CS371p Spring 2021: Final Blog

• How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?

I feel like the course did a good job of conveying those takeaways between the lectures, papers, and exercises. The projects also did a good job of enforcing some of the concepts.

• Were there any other particular takeaways for you?

One key takeaway would be the benefit of taking the time to design your program first. It saves time in the end because a well-thought-out plan means that you don’t have to waste time overhauling it after already coding half of it.

• How did you feel about cold calling?

I appreciated it because it helped keep me engaged. Professor Downing also was nice about explaining and not making you feel bad about not knowing the answer to a question.

• How did you feel about office hours?

The TAs were very helpful.

• How did you feel about lab sessions?

The TAs in the lab sessions were very helpful. They answered lots of questions.

• What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?

I learned more about checktestdata, and also more about how makefiles work.

• You should have read five papers that describe SOLID design: Single responsibility, Open-closed principle, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation, Dependency inversion. What insights have they given you?

These papers have given me greater insight into how to design a good object-oriented solution. A big emphasis on all of them is the importance of designing for future use and thinking about the reusability/flexibility of a solution.

• You should have read two papers that advised minimizing getters and setters. What insights have they given you?

Previous classes taught me that I should always write getters and setters for all pieces of data in my classes. Now I can appreciate the importance of creating more modular code by minimizing getters and setters. It prevents interdependencies that make code more rigid.

• Give me your suggestions for improving the course.

I felt like some of the exercises only needed 10–15 minutes while other exercises needed 30 minutes. Maybe varying the time length would be good?