For my next post, I wanted to move on to the first problem in chapter 3, The Long Road. I liked this problem because it deals with a situation where you are stuck between wanting to continue learning more about computer science and improving your skill at it, and moving on to “the highest-paying job and the first promotion you can get your hands on”. It comes down to this because it can take many years to master your skills, and you may never fully master them because technology continues to advance and that there is so much to learn.

The quotes at the beginning of the problem, and the problem itself support the idea that improving yourself at and even mastering something will likely take your whole life. Apprenticeships, such as computer science in this case, are journeys that are based on long term growth, and improving yourself is meant to be the main purpose of what you do. I can see that specifically with computer science, trying to completely master it may never be possible because not only is there already a huge amount of technology in the world to learn and work with, advances are constantly being made. While this means that there will be plenty of jobs and responsibilities for computer scientists, there may also never be some kind of finish line in terms of mastering computer science and technology. However, the same could be said for other fields of learning because advances are also being made in those fields that may or may not be linked to technology, and we always have our and other people’s experiences to learn from. There is always more to learn from, and computer science is just one example of that.

One more thing I want to mention and that I liked is that it is reinforced multiple times going over this problem that the path of focusing on mastering skills over your whole life is not the only path. Other paths for computer scientists such as settling in on a job like tester or project manager, entering jobs early in your life, or even leaving the field and going into other fields are also valid. These paths are not the focus of this book, but there are not wrong paths to take either.

From the blog Jeffery Neal's Blog by jneal44 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Last week I took a look at the ‘Expose Your Ignorance’ apprenticeship pattern, and this week I will focus on the ‘Confront Your Ignorance’ pattern. This pattern is closely related to the last. Once you have become aware of the gaps in your knowledge, you will need a way to address those gaps. It may seem overwhelming to try to learn skills that you are expected to have in the first place, but this pattern provides insight on where to start. In the previous pattern, you are advised to write down a list of things that you don’t understand fully, and then you can begin confronting your ignorance. Start with one skill, tool, or technique at a time, and educate yourself on the topic. There are many different approaches in doing so, including reading documentation and FAQs, building ‘breakable toys,’ and consulting with ‘kindred spirits.’ Once you have reached a level where you can comfortably work with said skill or tool, you can decide whether to continue honing your skills, or move onto the next item on your list.

I like that they have separate chapters that focus on exposing and confronting your ignorance. While both topics are related, they are entirely different hurdles that need to be leaped over. The pattern also mentions the balance between exposing and confronting your ignorance. Confronting your ignorance without exposing involves  learning in private potentially due to fear of criticism. Doing this only encourages that mindset that failure is not an option. On the other hand, you can expose your ignorance without confronting it. This can involve not taking action against your ignorance, which is also detrimental in a team environment.

Like I said in last week’s blog post, it is always best to recognize what you are unfamiliar with and take action as soon as possible. This is especially true in a professional setting, where things need to be completed in a timely manner. Thinking back to my first two years at Worcester State, I don’t remember asking for help often, which was definitely detrimental to me. Now, I am more open to the idea of looking into topics that I don’t have a strong understanding of and reaching out to classmates for help.Moving forward, I would like to continue practicing applying these patterns. Especially now that I am working in a team, it is important to not overly rely on them or drag them down by confronting my ignorance all the time.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Null Pointer by vrotimmy and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This Apprenticeship Pattern is about constantly reading books pertaining to the subject of computer science as to supplement your real-world hands-on experience and as to not stagnate your learning. By not only learning through on-the-job experience or personal project experience, and having a few different routes of learning, you enhance your overall knowledge of the subject. This way, you also avoid stagnating your knowledge, because if for your job you are repeating the same or many similar tasks, then you aren’t really learning anything, or are just learning very little. This is because when you do the same thing over and over, you don’t really have to think about it anymore, and a lot of it is just automatic for you.

By reading constantly, you are actively engaging your brain to focus on new material. The great thing about reading is that you can do it anywhere, and at any time. Anytime you have spare time in the day, it is easy to just read for a few minutes and learn something. Also, by not reading it for very long periods of time, you avoid losing focus on the material, and instead can focus on the material in shorter, more manageable bursts.

I really like this suggestion because I have a lot of trouble sitting down and reading something for long periods of time. With your phone, computer, tv, etc. there are many distractions that draw your attention away from whatever you’re trying to focus on. This can make actively trying to read very difficult, but by doing it in whatever free time you have, you can avoid the distractions and help focus on the reading. I much prefer reading, or anything that requires sustained attention, in short bursts rather than long marathons. In short bursts I can ensure that I keep my attention on topic, but the longer I do it the more my attention dwindles.

