it was a good paper. I think Continuous Integration is an extremely important facet of software engineering because it constantly tests your code and makes sure that you are not missing a small bug that could make your application hard to fix in the future. I learned how all of this works through Collatz last semester when I took SWE.

What was your experience of lambdas, capture by value, and capture by reference? (this question will vary, week to week)

I thought that the material was pretty cool! I used to not like the pointers and different features that C++ provides, but I am starting to like them a lot more. It’s cool how efficient these features can be if used correctly.

What was your experience of function objects, iterator traits, and iterator tags? (this question will vary, week to week)

I liked the topics and I liked the Hackerrank exercises for them. As always, Professor Downing does a great job of explaining the topics, and the cold calling keeps me engaged in class.

What made you happy this week?

I was happy to receive my first full paycheck from my internship this Friday. I didn’t even feel guilty about eating out with my friends. It’s nice to have some pocket money and feel independent, but oh my, a good chunk of your pay goes to tax.

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

For the people that don’t already do this, I would HIGHLY recommend using the lab machines for projects in the CS department. I personally don’t like downloading a bunch of software on my personal computer, and while its good to know how this software works (for example, Docker for the dependencies needed in this class’s projects), it takes quite a bit of storage, and the CS machines already have everything you need! Here’s a link to set it up: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/facilities-documentation/ssh-keys-cs-mac-and-linux