Module 8 - CST 338

They say hindsight is 20/20, what advice would you give to the next cohort regarding this course?
Be prepared to communicate constantly with your teammates and let them know about your schedule, what you will work on, and whether you need any help or not.

How much do you envision using the skills you gained in this course in your career?
I will definitely use the skills I learned in this course. I was able to study a new language, learn more on multithreading and building GUI interfaces, and perhap most fun was utilizing Android Studio to create my own app.

Good job this session!  You are well on your way to finishing your degree!
Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week we were able to work on our final project for the course. We had quite a bit of freedom in this project and I decided to expand on the subjects we covered in the last week with Android Studio. For the final I utilized some of the concepts I researched and designed and implemented a game using Android Studio.

Module 7 - CST 338

Have you ever created an app before, either for Android or iPhone?  How did it go?
No, I had not previously attempted to create an app for either Android or iPhone.

Do you have any ideas for apps that you could create for recreation?  What about business?
I haven’t thought very much about any apps I would create, but I would like to expand my skill set by creating more apps. Perhaps starting out with something simpler like a dice throwing game would be an interesting project.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week we went through a series of tutorials on Youtube on how to use Android Studio to create our own apps. It was a very fun and interesting series, and I am really glad to have gotten to get a taste of working with Android. I’m thinking that I may utilize the topics we covered this week for my final project and create and Android app for my submission.

Module 6 - CST 338

What experience do you have with UML diagrams?
My experience with UML diagrams has been primarily in coursework where we have crafted UML’s for our projects.

Are they used at your workplace?
No, I do not use UML diagrams at my workplace.

Have you done multithreading in any language before?
Yes, I have done some multithreading in C++ before when working with a GUI interface game.

Did you find Patterns to be helpful? 
Yes, simply the idea of creating more generic chunks of code that can be reused multiple times in different instances is appealing, and the possible applications for Patterns is quite expansive.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week we had an interesting job working on our GUI card interface from the previous weeks. We learned about and applied multithreading in order to add a timer to the GUI card game and also update the game itself to a different game which was quite fun. Overall the project was interesting and engaging and it is somewhat sad that, I believe, this will be the last group project we have in this course, as my teammates are all quite amazing and fun to work with.

Module 5 - CST 338

GUI is learned late in the game with Java.  Do you think this is helpful or harmful and why?
I think it is helpful to wait a little while to learn GUI after going over the fundamentals in a language because from personal experience I find it much easier to understand and comprehend the language. One can easily get caught up more in the appearance of the GUI rather than the programming itself, and I personally found it much more interesting to work with the code than focus on looks.

Why do think that coding the Swing elements in Java would be more difficult compared to some other languages?
The syntax for the Swing elements maybe a little harder to grasp initially then other programming languages such as python, but the versatility of being able to build layer upon layer of the interface rather easily makes the Swing system very fun to work with.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week we learned about GUI interfaces and how to write them in Java. One really interesting part of the week was working with the Swing elements to create the card table for this weeks assignment. I also created a video presentation this week on my thoughts for assignment 5. We created a GUI High Card game for the assignment this week and I really enjoyed working on this project.

CST 338 - Module 4

Give an example of polymorphism and what what be inherited between classes.
One example of polymorphism would be to have an “Animal” class. This class could contain such aspects as whether the animal is carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous, as well as how many legs it has. Then we could create a class called “Bear” which extends from the Animal class and it would set itself as omnivorous with 4 legs.


After the learning this week, can you identify the difference between Abstract classes and Interfaces?  Be specific.
Interfaces are a sort of empty shell filled with names for methods which will not be filled until later when the interface is used.
Abstract classes are actual classes and can have both method signatures and definitions inside, unlike interfaces which just lay out the signatures for methods.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week we spent some time discussing interfaces, inner classes, polymorphism, abstract classes, and UML design. It was quite interesting to learn about the flexibility afforded using techniques such as polymorphism where you could establish general guidelines for parent classes which could later be built upon as more and more specialized descendent classes were created. I also enjoyed learning about UML’s as they seem a clean-cut way too quickly grasp how a group of classes are interacting.

CST 338 - Module 3

What is the largest multi-dimensional array that you have used?
3

What is the largest that you think would be unwieldy and why?
If you use a vector to access the elements than my understanding is that it does not matter how many dimensions the array is.

What does inheritance do for your classes?  Have you used it in the past? How?
Inheritance makes it easier to write more generalized classes, with methods that will be useful to a variety of different, more specific classes. Yes, I have used inheritance in the past when working on projects similar to this week’s in simulating card games for example.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 
This week’s project was quite fun. Working with my team we created three different classes, Card, Hand, and Deck, which simulated how playing cards would be used. It included methods for multiple decks, shuffling the decks, drawing cards, and more. Besides the project we also reviewed such topics as the enum type, class inheritance, and references. Overall there were a lot of different topics covered.

CST 338 - Module 2

OOP is not in all languages.  Have you used one that does not?

No I do not believe I have spent any significant amount of time with a non-OOP language.

What was your experience?

N/A

How extensively have you used OOP outside of the classroom?

I have used it a few times on personal projects, but not extensively.

Are you experience with UML diagrams and do they help?

I am somewhat familiar with UML diagrams, but I don’t know if I have enough experience to state one way or another.

This week was quite interesting. We have a large amount of reading to go over and that took a bit longer to finish than I anticipated. The casino game was fun to create with my teammates, and it will be interesting going forward to see what projects we will complete together.

CST 338 - Module 1

Have you used Eclipse before?
Yes I have used Eclipse in previous courses when working with C++.

What languages are you proficient in at this point?
I am proficient in Python and C++ thus far.

What is your desired field of Computer Science at this point?
Personally, I am interested in general software engineering and perhaps looking into video game development specifically.

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class. 

This week I took my first foray into Java. It seems interesting, and similar enough to C++ that it does not feel completely alien. I look forward to learning more about this language as the course progresses. Overall, I am enjoying the course and am highly anticipating the next few weeks of learning.