The only thing I disagreed with was the suggestion to only read books, and not blogs or other resources. While I do think that maybe being online and not having a physical book may increase distractions, I also think that there are many great educational resources online that are invaluable. In my opinion, the thought that some things must be learned from books is outdated and could maybe even hinder learning. Everyone learns in different ways, so by suggesting that everyone try to learn from books doesn’t make sense to me.  

From the blog CS@Worcester – Alex's Blog by anelson42 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The most significant part of the learning process as a software developer is putting the knowledge that I have acquired over time into actual, practical use and create something tangible that is a good representation of what I have learned. While it is important to have a good grasp in the theoretical aspect of my craft, it will do me absolutely no good if I do not actually exercise the skills I have acquired, especially when I need to use them in a professional environment. However, it is not just the act of simply practicing any acquired skills that is important. What is also important is to know how to properly apply the skills in real situations. For example, simply knowing how to code in theory is simply not enough on its own, it is also important to experiment with the acquired skills as part of their learning process. In this case, the pattern of “Breakable Toys” is introduced.

When a developer chooses to utilize “breakable toys” as part of their learning process, it means that they are working on personal projects that, although they are detached enough from a professional environment so as to minimize the risk of failure, they have enough functionality so as to maintain the realism of working on an actual project that needs to be delivered. Essentially, a developer creates a functional project on which they can experiment on and use any potential mistakes that may occur along the way as valuable ways of reflecting on or enhancing their learning process. The developer gets to reap the benefits of hands-on experience with none of the risks of  that would come up if their inexperience were to result in failure while working in a professional space. However, it is important to note that “breakable toys” in programming does not mean that the practice that you put on is discarded immediately after a developer has a better understanding of the problem they practiced on. Rather, “breakable toys” that are broken should also be recorded with the same importance as spike solutions that work flawlessly.

This particular pattern is a favourite of mine as it combines the pattern of “Practice, Practice, Practice”, which I always enforce in my own working career ad-nauseum, as well as the pattern of “Record What You Learn” since even small projects that were made on a whim may still be valuable enough to return to later. However, a significant aspect of this post’s pattern that aligns with me is the focus that it puts on actual hands-on experience, which is more valuable to me than endlessly reading documentations that I may never utilize.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CompSci Log by sohoda and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern I decided to read is titled “Expose Your Ignorance” from chapter 2 of Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. This pattern starts with throwing out a hypothetical problem where the reader is working for an employer that is expecting the reader to deliver a product but the reader is unfamiliar with the required technologies. The solution to this problem is in giving an honest response and building a reputation on your ability to learn rather building a reputation on what you know. This pattern also mentions how asking questions is a great way to expose your ignorance because you show what you are learning to your teammates. The pattern ends by discussing how exposing your ignorance is a trait of walking the long road because it means you are open to learning unfamiliar technologies and new domains. Whereas, experts tend to narrow their scope of learning, practice, and projects by specializing in specific things.

There were two instantly helpful pieces of information I gathered from reading this pattern. The first useful piece of information was how as I work on becoming a software craftsman, it is more useful to be known for my ability to learn things instead of being known for the specific technologies I am already familiar with. This piece of advice immediately affects how I think and how I will speak about future projects.

The second thought-provoking piece I read was how becoming an expert is a by-product of the long road I am on. This absolutely blew my mind but also humbled me because I should have known this already since I use a similar perspective for exercising in the gym. My goal of living a long and healthy life means that as a result I will have strong muscles if I am regularly going to the gym. I think one of the reasons this was so striking to me is because I feel like I have such a long way to go before I feel confident enough to call myself an expert in something. Therefore, hearing that becoming an expert is a by-product of the long road showed me how long this long road really is for me.

Lastly, there isn’t anything significant in this pattern that I disagree with. It was an enjoyable pattern to read and one where I learned some valuable information.

