December 16th, 2025 Wk07/08: Learning Journal Summary

December 16th, 2025

CST338

Wk07/08: Learning Journal Summary

Look back at the HW1 assignment and think about how you would approach it now.  Think about all the things we have covered and how far you have progressed.

#1. Looking back, I would probably separate a lot of the program into different classes using DAO, XML, etc. It was a lot of fun learning about data layers and testing. The Hangman project has a potential to be cut up and chewed into a cool app, I guess that's why it is a popular game to build. It would be cool to add buttons or graphics, some flip clicks for guessing the letters, etc. Maybe even use FABs, those are now my favorite (once I get them working hahaha). 

Highlight at least two victories. 

#2. My main victory was creating the floating buttons in the android project. It took a lot of time and research to figure it out and I am happy about it. One other victory was writing the flashcard part of the project. I didn't know it would be so much work, luckily I had a great teammate and she helped a lot with getting everything on my part working. My third victory was balancing being a dad while staying up until 12am most nights trying to get things working. 

It is very important to celebrate things that go right.  It is VERY easy, and common, to focus on the negatives.  I want you to focus on the positive aspects and really reflect and be proud of the work you have done.  Mention 2-3 areas where your skills have improved, things like 'I really understand access modifiers', or 'I am comfortable extending classes', anything where you feel better now than you did at the start of the semester.

#3. I really understand the unit tests now. I never knew they existed, even after three Java courses before CSUMB. I understand XML layouts and how it really does matter what order things go in when programming anything. I'm now more comfortable merging teammate code into my own. In the beginning I had no idea the projects would get so intense, and these are relatively small compared to industry standards. I think my biggest skill improvement has been fortitude. When things got worse and France Zhang abandoned us, I stayed strong and accepted that I would need to invest more time in the project. I stayed true to solving one problem at a time and kept learning. Combining multiple moving pieces, navigating all that broken logic, debugging, merging conflicting code from teammates, figuring out system behavior, and understanding how android works. I kept grinding when it got frustrating, I kept pushing when teammates disappeared, I kept rewriting broken files, and I kept facing the broken crashes and was determined to debug them.