Hi, I am Abraham Passmore. I am a senior here at worcester state and this is my last semester before I graduate. My concentration is in Software design.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Abe's Programming Blog by Abraham Passmore and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
I find the Code of Conduct outlined by LibreFoodPantry particularly interesting. It establishes a commitment to maintaining a harassment-free and inclusive community for all members, emphasizing values such as empathy, kindness, and respect. The use of specific examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, along with a clear enforcement process, contributes to making a positive environment within the community. I chose to write about this because it reflects the project’s dedication to developing open-source software and to create a supportive and diverse community. The emphasis on social good and the proactive approach to ensuring a welcoming atmosphere align with the broader mission of using technology for society better.
Regarding Thea’s Pantry, the user stories caught my attention. Specifically, the process of handling guest visits, including the registration of new visitors and the streamlined checkout system, stood out. The attention to detail in managing inventory, tracking guest visits, and handling new donations showcases a well-designed system to efficiently serve the community. I chose to write about this aspect because it highlights the practical application of the software in a real-world context, demonstrating how technology can enhance the operations of a food pantry and contribute to a more organized and effective service for both staff and visitors.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Site Title by rkaranja1002 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
Libre Food Pantry (LFP) and Thea’s Pantry are both organizations working to provide solutions to those in need by offering alleviation in grocery and other personal needs.
The LFP is developed mainly by instructors and their students who act as LFP Shop Manager and the LFP Shop respectively. Each Shop is further divided into Teams that work to develop and improve solutions.
Shop Managers are not only in charge of their shop and are also members of the Coordinating Committees whose responsibilities are to guide the direction of LFP, represent its high-requirements, support all the Shop Managers, and when appropriate, set necessary policies.
Thea’s Pantry is partners with Libre Food Pantry which is why I found it useful to learn more about how the LFP was organized.
One thing I found interesting about Thea’s Pantry was it’s relation to the Worcester County Food Bank. The pantry sends monthly reports using the Monthly Report system, which is accessed by a Pantry Administrator who specifies the month and year to generate the respective report as a downloadable Excel file.
For this reason, it is important to create a system that is able to reliably log and store activity records of the pantry about both the guests and inventory of the pantry. That is what the collaboration between Thea’s Pantry and the LFP wish to accomplish.
Knowing these facts allows me to see more clearly what I will be contributing to through my Capstone project, as well as the connections that allow it to happen.
From the blog Stories by Namson Nguyen on Medium by Namson Nguyen and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
I’m starting my (hopefully) last semester in Worcester State’s Computer Science program, and the focus of our capstone course will be contributing to the microservices supporting Thea’s Pantry at Worcester State University. Thea’s Pantry is using a guest frontend, reporting and inventory system built by the LibreFoodPantry humanitarian free open-source software community. LibreFoodPantry is managed by a coordinating committee and a board of trustees, and has adopted a Code of Conduct modeled after the Contributor Covenant. I hadn’t heard of the Contributor Covenant before reviewing the website for Thea’s Pantry. The Contributor Covenant provides a general set of community guidelines that foster a respectful and welcoming space for collaborative open-source software development. I have previously learned that a policy of enthusiastic inclusivity and openness is essential to an open-source project’s success, but I hadn’t realized that such a policy would consequently necessitate the creation of a robust code of conduct for the project’s contributors.
In the Software Design & Architecture course I took last semester, I learned about semantic versioning in software and how it’s used to keep track of a software’s present state even after many alterations to the source code. In order for Gitlab to correctly increment a commit’s semantic versioning number, contributors to Thea’s Pantry are expected to attach commit messages to their work that adhere to the Conventional Commits standard. The Conventional Commits standard requires developers to include a type of change such as “fix” or “feat” at the beginning of their commit message. “Fix” commits signal a patch, and will increment the rightmost semantic versioning number, while “Feat” commits signal a feature update that would be reflected by an increase in a middle semantic versioning number. If a breaking change will be introduced, that would be notated by either a “BREAKING CHANGE:” footer, or a “!” appended to the commit type.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Michael's Programming Blog by mikesprogrammingblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
Hello everyone, we are back and doing it again this semester. Tech Worth Talking About returns with posts about two courses, CS443 – Software Quality Assurance and Testing as well as CS448 – Software Development Capstone.
CS443 will focus more on strategies and tools for automating code testing as well as how testing incorporates into the overall development process. This goes far beyond simply debugging.
Welcome, and stay tuned!
From the blog CS@Worcester – Tech. Worth Talking About by jelbirt and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
I will now be writing to this blog for my CS-443 course, which will be categorized and tagged for each post for that course. Not too excited to write 8 posts for this, but it is what it is.
