Ethan's Computer Science Journey

  What is the most interesting thing you have learned in your reading of "Software Engineering at Google"?     The most interesting thing I learned from Software Engineering at Google is how important code reviews are beyond just finding bugs. I didn't realize that code reviews also aim to improve code readability, encourage knowledge sharing, and create a historical record of why changes were made. Something else I found interesting is that Google aims to keep code reviews small, around 200 lines when possible. This is to make it easier to review and speed up development. I sort of just assumed that code reviews would be exponentially larger because these are seasoned, experienced programmers, and I thought that Google would have such drastic changes at a time. It showed me that code reviews are as much about collaboration and maintainability as they are about catching mistakes.

Describe what are the good points about using Git for source code management.  What are possible problems that Git merge does not solve when merging code from different developers?      Git is useful for code management because it allows multiple developers to work on the same project without overwriting each other's changes. Developers can create separate branches, track every change made to the code, and easily revert to previous versions if something goes wrong. Git also makes collaboration easier through pull requests and code reviews, helping maintain quality code before changes are merged into the main branch.     Git merge, however, cannot solve every problem. While it can automatically combine changes that don't conflict, it cannot detect logical or design conflicts. For example, two developers may make changes that compile successfully but can cause bugs or break the application's functionality when combined. These issues still require communicatio...

  Summarize what you learned about React this week.  In your opinion, what the strengths and weaknesses of React.        It has been a while since I've used React, so it was a lot of refreshers on the basics. I learned that React builds websites using reusable components. I also learned about useState for uploading data, React Router for switching pages, and how React can connect to a backend using requests like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.     In my opinion, React's strengths are that it keeps code organized and makes interactive pages easier to build. It is helpful because each feature can be separated into its own component. The weakness to me is that React can feel confusing at first because hooks, props, routes, and state are all new concepts to learn; it can be quite overwhelming. Overall, however, React seems very useful, but it certainly takes practice to get comfortable using it.

  What did you expect a course in Software Engineering would cover?        Honestly, I never really gave it much thought. Even before starting my Computer Science journey, I always heard the position of "Software Engineer" mentioned so much. It seemed like a dream job back then, and it still is one today. When I hear Software Engineer, I think of someone in a company who is a programmer. Working together with other programmers to create something. So before week 1, I expected to just learn more about programming, whether that be new concepts, frameworks, and/or developer tools.       After completing week 1, I realized it is much more about learning to write code. Software engineering is programming integrated over time, meaning you will learn how to build software that can be maintained, adapted, and scaled over many years. I expect to learn topics such as maintaining software over time, working on teams, scalability, managing tradeoffs, and test...

     Overall, my experience working on LibreOffice easy hacks went really well. I was able to contribute to a real open source project, which felt meaningful because my work will actually be used by others. One thing that went well was learning how to navigate such a large codebase and follow contribution guidelines. Over time, I got more comfortable looking at the code and understanding how the codebase is connected.     If I could improve anything, I would try to start earlier and ask more questions sooner. At times, I spent too long trying to solve things on my own when I could have saved time by reaching out to my instructor or peers for help. The most impactful part of this experience was seeing my contributions reviewed and accepted, making the work feel real, and showing me how collaboration works in a professional environment.           One challenge I faced was with my environment setup. I got it working for the most part, ...

This week, we discussed new sorting, counting, and radix sorting. Then we went over Dynamic Programming, which is a concept I've heard a lot throughout my CS career, but I've never really known what it meant until now. I'm glad ot be able to use and apply it because of this course. The Warshall and Floyd Algorithms were interesting to learn about. I shared a great visualization of the Algorithm in the class Discord for my group discussion participation. I'm always excited when I'm able to solve the puzzles because these puzzles are difficult and really get my mind going. The one I did solve was the Tall-Short puzzle, which is one of the easier ones, but I'm still happy with it. The quiz and homework were long and hard to do, but I'm glad I was able to wrap them up to prepare for the final.