CS371p Fall 2020: Barrett Schonefeld

What did you do this past week?

This past week, I prepared for the exams by doing the in-class exercises. I felt confident going into the exam because I’ve developed some good C++ experience through other courses with Professor Downing and Professor Gheith. The preparation was a worthwhile endeavor, and I feel I did well on the exams.

What’s in your way?

Nothing is in the way! The Allocator project went smoothly, and I have a teammate lined up for the next project. We will likely get started on the project as soon as it is released.

What will you do next week?

Next week, I will reach out to my teammate to get some regular meetings scheduled. We will get started on the next project by reading the project specification, setting up the GitLab repository, opening issues, writing tests to outline expected behavior, and beginning the implementation of the core algorithm.

If you read it, what did you think of The Liskov Substitution Principle?

The thing I found most interesting in The Liskov Substitution Principle was the example (or counterexample) of the Square class inheriting from the Rectangle class. Mathematically, it seems a Square should inherit from a Rectangle because a Square satisfies the “is a” relationship with a Rectangle. However, the paper poses an important point that behavior should be the primary consideration when determining if a class should inherit from some parent. If a class shares behavior with some parent class and may extend or override the behavior, the class should inherit from the parent. Just as important is that a class should not inherit from some parent class simply because the class has some conceptual, definitional, or mathematical relationship with the parent because the behavior of the parent class may conflict with the behavior of the parent class even if they are conceptually related.

What was your experience of Test #1?

I found the back-to-back night exams to be intrusive, but I thought the questions were reasonable and highlighted core concepts we’ve covered in the course. I feel I did well on the exam, and I look forward to the next projects and lectures.

What made you happy this week?

I had exams in all my courses (except one course which has no exams) this week. I’m happy with how I did on each of the exams, and I’m also happy I made it to the other side of the exam gauntlet. Now I get to look forward to courses returning to normalcy and focusing in on project-based assignments.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My pick-of-the-week is this article from someone who went above and beyond on a coding challenge. What I find most interesting about the article is that they apply some intense problem-solving skills to a simple problem. Also, they claim to have minimal experience as programmers, so we see how well someone can do with some problem-solving skills and some enthusiasm!