What software engineering is.
12 Dec 2019
Have you ever used a command prompt before? It’s an app on windows. It can be used to manage files and run commands on your computer. The first time I saw command prompt I was intimidated by it because all you see is a little bit of text and the rest is mostly just a blank black screen. You need to type in a command to do things in command prompt. For example, if you type dir and pressing enter, the app will show you all of the files that are in that directory. Command prompt may be intimidating to some users but once you learn how to use it and familiarize yourself with it, then one day there may come a day when you enjoy using a command prompt. This is what happened to me. I took a class called ICS 314 at UH Manoa. I will share with you my experience in the class. Some of the topics I learned were functional programming, coding standards, and testing. I will show you how you can improve your coding skills, and how to do it with a team.
Functional programming
What is functional programming? Functional programming in simple terms is using functions within a function. A function is a mathematical operation done on some variables inside your code. Functions can be made for numbers or letters. I really enjoyed functional programming. At first, functional programming was kind of confusing but once I understood what was going on, functional programming was very enjoyable. I enjoyed it because you can have a working program with small amounts of code. I was amazed at how many things you can do with a couple of lines of code. I started programming with a language called C. With C your code had to be longer to get some functionality out of it. Compared to C functional programming in javascript was amazing.
Coding standards
In my ICS 314 class, I learned about coding standards. At first, I did not know what that was. Coding standards are specific ways your code must look. It is used in order to standardize the code. To give an analogy, if a group of people was writing a book, they should decide on some standards for their work. This is because if many people write a book, they could have different writing styles. If that team kept writing individually and assembled their writing into one book, the book will likely have different writing styles and qualities depending on where you read in the book. To avoid such a thing, things will be better if they agree on the style and quality of the writing. This is very similar to how coding standards work. Some people may like the comments in the code after the code, others may want the comment of the code before the code. There are many ways and styles to code the same thing, thus it is nice to have a coding standard. When you have a coding standard, your team mate’s code will be easier to read. This is because your code will look similar to their code. If your teammate gets stuck on a task it will be much easier to help them if their code confined to the coding standard. These are the reasons why coding standards are important and why they should be implemented for your team’s coding project.
Testing
The final thing I will share with you is the testing phase of software development. In the testing phase, you can start by testing the site on your own. You check if the functionality you desire is there. You also check how the website looks. This should be the same as you intended to be. Some things may not work or look the way you want, but it is ok. All you need to do it test, revise, and repeat. You will eventually get to a point where you are satisfied with your work. Then comes the second part of testing. This is the peer review phase. You go to someone and have them test your code. Ask them for some feedback and they will provide you with some helpful insights that you may have not noticed. Then you can go back to your code to address those issues. You can continue to get feedback from peers until you feel ready to deploy your app to the world.
The three things we talked about today were functional programming, coding standards, and testing. With functional programming, it was possible to implement useful code quickly and concisely. Coding standards make the workflow smooth when working with a team. Testing was the repetitive procedure of improving and refining. With all three of this incorporated into your coding project, you can increase your code quality with less hassle and less time.