From the blog Sensinci's Blog by Sensinci's Blog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Malcolm Gladwell published a book about him analyzing how the practice has helped successful people succeed with the 10,000 hours rule. One of the sections in Apprenticeship Pattern Guide for Aspiring Software Craftsman ensures the similar point that practicing is an essential key in making a software engineer become better.
What I found interesting about this is the connection between some of the points in this section and Malcolm Gladwell’s in the “Outliers” are Malcolm shows that practicing was among the factors that led to the Beatle’s success and Bill Gates himself. These people had been able to manage practicing days and nights to the point that they were quite comfortable with the materials similar tools no matter what or where.
Taking the time to practice your craft without interruptions which means to the point where the mistakes are what we are comfortable with as it is mentioned in the Apprenticeship Pattern Guidance . I found it very interesting of how these two authors have the same perspective of spending more time practicing and confronting the problems. Ultimately at a critical time, we might run into those problems again, and being able to solve them would save us time and sources.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of lectures therefore sitting over a lecture in college is somewhat an achievement to me and I’m more like a hands-on person. Fortunately, that is one of the good ways to learn as a Software Engineer.As it was referred to in the book, a beginner should learn by doing rather than reading and sitting through lectures. Besides that, doing and repeating exercises helps us sharpen our skills, our minds, and our bodies to react to the disciplines. Another excellent point in this section that I found helpful is writing a lot and writing code often would help us develop neurons reactions in a good way.
Open to feedback is introduced in this section as well which I completely agree with. Being able to get feedback helps us determine whether we are on the right track. But part of me finds this odd because not everyone could get a good mentor and not everyone can give you good feedback. This also often is hard for people with small circle of relationships and connections. Relying on someone else feedback without knowing ours own issues is not a wise choice.
What I learned from this is finding an exercise and sticking with it until I could solve the problem on my own and then observing the solution that I have made over time as a programmer would have a measurable impact on my abilities to solve any problem later in my career.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Hung Nguyen by hpnguyen27 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For the following few years this could be the principal language if you`re requested to remedy a hassle and it dictates a programming language, permit the force closer to. If you`re pursuing a process that calls for a selected language, construct a toy software for the use of that language, ideally an open supply undertaking so it is straightforward for the distinction among a hassle taking mins or days of your time.  This enables to floor your studying in fact and offers essential manner to enhance this revel in is to are seeking for out possibilities to create comments languages have higher gear for comments than others, however no matter the language, you may take a few steps to installation a studying sandbox to test in.  Many languages offer equal empty Java elegance open in his IDE while he wishes to mess around with an unexpected API or language function: Once you`ve found out sufficient to in reality begin writing code, test-pushed improvement strategies to the recognition of test-pushed improvement, you`ll be hard-pressed to discover a language that don`t hesitate to put in writing easy assessments to test your information of the language, or simply to make yourself familiar with the checking out framework.  Eventually, you’ll move from simply writing studying assessments to writing assessments that look at your real code in place of your information of language constructs and APIs.

Over time, you’ll discover that there are numerous different strategies past easy unit checking out that use the pc to the following is a dialogue of studying to assume in a different way through studying a brand-new language, by the way the quality manner analyzes a language is to paintings with a professional in it.

I fully agree with Your first Language pattern. Especially with creating feedback loops to help gauge your progress. I know for myself personally; I like to look back at code that I may have changed to see where I improved on and where I need to improve. Also, by reaching out to a team member that may be stronger in set language is also a good resource to utilize. However, as stated in the text, I agree that as a programmer, you do not want to make it a habit. Although seeking help is a great tool to learn, being dependent on that resource will hinder your ability to grow as a programmer and understand the material at hand.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Dive by gonzalezwsu22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I think it’s a fair statement to say that anyone who has ever seen me fail, knows that I have often failed spectacularly. Failures of mine come with embarrassment, enigmatic errors and explosions as far as the eye can see. Long story short: I’m no stranger to shame.

Due to my experience with failure (and my tolerance towards the ensuing embarrassment), I often fail without thought or fear. This is an essential personality for learning exactly how I fail, and how to improve upon this type of failure. Reading Apprenticeship Patterns’ reflection on the topic has also helped me come to terms with “failure analysis”.

According to the book, everyone has experienced failure at some point; people that haven’t either never left their comfort zone, or are denying a past failure. It also dabbles on selecting which failures are worth improving upon to salvage sub-par skills. Finally, it admits that some skills may have to be left to rot, as an example of embracing our non-perfect nature.

I agree with the idea that no one is perfect; extending on the topic, I also agree that “ditching” some forms of failure are necessary to becoming a specialized worker. As the old saying goes: “a jack of all trades is a master of none”; I admit myself that trying to work on various topics only results in a mess of files, each one being less impressive than a single, focused file of well-written software.

However, I run into conflict with the pattern early on: its solution mentions “working on problems that are worth fixing”. In my opinion, as contrary as it may be to my above statements, ALL problems are worth fixing. The priority should be chronological, not a binary form of “assert/ignore”. Yes, figuring out our failures and becoming specialized is great, but even a specialist should be somewhat familiar with as much material as possible. A good team member benefits from a great crew, but can also proceed on their own (even if the progress slows down).

Going forward, I plan on using this pattern in my Capstone adventures (as well as my professional career) by trying to figure out what my specialty is. Which failures are the most extravagant? Which ones are fixable? Which ones are worth the effort despite the challenge? A big problem about my stance in computer science is that my stance is too vague (this was the original reason why I declared this major).

