CST 338 Week 4 Learning Journal - Markov

 1. I worked by myself answering these questions, as I do not currently have a group.

2. My strategy was first to pan out the process on paper, as my mind thinks more freely when I have a pencil and piece of paper. I wanted to ensure I had a clear understanding of how the Markov chain would be constructed and how sentences would be generated based on the input text. I was able to then flesh out my methods based on this. 

3. This question is not applicable.

4. Perhaps now instead of struggling so much firsthand, I could get some guidance from people who have previously solved Markov chains, and then once I get that better idea I will have a better stepping point to go about creating my version. Also, maybe consider improving the readability of the code. 

5. According to myself, I consider it to follow the Google Java Style Guide fairly well, such as using camelCase for variable and method names, including comments, and proper indentation. 

CST 338 - Week 3 Journal - Preparing for Library

 1. I just worked with myself.

2. For the existing tests functions for Book, Reader, and Shelf there are a few things that can be noted to be changed in the near future:

    a) Enhance the test coverage by incorporating more scenario-based tests such as how methods would behave under unusual conditions. 

    b)Make more thorough error handling by including tests for edge cases.

    c) Integration tests between Book, Reader and Shelf.

3. Discussing with myself, I looked over the prompt for Library. java and noted how I need to get a head start on it so that I don't fall behind. I am not too familiar with init and need to brush up on that. Looking through the entire prompt, I see that this will take a good chunk of time and need to get started. Overall, it does seem doable with the time I have allotted for myself. 

4. Some questions right off the bat that I have are 1) How does Library.java integrate with Book, Reader, and Shelf classes? 2) What are the best ways to go about error handling?  Other than those, as questions arise I will ask either the TA or the Professor. 

CST 338 - Week 2 Learning Journal

Well, well, well. Do I have a lot to learn from Week 2 of the Software Engineering course CST 338.

First of all, I want to say. Coding is a beautiful thing. When something works, you are so happy! And then when it doesn't work, maybe you're a little discouraged, but you keep pushing forward. A little bit like life, huh? I find that it is very rewarding, however, because it is a learning experience and process. 

Now, as for Homework #1 I'd like to say that I spent soooo much time on this. However, once I got to a certain point, I realized my code would not pass the jUnit tests. It was a little heartbreaking to realize that, and how I would lose points, but I took it as a learning experience so that next time I do a major assignment, I pay attention to the tests FIRST rather than last. 

The height of completing the assignment was when I was even able to play a doable Hangman game just with myself alone. I had the assignment randomly choose a word/phrase from a list of them in an input.txt file and it was kind of fun trying to guess what it could be. That's when I realized how awesome coding could be, as you see things flourish to life that weren't originally there before. You're kind of like your own mini creator. That's how I see it. 

Overall, a great week and I'm glad I started early on the homework. I've been learning a lot and the more I delve myself into the content, the more I find I really do like it. Before, coding used to be kind of a burden to me as there was a larger learning curve, but now I think I have significantly gotten better over the years. 

I look forward to the weeks ahead and to successfully completing the course.

Until Next Time,

-Alexandra Almeida.