In class, we had the in class activity about inclusive and insensitive writing. This assignment was able to open our eyes on vocabulary choices that we didn’t even notice as being potentially harmful to others that might be reading our work. This got me thinking about if anyone else has been using the Alex JS linter and if they have posted anything about their feedback and experience while using it. From my searching I found a blog post called, “Refactoring condescending language with alexjs” by Suzanne Aitchison. This blog focused on their experience with the Alex JS linting tool and what led them to start thinking about their use of words and tone when writing their work.

The blog started with what got them thinking about their use of tone and content when writing . They mentioned how they were told to focus on words such as “easy” and “simply” because to some people the task at hand might not be so simple or easy to them which can be very discouraging and have them lose motivation. The Alex JS linter focuses on, “gender favoring, polarizing, race related, religion inconsiderate, or other unequal phrasing in text” which covers most of the types of insensitive ways of writing. In the author’s experience when they used it on their own work they had 104 warning of insensitive writing that all fell into common groups. Which happened to be the use of “easily”, “simply” and “just” which we now know is insensitive to people who may not find certain tasks easy. In addition, they also ran into one of the negatives of the linter which is false positives. In this case, it was flagging words like “color” and “special” which fall under the list of insensitive language however in this context it was not. Their takeaway from working with Alex was that their default way of writing will need some work that can be taken as insensitive and Alex is a tool that helps them in making their work more inclusive.

After reading Suzanne Aitchison’s blog, I found the reading very helpful because it further pushed me in the right direction of working with more inclusive language as well as pointing out things that I did not catch when we were working on our exclusivity activity in class. I feel like as we progress as a society and we are working on becoming more inclusive tools like Alex JS will be very helpful. When we first started the in class activity I didn’t see a problem with some of the flagged words however after seeing why they were being flagged as well as reading the blog I am increasingly understanding how certain words can be taken from those that come from other backgrounds than I do. My main takeaway from this will be working on using more inclusive language and making sure that my work can be taken in a positive note from whoever reads it.

https://dev.to/s_aitchison/refactoring-condescending-language-with-alexjs-3ifp

From the blog CS@Worcester – Giovanni Casiano – Software Development by Giovanni Casiano and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

One of the most important aspects of code is to make sure that others who work on or are reading your code can understand what is happening. In class, we have been discussing clean code and improving readability which is where the correlation comes into play which is what inspired me to read further onto the fine details of what entails good code documentation. The blog post I chose for this week’s post was “Shaping better software: The benefits of effective code documentation” by Anabelle Zaluski. The goal of the post was to discuss the importance of having good code documentation and what qualifies as good code documentation.

The blog post starts off with explaining why code documentation is very important as it is like a map for your code. Good code documentation is what allows people to navigate your code effectively and efficiently. According to Zaluski the main information that should be included to qualify as effective code documentation is: “Dos and Don’ts, Clear explanations of each aspect of the application, Illustrative images, including sequence and entity relationship diagrams, and API documentation explaining each class, method, and return value”. She then explained the different types of code documentation as internal, external, low-level, walk through and high-level. With the end of the post explaining the benefits and challenges of implementing good code documentation into your team’s work routine. Some of the benefits included improving team collaboration, supporting maintenance and bug fixing, as well as increasing organizational growth. However, some of the challenges mentioned were staying up to date, managing documentation of non-linear code, and knowing how to document things for various knowledge levels.

I chose this blog post since we have been discussing what clean code is and why we should be using it in our own work. Due to that I thought this blog post was perfect to allow me to connect other ways I should be working to improve the quality of my work. To me this blog post was a very useful lesson reinforcing key points about documentation as well as teaching me aspects that I was unaware of. As we are learning more and more about how to structure our code to improve the quality as well as the efficiency of our team based code. From this blog, I feel like I will be able to implement the strategies and qualities mentioned for good code documentation to improve how I document my work in the future.

https://www.notion.so/blog/code-documentation

From the blog CS@Worcester – Giovanni Casiano – Software Development by Giovanni Casiano and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

From the previous week’s we have been covering the different types of software copyright licenses and their differing purposes in the field. The blog post I chose to cover is “Understanding Software Licensing” by Fernando Galano. The goal of the blog post was to help simplify the legalities of differing software copyright licenses as well as expressing the importance of understanding copyright licenses and why you should know when to use the different kinds. From what we learned in class, from the videos as well as our in class activities, the blog post worked hand in hand in reinforcing the pros and cons of the different copyright licenses to give a better grasp on the topic.

The blog post started with what a software copyright license exactly is. Galano described the concept of a software license is the establishment of a contract between the creators of the software and the individuals who would be using it. The contract would lay out the terms and conditions that the user must follow when it comes to use of the code as well as the rights and liabilities of the user and creator. As explained in the post, the license will protect both parties and make sure that the use of the software is as intended from both the creator and user. After Galano described the preemptive information about what a license is he explained the different types and their pros and cons. He described Public Domain Licenses, Copyleft Licenses, Lesser General Public Licenses, Permissive Licenses and Proprietary Software Licenses. Each license had a almost like tldr description that allowed the reader to easily understand what each license is meant for. He ended the blog post stating that every license has a purpose and it is up to you as the creator to decide what your purpose is for the software and what you want it to be used for.

The reason I chose this blog post was due to the fact that while we have been covering copyright licenses I feel like I still didn’t fully grasp the differences and when you should use each kind of license. This blog post was perfect in using simple terms to allow me to easily understand the different kinds of software licenses and their differing uses. From this I will now be able to one hundred percent understand why I am choosing a certain license when it comes to protecting my work. I feel like reinforcing my knowledge on items like this is very important as copyright licenses are a huge part of developing software.

https://www.bairesdev.com/blog/understanding-software-licensing/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Giovanni Casiano – Software Development by Giovanni Casiano and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The podcast episode, “Scrum vs Agile & Keys to Success with Mike Cohn,” discusses the ways to succeed using the Agile methodology and how to work with the Scrum Guide to create an efficient plan for your team. I selected this episode because I believe that one of the major aspects of creating an efficient team is the steps you take to complete your work. To do that, you must follow a methodology to create a plan to complete your goal. In class, we learned about Agile and the advantages it had over waterfall, so listening to a podcast about Agile was very intriguing. The episode emphasizes that you don’t have to adhere to the Scrum Guide as if it were a rule book, and that you have to work with your team to find out what aspects of the guide work best within the team to allow for maximum efficiency. This is a big mistake that many people make because they are scared of “breaking the rules.” However, this is something that one must be able to do if they want to elevate their work to the next level. From this, I thought the podcast was very interesting since we recently learned about these methods in class. In class, we discussed the steps of Agile and the benefits it has compared to the waterfall methodology that we learned about prior. In addition, we also learned about the Scrum Guide, where we were taught the aspects as well as the elements that the Scrum Guide highlights to help users understand Scrum. From our work, we were shown that you are allowed to deviate from the Scrum Guide; it is just a basic framework to help users put the steps in an effective order. After the episode, I believe that it gave valuable insights on how these methods work in real company settings, highlighting how you don’t have to follow the guide to a tee and you must find out what works best for your team to allow for the most efficient work. Plus, through the discussion of real-world examples, it promoted further thinking about what we learned in class as well as how to connect the ideas we were taught to work experiences. Once it comes time for me to apply this to my work, it will be helpful to understand that the Scrum Guide is not a rule book but a guide to take aspects from to assist in efficient teamwork.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Giovanni Casiano – Software Development by Giovanni Casiano and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.