Hopefully, I will be able to cut down on this “vagueness”; despite computer programming being applicable in many fields, I will find the one that I am meant to work in. By finding my failures, the search will increment ever more closely to a successful result.

From the blog CS@Worcester – mpekim.code by Mike Morley (mpekim) and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

In our modern society videogames have become a

In our modern society videogames have become a ubiquitous piece software that many use as a form of entertainment. They are on everything from dedicated home consoles and PCs to handheld devices and most prominently, smartphones. Videogames as software can range from extremely simple text based games to complex 3 dimensional environments with intelligent AI systems controlling events throughout the game.

Game development can be a great exercise for any upcoming software engineer to practice their skills. A single person is capable of creating a game as was the case originally with the popular game Minecraft. Minecraft, as many may already know is a open world that is famous for its randomly generated terrain and complete freedom in destroying and building in the world around you. In this simple game there is AI controlling the in game monsters, physics that dictate how you jump, fall, and swim. A dataset of different types of blocks that make up the game, and a world generator that utilizes different rules to create a landscape that is random yet results in a world that is cohesive and believable.

In contrast to the random generation and world state tracking done in Minecraft, other games such as portal specialize in their ability to create believable physics as well as their signature reality bending portals. The game allows you to seamlessly move through portals and stand anywhere in between and also involves physics of items and liquids dropping and moving in a believable way. Physics is an important part of the game and can prove difficult in itself to design from a software perspective.

Aside from these however, games can be as simple as a 2 dimensional platformer that only needs to consider at a basic level the act of moving left or right and jumping, or even a turn based game that needs only consider strict choices that are given to the player to interact with the game world. Game development, just like any good software has a development cycle and will go through a development, alpha, beta, and release cycle where the software will take shape and become a finished product over time. As the game becomes more complex, bugs and other problems may arise that must be dealt with and code optimization and organization becomes important. It can involve multiple people and repository management as projects become more and more complex, too complex even for just one person to deal with. Often the gamification of a task can make it more enjoyable and rewarding to practice so why not apply this to software. If it interests you it can be a great way to practice your skills and even discover new practices that can help in other programs you create.

From the blog CS@Worcester – George Chyoghly CS-343 by gchyoghly and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I’ve been seeing so many json files while working with Docker and cant help myself but wonder what is JSON? What do they do and why do we need them along with JavaScript. In this blog, I want to cover this topic to help myself and others to learn more about JSON.

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation, and is a way to store information in an organized, easy to access manner. Basically, JSON gives human-readable collection of data that can be accessed in logical manner. There are many ways to store JSON data but Array and nest objects are the most popular ones. However, I will not go into the details about those two methods but focusing more on JSON definition.

Why does JSON matter?

JSON becomes more and more important for sites to be able to load data quickly and seamlessly, or in the background without delaying page rendering. Also, it helps switching up the contents of a certain element within our layouts without refreshing webpages. This is convenience not only for users but also developers in general. Because of its popularity, many big sites rely on content provided by sites such as Twitter, Flickr, and others. These sites provide RSS feeds to minimize the effort to import and use the server side, but by using them with AJAX (a powered sites), we run into a problem that we would only be able to load an RSS feed if we’re requesting it from the same domain it’s hosted on. JSON allows us to overcome the cross-domain issue because using callback function in JSON would send the JSON data back to our domain. This capability makes JSON so useful as it solves so many problem that were difficult to work around.

JSON structure

JSON is a string whose format very much resembles JavaScript object literal format. We can include the same basic data types inside JSON as we can in a standard JavaScript object such as strings, numbers, arrays, booleans, and other object literals. This allows us to construct a data hierarchy. JSON is also purely a string with specified data format which means it contains only properties and it doesn’t have methods.

REST vs SOAP: The JSON connection

Originally, this kind of data was transferred in XML format using a protocol called SOAP. However XML was robust and difficult to manage in JavaScript. The reason is JavaScript already have objects, which are a way to express data within this language therefore Doughlas Crockford (JSON creator, also JSLint and JSMin) took a subset of that expression as a specification for new data interchange format and renamed it JSON.

REST began to overtake SOAP in transferring data. The biggest advantages of programming using REST APIs is that we can use multiple data formats which means you can include not only XML but also HTML and JSON. Since developers prefer JSON over XML so they come to favor REST over SOAP.

Today, JSON is the standard for exchanging data between web and mobile clients and back-end services. As I go deeper into the software development cycle, I feel like the need for JSON is essential. Let aside all advantages, there are disadvantages but the importance of JSON is undebatable.

Source: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3222851/what-is-json-a-better-format-for-data-exchange.html

From the blog CS@Worcester – Nin by hpnguyen27 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.