CS Learning Journal

Project 1 Review      After completing my first Java project, Legally-Distinct Pocket Monsters, I spent some time reviewing my solution with my classmates. I decided to team up with Jessica and Emmanuel from my team and we looked over each other's code.       My strategy for solving the problems was to review the provided project prompt which outlines all the details of the program, including what methods and attributes were expected as well as the output, and I would comment through my Java file to lay out my thought process. Although I never had to reach for scratch paper to solve this problem, commenting out pseudocode accomplishes the same goal while never having to leave the IDE and I've gotten used to the method quite a bit.      After planning out my code, I would write my real code underneath the comments I had left, and sometimes I would make additional comments that I felt were helpful breaking down certain lines. For example, ...

  Jessica Sandoval Variable Names – are they meaningful and clear? All of the variables made were straightforward in their use case. Looking through the file, it was immediately clear which each variable and item achieved, even the temporary variables like scanners. Logic that could be more efficient Everything is quite concise and I couldn’t find anything immediately that would need improvement. Unused Imports or Warnings No unused imports and no essential warnings, just IntelliJ reminding of a typo! Clear Formatting Everything was formatted nicely, although personally I like to add space between attributes although I’m not sure if that is against Google’s formatting standards. Example: /**...**/ private int score = 0; /**...**/ Private int numberOfHints; Instead of: /**...**/ private int score = 0; /**...**/ Private int numberOfHints; Are there comments? Every line of logic, attribute, variable, and method is thoroughly documented! It was incredibly easy to see your line of think...

Week Review This past week I got to spend some time working with inheritance, interfaces, and Git. Before, I wasn't too familiar with any of these principles -- Git especially -- but after some practice I'm beginning to pick these concepts up. To review, I learned how interfaces and classes work in Java. Coming from a C++ background, I was already familiar with the fundamentals of Object Oriented Programming (OOP), but translating it to Java was a larger challenge than I originally thought. I spent time learning about interfaces, which are base "blueprint"-like objects with no built-in functionality. It lets a class implement it, and even have multiple interfaces. Once the class implements that interface, it has to also make the functionality that the interface has. This let's other classes and methods call any type of object that uses that interface as an argument which is pretty neat. I also learned about class inheritance with Java and extending/overriding base...

CodingBat Practice      As someone pretty new to programming with Java, I was able to appreciate spending some time in CodingBat practicing Java. I was able to relatively pick up on the syntax, and luckily it's quite similar to coding in C++ which I have a lot of experience with. The first assignment was relatively easy to push through, but during the second assignment I did run into a few issues. Did I plan it out or just throw code at it?        A majority of the problems were quite straightforward and didn't require any careful planning, so I didn't feel the need to plan it out. I would read the problem through, process it mentally, and write out my code while reading it a second time. Typically, this was enough to get it running on the first try, unless of course I ran into a Java syntax or method error. This changed once I reached the Strings-2 section, as it required me to utilize a lot more methods of Java strings which I had never worked with b...