Github tracking repo -- here
Crossposted on my blog Craft && Code -- here
It’s here, I’ve made it! Honestly, this is one of the first courses I have started and just about to complete since learning to code years ago (yes really); I definitely fall for “shiny object syndrome” and would get easily distracted. This one definitely made an impression and kept me engaged for this long. This last recap does not include final project notes quite yet (one last post) and is the last third of CS50P now that I’ve submitted all problem sets (41!).
The last post was published right before a little break and adventuring for my birthday on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and also gearing up to to another batch of interviewing for a new role. I felt a tiny bit more at ease this time around and confidence as I knew what it felt like on the other side interviewing people 😁. The down time wasn’t all spent twiddling my thumbs. I was able to get out a bit more this summer, even if ours started a bit late, which meant more paddling, hiking, and got back into reading.
This last section included one of my favorite weeks of this course, practicing using more python libraries and CSV file and image manipulation. I was first attuned to the capabilities of python when someone at a meetup had mentioned the free online book and Automate the Boring Stuff which also included these concepts and the basics of python.
The last two weeks definitely ramped up complexity of incorporating previous weeks knowledge of libraries, testing, and newer concepts. For example, I have used regex before with JavaScript, and it is very useful, but can get complicated very quickly. Once again a time formatting problem popped up (working.py) and took the longest of all the problems, but felt quite accomplished finishing that one!
The last week was where I struggled the most and definitely felt some burnout at this time; it covered Object Oriented Programming concepts. I had watched a few videos on the basics, blogs, tried to find some exercises to help supplement and practice these concepts but it was difficult to apply it. From the first problem to the second on OOP, it took about four months to get back into the swing of things, but felt really great to get back into it and finish this problem. As in previous difficult problems I had to work through, best is to break it down bit by bit, test, and keep slowly inching forward. I had gotten closer than I thought by the end where finding how to test the class functions was the most confusing, and once discovered how, submitted and done!
The very last problem was similar to a past image manipulation problem but with a different library, most of that one was trial and error until it aligned😅, see the results below.
With all problem sets complete, I’ve kept a notepad of possible final project ideas, and I think I’ve settled on one and started to plan an outline. There are not too many restrictions, so having it so open ended is tough to figure something out as well. Should have it all set by end of year like my estimate, stay tuned. 😀
Nearing the finish line!
-- H
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