Week 2 Reflections

Reflections on Week 2

This week was actually pretty good for me. I think that our team works well together and that it is going to be a productive semester. This week I was able to get my accounts set up with OpenMRS and trello and learned a bit about Scrum and finally started to put it to use. I like it because I am finally putting everything that I have been learning so far to use or will be. Aside from getting the basics set up we are going to be using Angular this semester and I have never used it before. I am familiar to some extent with Javascript but I feel that I have so much more to learn with Angular even though it is based on JS.

I went through the Angular Tour of Heroes tutorial here and I have to say that though I enjoyed it, I am still a bit foggy and will be going back through it and doing another tutorial I have found. I am fairly comfortable with a lot of it, but when it came to routing and navigation I felt a little lost so I am going through some more on that area. I really like how the framework actually works though and think that it is going to be a great experience this semester and hope to be proficient with it as I hope to get into Web Development of some sort and I know that this is used a lot. It doesn’t really take a lot to get an app off the ground running, but digging deeper is going to be fun. I really like how it is easy to split your app off into multiple modules or components as your project gets bigger. I am confident that it will all come together though and I will be proficient before I know it.

I am looking forward to what this week brings and what new challenges are ahead of me. I am taking everything as it comes in and trying not to put too much on my plate and so far I have been able to do that. 

The Clean Coder Chapters 3 and 4

The Clean Coder Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3:

I had favorable things to say about the first two chapters because they kind of reminded me that no matter where you work or shall I say I have worked, a lot of it rings true but it is also to me just common sense. I mean saying no and saying yes? I feel like a bit too much is dedicated to this and it gets old real fast and I want to skip on but I pushed through chapter 3 and well once again I have to say it is really to me a lot of common sense things. I guess I shouldn’t say common sense, but for me I learned a lot of this by trial and error and promising things to people that I knew I couldn’t get done but just wanted to please so and so and felt that I would just deal with the blow back later. You can only do that sort of thing so many times (for me once or twice was enough) before you catch on and realize not to promise things that you can’t deliver and to commit to things that you’ll do when you say you will. I guess the book does a decent job at laying out situations and the outcomes so hopefully people won’t make the same mistakes that Bob made. I feel though that I have lived through all of the scenarios in some way or another so I guess I got a chuckle out of it. He says that the language of commitment can sound scary and it can help solve a lot of the communications problems facing coders. He is absolutely right but it definitely takes time to learn how to do it and be taken serious about it. You have to build trust and being straight about things is the best way to do it.

Chapter 4:

I feel that this chapter is also about experience and a bit of sense. This is all life stuff and applies to any form of work in my opinion. He talks about preparedness and how coding is intellectually challenging and how if you aren’t prepared for it your work will suffer. I find that this seems like my dad is preaching at me when I was 16. I mean of course your work is going to suffer when you can’t concentrate or when you are tired. The worst code written at 3am, I have been there and don’t do that anymore because I have learned the hard way and the good ole flow zone where you think you are actually doing an awesome job reminds of the people who say they do their best work high or drunk. Sorry it just doesn’t work like that as like he said, yes you may get a lot done, but what did you miss? I am sorry but I guess I am kind of disappointed with the first few chapters. I was good with the first two at first but the next two to me seem to be more of the same lessons just in a different context and I can’t write anymore about them. It does however seem like the rest of the book will be decent to me. I thought his other book ( Clean Code) was good so I figured that this would be more of the same and I hope the rest is.

The Clean Coder Chapters 1 & 2 and Week 1

The Clean Coder, Chapters 1 & 2

After reading the first 2 chapters I felt like I had read my own experiences over the past twenty something years. I wasn’t a programmer or in anything to do with computers, but the more I read and learn about this field the more I find that even though I was doing something different, a lot of the same issues happen no matter where you are.

In the first chapter on professionalism he talks about how it is easier to be a nonprofessional because they don’t have to take responsibility for the job they do. That got me to thinking about the term. No matter what job or jobs I have had I always tried to do them as a professional. I think the term work ethic could be used to describe professionalism as well. You get out what you put in. I felt like I had been in similar situations as I read the chapter. He seemed to go through something everyone must go through at some point in life. I enjoyed how he learned from his errors and passed wisdom on. The lessons learned from releasing the product without properly testing and it went south. This was all to save face and look good because it went out on time, but then the backfire. Though you think you are saving time, in the end you lose time and man hours when if it had of been done right the first time a lot could be prevented.

I like his take on the do no harm function as well. We can’t be perfect, but we must be responsible for our imperfections and should always be trying to get our error rate approaching zero and expect QA to find nothing wrong. If that is the thought process you should genuinely be surprised when they do find a flaw. I have been in the situation where I half assed something to get it done on time and was not surprised in the least when it failed. Wasted time and hours when I should have just done it right the first time.

I really felt like his work ethic and knowing your field hit the nail on the head as well. They gave me something to try and think about. I like the time breakdown. It humbled me actually when he was talking about the first 40 are for the employer and 20 aside for me. I had never thought of it that way and it humbled me. He set up some very realistic ideas on how to utilize time. As far as knowing the field, I feel like I have a lot to do. I know I am just getting started, but I didn’t realize just how much there is to just know for the basics. I picked up a copy of the gang of four design patterns books to increase my learning on that end and plan on just plucking away each day to increase my chops.

Overall I gained a great deal from chapter one and plan on reading it again. I wish I had come across this sooner.

Chapter 2 and saying no brought back many memories as well. I think a lot of people in general have issues with saying no and want to just get along and cause no waves. I am one of those, well was. I do not like to say no because it is uncomfortable for sure, but that was because of the way that I said no. I usually offended someone because I didn’t think before I spoke. I have changed. He makes some great points on how to and not to approach situations. His role playing scenarios were ones I have been a part of myself to some degree. I was one of those people that used to say I’ll try and had never thought boss would think of that as a yes I can get it done on time. It makes sense though because I’ll try is like beating around the bush.  Overall there were a lot of good points that can be used no matter where or what job you are doing. I am sure that once I get into the field that I will be practicing my version of saying no and this book will come to mind.

Week 1 learning

I am still trying to process everything that I have gone over this week and am still in the process of going over it. The first couple weeks of the semester are the hardest for me. I try to make a schedule of my time so I can manage everything. I am excited for this one though as it is my last undergrad semester and a long time coming. I have been going through some Angular 2 tutorials to get a grasp on how it works, and using the node package manager and other tools. I think it is going to be a lot of fun to learn and use and I hope to become proficient with it.

The Open MRS project is overwhelming to me so far, but that is I guess because I am just getting into what it is all about. I tried the demo and like the functionality and can’t wait to get my hands dirty. I think it is great that so many folks are collaborating on this records system that can help so many people around the globe. I am eager to get started in this journey and hope that whatever we do this semester has an impact in the years to come. I know I am going to have a lot of challenges, but I welcome them with open arms.

New post for Software Dev Capstone

This is my up and running post for this semesters software development capstone class. I look forward to a great semester and some good blogs and a lot of learning and put everything we learned together.