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Week one @ Enspiral Dev Academy [The Boot Camp Edition]

Looking back over the last week is a little scary, we did so many things and i learned a many new things. It makes me a little dizzy trying to remember everything! The reality is I know i can't and that is why reflecting upon it is so important. The other very apparent theme of the last week has been how energized I feel, sometimes its tiring when you are in the trenches of a new coding problem, but then you peak up and out see the other students constructive energy crackling in the air. I feel it keenly, a hunger for knowing, understanding and driving towards a solution.

Another very obvious quality of the learning environment is how collaborative it is, there is no holding back of knowledge or input, if you can aid some one in their understanding you do so and you expect and rely on that same support from others. This is in stark contrast of the learning environments i have been through at university and before that my schooling. Yesterday i was speaking with another student listening to how he was tackling a problem and and giving my opinion on different parts, by comparison back in 6th form (age 17) I have a clear memory of choosing not to help a student next to me in math as it would mean they would get a lesser grade and i would be more likely to get a good grade (schools were allocated a certain number of each grade level to hand out). I have regretted that moment ever since and have tried to never repeat it. Here at EDA i dont even have to think about it, I can help and be helped as much as I can/need.

At EDA i feel very balanced, there is a very conscious emphasis placed on creating a balanced environment, the students and coaches are all encouraged (and do) to eat well, exercise, understand ourselves, understand others, create the space we need to learn, ask questions, sleep and feel good. I can report - it works! For the last few years i have been learning working with designing and coding websites. I quickly realised there was a glass ceiling for what i could learn. I spent hours trying to understand a given concept where as here at EDA it is situation that simply cannot occur, firstly you may discuss it with fellow students and if that does not resolve it you may ask your coach. This dual layer support for answering questions allows me to maintain a far higher rate of learnings per hour then previously possible.

This week also introduced Engineering Empathy, a new approach to investigating ourselves and how we perceive and react to others. In one of the classes Joshua Vial (one of our coaches) roughly said "One of things we are trying to do is reconcile our conscious beliefs with our unconscious behaviors", which may be applied our singular self or to a group we belong to. eg. Our family. For me this summarizes the EE studies of this week which has been focused on diversity, however I think it can be applied in a broader context.

The final challenge of the week was to write a Sudoku solver, this was fantastic! I got to take all I had learned in the week and apply it in to make a algorithm solver. My pair buddy Linden and I worked through the challenge making mistakes and melding our ideas to produce something that worked! Well at least for Sudoku that didn't require guessing. It was so rewarding to see that our logic worked, though midway through we already knew we were on the right track and it was just a matter of diligently debugging. A skill I plan to spend time honing.

Its now Monday of week two and we are just kicking off the day. I am feeling good and looking forward to learning, growing and making friends.

#EDA #dbc #EnspiralDevAcademy #enspiral #C #wellington #engineering empathy #learning

Javascript = easy street

Wow, i am now a third of the way through the codeacademy introduction to javascript and cant believe how much sense it all makes after studying c#. Now i know i have yet to do anything complex, but off the bat i would say there are less things you need to under4stand for the language to make sense. In C# you are working with classes all the time, where as with JavaScript it seems that you can work with classes or just declare stuff and it is smart enough to work out what you want.

I find this both relieving and alarming as being able to declare logic so easily is great, its faster and as there are less elements and syntax its less error prone. However my concern would be that when something does go wrong i need to be able to understand exactly where and why it is going wrong. In C# and .net you are making every little detail of your program and not relying on things to be smart and work things out for you. You method libraries but it is very rigid in how you use them.

A good example of what i am talking about is variables, and i may be wrong and just have not learned enough about variables in JavaScript. Basically in C# you have to declare what kind of variable something is, in JavaScript its simply one kind. This means that anything may be passed into it where as in C# you get a certain amount of robustness from having rigid data entry points that stop bad data being parsed. I am sure this can be done in JS - in fact i would imagine its quite simple, something like;

var text = string;

Where as in C# it would be

String text;

Minor difference - and i am probably wrong!

Looking ahead I have another 5 hours of javascript to go to finish the tutorial. Its a little repetitive after learning C# - in fact i think it would have made learning C# easier. I better tell Rohan!

#js #update

Poor little blog needs some postal care

The weeks go by and workflows change, this blog was part of my learning process and for most of it so far it has been learning C#. I actually dont think anyone is reading it nor is it particularly insightful.

However this week marks a real uptake of learning JS and SQL. I recently finished the introduction material for SQL and started the codeacademy JS introduction course which i will be writing more on.

Looking ahead there will be fewer technical posts on the blog and more observations. This is because i have started documenting things in summary cheat sheets/reference sheets.

Lastly next week is the beginning of Enspiral Dev Bootcamp proper and that will see this blog shift again to longer more informative posts.

