CS373 Fall 2019, Week 5: Nathan Hoang
2 min readSep 30, 2019
- What did you do this past week?
This week I attended my classes and interviewed as I have the past several weeks. I also had my first training session with RDC, a dance team at UT which I just joined last week. Since I’ve been sick and had trouble sleeping for the past couple of weeks, I went to see a doctor at the University Health Center. The good news is that my breathing and sleeping issues are just caused by allergies, but I did get prescribed steroids to help alleviate my lungs.
I spent some time working on projects and homework for other classes as well. Outside of school, I’ve been trying to stay active so I went to the gym and played an intramural soccer game. - What’s in your way?
Three of my classes have projects and homework due this week so I’ll be extremely busy finishing them up. I haven’t been able to keep up with Project 2 for software engineering as much as I should have, so I’ll definitely need to put in some extra time so I can contribute equally with my group.
I also just finished all the steroids given to me so I’ll have to hope that my allergies don’t come back as bad as before. - What will you do next week?
Alongside my school projects and homework, I have to finish up interviewing with a handful of companies. I’m also required to choreograph a short piece for RDC and perform a showcase on Tuesday. Given time, I’d like to go to the gym and play my intramural games next weekend. - What was your experience in learning about for in, iterators, and reduce()? (this question will vary, week to week)
I knew a bit about Python iterators because of the book I read over the summer, Fluent Python. I also had to implement a Python iterator for a class the previous week during an interview, so I feel pretty comfortable with them. I haven’t had much previous experience with reduce, so I feel like I understand it a bit better. It’s interesting to see how much faster Python’s implementation is compared to writing the code yourself, even though they logically perform the same actions.
Overall, I liked the hands-on experience of writing the methods on Hackerrank. - What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My tip-of-the-week is to use IDE extensions. I personally use VSCode, and some extensions like IntelliSense can really help to trace method and macro definitions. Other cosmetic extensions can enhance the look and feel of your IDE. Properly setting up an IDE is key for developer quality of life.
