While reading the “Dig Deeper” pattern, all I could think of was how the authors had just blown-up whatever spot I thought I was hiding in. As a student, I typically would study or pay attention to the things I needed to work on in terms of meeting an assignment deadline or just getting an assignment to work somewhat as specified. Recently, while working on my final robotics project, I ran into a multitude of issues that didn’t allow me to complete the project how I intended. While trying to understand the vast amount of literature the internet had to offer on C++ programming, I just couldn’t overcome every issue I ran into. The main problem I encountered was the same one that’s defined in the book. Cutting corners during tutorials, and simplifying complex issues took an immense toll on my understanding of the language and the structures it had to offer in solving my problem.

The suggestion in the solution is something that I want to include in my arsenal for the future. To be able to dive into the depths of material and find out why things are made how they are is a more desirable trait than complaining or feeling flustered that certain things are too difficult or complex to understand. Digging deeper into tools and technologies that I’ve worked with might also make future interviewers more interested in me as potential candidate for a job. For example, during the entirety of the semester I was in a group that worked on building an application for people who want to prepare for their U.S. citizenship test. I wasn’t apart of every part that was developed but being able to learn and reiterate what my teammates did and why they did what they did is just as important as the work that I contributed to the project.

This pattern is the blueprint for the type of knowledge for the types of skills I desire to have. Instead of wondering why people decided to build things their way and replicating their choices, I want to be able to build technologies of my own and be able to make my own informed decisions along the way as I craft my own software or technology.

From the blog CS@Worcester – You have reached the upper bound by cloudtech360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

When looking at Node, I was confused on what type of software it is. It seemed like a framework to me. As I did some research I came across some articles and found that it is a common misconception that people think it is a framework or even a programming language. Node.js is a java runtime environment (JRE). It is typically used in backend development, but it also has pretty good use in the front end as well. 

Over the course of the semester we have been using node modules in our projects. In order to get one of these modules in a project we would need to use the npm install method. Npm stands for Node Package Manager. It contains hundreds of thousands of repositories that developers can use to inject dependencies into their applications. At the time I didn’t really understand what the npm was used for so I would just blindly install packages into my projects so I could get them working. 

During the last few projects we were working on in class we started using Yarn, another type of package manager. Once again not knowing exactly what Yarn was or why I needed it I blindly installed the resources I needed for my project, and got to work. At the time, I didn’t notice any subtle differences. The packages I installed were also put into my node modules and I was able to work on my projects as needed. So what was the difference?

Yarn was developed as a response to some of the shortcomings of npm in the past. Over time the developers of the two package managers have been copying each other’s homework in terms of staying relevant in the developer community. One of the glaring differences between the two is that when installing packages, yarn installs multiple packages at one time while npm installs packages sequentially. In the grand scheme of things, this saves some time when setting up your projects. Both package managers allow the node modules to have the same file structure although the file signatures differ. In yarn, the node modules are generated with yarn.lock and in npm the node modules are generated with package-lock.json. Yarn has made it so it is easy to convert from package-lock.json to yarn.lock files in case users wanted to make the switch from npm to yarn. Npm however doesn’t seem to have the same ease of access when migrating from yarn to npm.

In terms of which package manager is better will depend on the developer. It is important to take into consideration though, that yarn is the later package manager. It has gained as much traction as npm has in its entirety, but this could just be due to the increasing demand in package managers in the present day. 

Sources:

NPM vs. Yarn: Which Package Manager Should You Choose?

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-npm-and-yarn/

https://www.section.io/engineering-education/nodejs-frontend-backend/

From the blog CS@Worcester – You have reached the upper bound by cloudtech360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

At the end of my previous blog post, I incorrectly referred to React.js as a framework. It is actually a JavaScript library. Although the two can be used to achieve a common goal, the two terms are not exactly interchangeable. Allow me to use the following analogy to explain my understanding of the two.

The main difference is when you’re using a library, you’re asking for it to assist you with completing your code. Frameworks on the other hand can be used to write your code but require you to “relinquish ownership” and abide by its rules. To discern the two, let’s look at the code to be written in terms of sharing information with one another. 

Scenario A.

You’re browsing StackOverflow and you come across a user who is asking a question about how to use various functions/methods in a particular programming language. You, being a well-seasoned programmer and active user in the StackOverflow community, wish to give this user a bit of assistance. So you decide to do some research on said programming language and functions/methods. Once you’ve gotten a firm understanding of the concepts, you give a friendly and in-depth response to the user, which helps to solve their problem. 

Scenario B. 

You’ve been assigned to write a paper explaining how to use various functions/methods in a particular programming language by your professor. They require the paper to be written in an accepted formatting style (MLA/APA) of your choosing. You, being a top student of your class, do some research to produce a high quality paper that reflects your standing. As you write your paper, to adhere with formatting guidelines, you use in-text citations. Once your paper has been completed you also cite your sources on your works cited page. Your professor gives you perfect marks on your paper due to the accuracy and proper formatting of your paper. 

In both of these scenarios, we were able to relay the information (write our code) in different ways. While the method of finding the information was roughly the same the end product is what differed. 

In scenario A the user was able to answer the question in any manner that suited their needs with no restriction. In scenario B, however, the student was not granted the same leisure and was required to structure their response according to a specific set of guidelines. Scenario A represents the usage of a library in your code, while scenario B represents the use of a framework. While the tools used were essentially the same, the control over the end product was not. The correlation to be made here is the control over the code that highlights one of the main differences between how libraries and frameworks operate.

From the blog CS@Worcester – You have reached the upper bound by cloudtech360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.