CS373 Fall 2020: Stephen Zheng

The following is for blog entry #4 for CS373.

What did you do this past week?

Early in the week, I finished the Collatz assignment. This included passing all the test cases and closing all the issues, which included formatting the code, creating a git log, etc. I implemented a couple of easy optimizations and both a lazy and meta cache, but I ultimately removed the meta cache since there was an unknown bug in it. Luckily, I had included enough optimizations to pass all the test cases anyways. Outside of the assignment, I also attended most of the lectures and took the daily quizzes.

What’s in your way?

Nothing serious, for now. I need to communicate with my group so we can decide on a project idea for project 2.

What will you do next week?

I will choose a project idea for project 2, and we will probably get started with brainstorming, or the workflow. I also might take a look at some of the web development resources that have been posted on Piazza.

What was your experience of exceptions, IDB1, and types? (this question will vary, week to week)

What I got out of the lecture for exceptions was that they are pretty useful for redirecting improper user input and preventing the program from immediately crashing when the user does something that is not handled by the program. For IDB1, it seems like an interesting and useful project, but it is a little annoying that we must promote civic engagement in some way. I would prefer if we were allowed to do something entertainment related, although not necessarily movie related. I don’t have much experience about types because I didn’t wake up in time for the lecture.

What made you happy this week?

I caught up to The Boys and can’t wait for the next episode to come out. Also, I had some Gong Cha for the first time in 6 months.

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

Try running a disk defragmenter program if your computer is slowing down and you have had it for a while. It might help speed up read/writes.