From the blog CS@Worcester – V's CompSCi Blog by V and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
This blog is just a setup for CS@Worcester, CS-443
From the blog CS@Worcester – Kadriu's Blog by Arber Kadriu and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
The Libre Food Pantry project and Thea’s Food Pantry at Worcester State University both represent impactful initiatives addressing food insecurity, each in their unique way.
1. The Libre Food Pantry Initiative: This initiative brilliantly merges technology and social welfare. By focusing on developing free and open-source software specifically for local food pantries, the Libre Food Pantry is a stellar example of how technology can be leveraged for social good. This initiative stands out for its innovative approach, where software development directly contributes to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of food pantries. Additionally, the project’s commitment to inclusivity, diversity, and a healthy community ethos, as reflected in its values and code of conduct, marks it as a progressive endeavor in both the tech and social service sectors.
2. Thea’s Food Pantry at Worcester State University: Named in honor of alumna and Holocaust survivor Thea Aschkenase, this campus-based service is a testament to community solidarity and support. It addresses the critical issue of student food insecurity, offering food and essentials to students, staff, and faculty in need. Operating from the Student Center, Thea’s Food Pantry provides confidential assistance, ensuring that members of the university community can focus on their academic and professional pursuits without the burden of food scarcity. The pantry’s operation, supported by student volunteers from various clubs and departments, including the SNAP practicum and the Urban Studies Club, is a wonderful example of campus community engagement and support.
Both initiatives, through their respective approaches, demonstrate the power of community-driven efforts in addressing fundamental human needs. The Libre Food Pantry’s focus on technology as a tool for social good, and Thea’s Food Pantry’s direct support to the university community, each highlight the importance of tailored solutions to societal challenges.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Kadriu's Blog by Arber Kadriu and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
While I do not have a great understanding of Software Architecture as much as I do with programming the Backend of that same software, I still take into appreciation the looks of its design. When I took sight of “The top 5 software architecture patterns: How to make the right choice” written by Freelance writer Peter Wayner, one of the things that was eye-catching was how the Software Architecture Patterns were described throughout this blog. While the Microservices Architecture was one of the only architectures that I had familiarized myself with while reading through the different architectures, I had been more interested in the endless vacuum of strengths that the Space-based architecture had when seeing the benefits that it poses. The article had given a very understanding of all the Software Architectures by showing their strengths and their weaknesses, making it easier to see where their limits are foreseen.
I chose this article since I searched far and wide for a topic that I least understood, but still would be inspired to follow through reading about it for fulfillment. The article does a really great job at grabbing the reader, as the most complex part about trying to understand a Software Architecture is when you are trying not to break your own code with a Software Architecture that poses a great risk in causing your program to crash unexpectedly. For the simplicity of the reader, Wayner had given either a telling example or a visualization that would help the reader have a simple explanation of what the structure is designed to do for your program as its structure.
The biggest takeaway I had after reading this article was that I was still able to learn that each architecture shapes your program in a way to help better understand what to do with your program next. However, Software Architecture is still only the beginning of what you need to do to fully design your software. A software may still need changes that an architecture alone cannot fix, but what an architecture should do is help you see the full picture of your own work that you have done. A Software Architecture is only a frame in the end, but the program you create would be best suited for an environment that is needed to put it on full display.
https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/top-5-software-architecture-patterns-how-make-right-choice
From the blog CS@Worcester – Elias' Blog by Elias Boone and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
When I was first introduced to the concept of an API, a shortened abbreviation of Application Programming Interface, I never thought of it being used far outside the scope of Computer Science. However, as I revisited some software that I used in the past and observed the current software I worked with recently, I was more than surprised by the fact that an API is universally used across the Internet. For this blog, I explored a blog called “10 Most Popular Frameworks For Building RESTful APIs” written by Developer Advocate at Moesif, Preet Kaur. In this blog, the author explained that when deciding on the API framework to use, you needed to choose one that uses a programming language that you are familiar with, but you can also use in spite of its shortcomings. Further down the blog, she gave some examples of popular API frameworks that are used by many developers; one of those frameworks that was mentioned was Express JS, a framework I am familiar with.
One of the biggest contributing factors that brought me to use this article for this blog is not only the different frameworks that Kaur had given examples of, but also where you can find and learn about them. Reading this blog got me hooked on the many different types of API frameworks that I could look at to familiarize myself with each that may give me a better understanding of the specifics of REST API for my drive toward a career in Software Engineering. Even if the frameworks in question were written in programming languages that I am not as efficient in programming in, I still believe that this blog has helped me in understanding the overall meaning of building an API for use in creating applications and beyond.
My biggest takeaway from this blog is that the API framework you use to build an application, software or other kind of design is not only dependent on your skill at programming or engineering, but also what your goal is with using the framework you choose for your creation. While this blog was more general than the previous ones I read through, I still stand with a vision that the API framework that I use will only be as helpful as the skills I use to develop and engineer my path to a greater goal in creating the perfect software.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Elias' Blog by Elias Boone and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.