Week 3

This week in class we have been learning more about assertions, exceptions and even the "try and catch" block (as Java calls it), which in Python goes by the name of the "try and except" block. I learned that the "try and except" block may also have a "finally" or an "else" clause, which seemed very interesting to me. After the first couple of weeks in the class I can say I am enjoying very much prof. Downing's teaching style. It had been quite some time since I took a class where they called on students, but now I remember how effective it is at making us be very attentive during the class. I feel everything we talk about in class soaks in much more smoothly than in other classes.

The first project, Collatz, was due this past Thursday. Looking back, it was a little more challenging than I had thought. Especially since my computer kept complaining about the makefile and wouldn't run it, which prevented me from creating the Collatz.html and Collatz.log files. Another problem I had was that the oracle that was supposed to test our solutions showed that I was not passing its tests, when a couple of days before it showed I -was- passing them (I definitely panicked for a while). I am assuming it had something to do with the fact that I have been working both on my computer and on the GDC building's computers so with different environments a lot must change. I can definitely say I feel much more comfortable with git, Github, and the command line after this assignment. To the point that I'm now using Github repositories for some of my other programming classes to keep an updated copy of my projects in the cloud. However, in terms of the coding assignment itself, I am sure that the projects will get more and more challenging as the weeks come. I think it's very safe to say this project's main purpose was to get us familiarized with a style of work and turn-in requirements rather than to test out coding skills.