So bare with - the blog is evolving! And maybe someday there will be readers :)

#milestone #update

Wrestling with Class

Taken from the MSDN ref site:

Classes and structs are two of the basic constructs of the common type system in the .NET Framework. Each is essentially a data structure that encapsulates a set of data and behaviors that belong together as a logical unit. The data and behaviors are the members of the class or struct, and they include its methods, properties, and events, and so on, as listed later in this topic.

A class or struct declaration is like a blueprint that is used to create instances or objects at run time.

A class is a reference type. When an object of the class is created, the variable to which the object is assigned holds only a reference to that memory. When the object reference is assigned to a new variable, the new variable refers to the original object. Changes made through one variable are reflected in the other variable because they both refer to the same data.

A struct is a value type. When a struct is created, the variable to which the struct is assigned holds the struct's actual data. When the struct is assigned to a new variable, it is copied. The new variable and the original variable therefore contain two separate copies of the same data. Changes made to one copy do not affect the other copy.

In general, classes are used to model more complex behavior, or data that is intended to be modified after a class object is created. Structs are best suited for small data structures that contain primarily data that is not intended to be modified after the struct is created.

#C #classes #structs

five.Week(ItsSeriousNow) = "Cranking Les Miserable"

Three tasks of week five done, the latest struggle - getting classes to work how they should. Time to go and read through some tutorials.

Observations of the moment: C# is a fickler for convention, I was writing in sublime before using a C# syntax but it was frustrating having to error check by copy pasting into Visual Studio or Mono.

But for now i have the hair raising power songs of Les Miserable running through my Audio-Technica headphones. throw coffee and the mix and i feel like a super soldier ready to take on the toughest coding challenge.

#C #Milestone #audio-technica

Week four done! Celebrate with a dose of week seven...

I'm done with you week four - and boy i learned a lot!

not to sound despondent but i am still two weeks behind. Hopefully my grasp of C# will see me work through week 5 and 6 at a snappier pace

#C #Milestone

5 days... Less done then intended.

The last five days have not been as fruitfull as i had planned. I wanted to have finished th week four work and be halfway through week five.

Unfortunately this didnt happen.I still got a lot done and did my second pairing session with Karen from our group. This went really well, it was fantastic to chat with soemone about code and compare ideas.

I am starting to see why it is a good strategy as it means there are two of you completely on task and aware of the current work. It means when one gets stuck the other jumps in and start solving it ratehr then calling a coplleage over and explaining waht you are teying to do, hope they get it and then see thier response.

Work wise i am notw on the last code task of week 4, then its two blogs and week 5 here i come.

#C #Update

The knew motto

#Plan

Follow the sunset west... and write pseudocode!

It is starting to become clear that expressing oneself in pseudocode cuts through a lot of the struggles i am having. Until now i have just formed a mental model of what i need to do and then looked to code it. However when i get stuck and look at the answer to see what i am doing wrong I see the solution and it compromises my learning. If i pseudocode a complete solution first this wont be as much of a problem.

Oh and i have finished the Dev Academy Repl labs on C# Yay!!!

I am also now free of work and can therefore put more time into Phase_0, so I am finally working through the week four stuff proper. I have developed a workflow around KanBan for overall task management and pomodoro 10/25/50 min blocks to organise my day including breaks, a bit of javascript code combat and typing practice.

#Update #Milestone #Plan

Using the foreach operator on an array. Aye!

I was working on the next exorcise that asked me to build a method that would aggregate the grades in an ArrayList, average them and then prescribe a letter grade to it.

Well i knew what i wanted to do but was struggling with how to get the info out of the ArrayList. In an Array all the contents would be integers or strings. So we could use something like the array.aggregate method to sum all the contents - if the array was an numeric array eg int.

But it doesn't work on an ArrayList, instead we must use the foreach statement to apply a statement against each element of the ArrayList.

So we can do this:

public String GetGrade(ArrayList marks) { int sum = 0; foreach (int mark in marks) sum = sum + mark;

And then we can average it using this:

float average = (float) sum / (float) marks.Count;

Once we have the average grade we can use an If branch statement to derive what letter grade it will be:

String grade; if (average >= 90) grade = "A"; else if (average >= 80) grade = "B"; else if (average >= 70) grade = "C"; else if (average >= 60) grade = "D"; else grade = "F"; return grade; }

#C #ArrayList

Hashtable Operations

Every Hashtable supports the same set of methods, regardless of its keys and values.

Like ArrayList it can be thought of as sending questions or commands to the Hashtable.

Some common methods

hashtable.Keys returns a list of the keys used in a hashtable as an ICollection. eg:

String[] animal_array = {"cats", "dogs", "ponies"}; String[] plant_array = {"tulips", "peonies", "ponga"}; var organisms = new Hashtable() { {"animals", animal_array}, {"plants", plant_array} }; var keys = organisms.Keys; // => "animals" and "plants"

hashtable.Values returns the list of values in the hash as an ICollection

var keys = organisms.Values; // => animal_array and plant_array

hashtable.ContainsKey() returns true if the hashtable contains the specified key.

