CS371p Spring 2021: Keegan Franklin

What did you do this past week?

This past week was a pretty relaxing week for me. I didn’t have a lot of immediate deadlines, so I got to spend the week getting ahead on some other projects and work that are due next week. I also went on a hike since the weather has been so nice.

What’s in your way?

The only thing I can think of is that designing Darwin has been a bit challenging. It’s not so much that I can’t pass tests, it just feels like no matter how I design it, there is something I don’t like about that design choice. There seems to be a lot of edge cases and what-ifs too, but I’m probably looking too much into it, I just need to finish it up and move on.

What will you do next week?

Next week, I will begin the week by receiving the first dose of the COVID vaccine! If that doesn’t hit too hard, I will make progress on my networks project as well as wrap up the last bit of Darwin. I’m also planning on preparing for a couple of quizzes I have the following week.

If you read it, what did you think of the Why getter and setter methods are evil?

I was honestly surprised that getters and setters are discouraged at all, I thought it was good OOD practice this whole time. The arguments against it do make sense though. Not using getters and setters will be a hard habit to break; even in Darwin, I am finding it hard to stop myself from adding a getter to make implementation easier. The article gave some great tips for reducing that urge, and how to start thinking in an object-oriented way, so overall, it was definitely a good read.

What was your experience of vector, move constructor, move assignment, and allocator?

All the different vector constructors are starting to get confusing honestly, and though the in-class exercises help clarify things, I am more than ready to move on to a new topic.

What made you happy this week?

My parents came to visit this weekend, which doesn’t happen very often since they live a fair distance away. We explored some parts of Austin they haven’t really seen and had a great time.

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

Don’t be afraid to completely throw away code after you’ve worked yourself into a dead end. It can be much easier to start over, and will often result in a more elegant solution than continuously duct-taping your current implementation.