Console.WriteLine(organisms.ContainsKey("animals")); // yep, it's there

hashtable.ContainsValue()returns true if the hashtable contains the specified value.

Console.WriteLine(organisms.ContainsValue("plant_array")); // yep

...And the funs just beginning find more operations and methods at official Hashtable documentation.

#C #Hashtables

Hashtable Generics

A Hashtable is not generic, which means if you want to constrain the type of elements that go into the collection, you use the Dictionary<T> class instead.

It works the same way, as below:

var lettersToNumbers = new Dictionary<string, int> { {"a", 23}, {"b", 45}, {"c", 67}, {"d", 89} };

This creates a Dictionary in which the keys are all String and the values are all int.

#C #Hashtables

Hashtables Explained

Hashtables are another kind of collection, they differ from arrays by recording a key with each value. Whereas an array uses a sequential number system to identify the elements.

So a Hashtable entry has a {key, value}, each can be any type of operator: "String, int, bool...etc.

Writing a Hashtable:

var person = new Hashtable() { {"firstName", "Frank"}, {"lastName", "Hardy"}, {"age", 25} };

Creates a hashtable with the following contents

the "firstName" key has value "Frank" the "lastName" key has value "Hardy" the "age" key has value 25.

Reading from Hashtables:

You "key into" a hash using the same bracket [...] notation as an array.

The key (any object) goes between the brackets.

Console.WriteLine(person["firstName"]);

result: Frank

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keys can be anything! They can be a declared variable of an array or different hashtable.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changing a Hashtable:

We can write into a hashtable using the following format:

variable[key] = value;

eg: person["age"] = 100;

We can use the same method to write new keys and values into the hashtable.

#C #Hashtables

Array Correction!

The Next reading pointed out that:

Arrays only have as many elements as defined upon there creation and may only contain a single type of primitive element (int, bool, etc), elements may be changed but not removed or added.

In C# we are provided with a more robust Arrays. One of which is the ArrayList -is an ordered list able to contain as many elements as you like, they may be added or removed and can contain more then one element type.

The ArrayList object lives under the System.Collections namespace, which means you need to addusing System.Collections to the top of each file in which you intend to use an ArrayList. Otherwise, the compiler won't know what you mean.

using System; using System.Collections;

ArrayList methods may be thought of as asking the array questions or giving it commands.

Some operations of ArrayList in C# see documentation for more:

arraylist.Count returns the number of elements in an array. It returns 0` if the array is empty. As we start counting arrays from zero the index of the last element will always be Count - 1.

arraylist.Contains(Object) takes any object as its input and returns true if that object is in the ArrayList and false otherwise. Basically we can ask the Array "do you have..."

arraylist.Add(Object) appends the parameter you specify to the end of the ArrayList.

arraylist.Remove(Object) finds the parameter you specify in the ArrayList. If it finds it, it removes it. Otherwise, it doesn't do anything.

arraylist.AddRange(ArrayList) Adds the elements of an ICollection to the end of the ArrayList.

The ICollection interface is the base interface for classes in the System.Collections namespace.

A note about Generics

Lists are able to be used as a generic, which (somewhat counter-intuitively) means that you can declare on creation what kind of object the collection can hold. If you try to put a different type of object into that collection, it will throw an error.

List<String> fruits = new List<String>(); // notice the <String> here, that tells the compiler that the fruits array can only hold Strings.

this means you may add a string into this array but not an int.

The List<T> (the T stands for Type) object lives under the System.Collections.Generic namespace, which means you need to add using System.Collections.Generic to the top of each file in which you intend to use List<T>. Otherwise, the compiler won't know what you mean. See the List<T> documentation

#C #Arrays

Arrays, sets, lists, vectors - there all ordered list: Super Variables

Structured lists allow for the storing of data in a manner that is easy to retrieve and modify. In effect it is a two dimensional variable, that is to say that it is a variable itself by virtue of being able to be named while having no data and has a second dimension of an internal structure for multiple pieces of data to be stored within.

Without an array every piece of data that might exist inside it would have be its own variable. One can think of an array as:

array = "a"

and the contents of "a"

a.0, a.1, a.2, a.3, a.4, a.5, a.5...

This may not seem that powerful at first and only just a way of speeding up code, but it is also a way of quickly creating relationships between sets of variables. They are almost super variables.

The contents of an Array are called Elements

Example array structure

operator[] name = {values};

int[] powersOfTen = {1,10,100};

#C #Arrays

Thankgod its all starting top make sense!

I finally have enough stuff crammed into my head that when presented with a problem i am now able to think "maybe that ThingyMaBob will work.

#C #Milestone

Method, Check - whats next... Spaceship?

My first C# method written without aid!

public bool GoodGuess(int guess) { if (guess == 42) return true; else return false; }

#C #Milestone

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