Anthony's CSUMB Computer Science Online Journey

Project 1 - LDPM - Review      I worked with Josh Goldberg. Strategy for Solving the Assignment:     I didn’t start coding right away. I first read through the UML diagrams to understand the overall structure and relationships between classes. I didn’t write anything out on paper, but I used the UML as my main guide.      My overall strategy was to approach the Monster assignment incrementally, following the UML design as the blueprint. I began by setting up the base Monster class first, implementing the fields, constructor, and simple accessor and mutator methods before moving on to more complex logic. I treated each section of the UML (fields, constructor, methods) as its own milestone and committed those changes separately to keep my work organized and traceable.      Once the base structure compiled cleanly, I focused on the core logic methods such as setPhrase, attackModifier, and calculateAttackPoints, using small commits....

Wk03 Learning Journal: HW 1 Code Review I reviewed Josh Goldberg and Christopher Buenrostro’s hangman code. For Josh’s code, this was my review: Some things I noticed, though, I don't know if any of these things actually improve efficiency or memory; there is a constant variable PLACEHOLDER = "_", that could have been used on lines 121 and 272, instead of using the char '_' itself. There's an unused import java.util.Random. I'm not sure if this was required to be used per the assignment or just something that didn't end up being needed and wasn't deleted. One thing I did notice in the chooseWord() method, was that the do while loop checks for previously guessedWords, but guessed words are never added to guessedWords anywhere in the code ex: guessedWords.add(selectedWord);.  For Christopher’s code, this was my review: In the chooseWord() method, there is no guard or check before the while loop: while(guessedWords.contains(tempWord)), that checks to ...

     Well, in week 1, the Git commands were completely new to me. At first, the whole concept felt confusing and honestly kind of tedious, but after enough repetition, it starts to click and become second nature. For example, using the command "git checkout -b 'someName'" makes coding a lot safer. It creates a new branch so you’re not directly tinkering with the main branch while experimenting. Once you’re happy with your changes, you can merge them back into main without fear of breaking everything. I also didn’t know what “commits” were at first. Turns out, they’re basically little checkpoints or progress notes for your code. Each commit captures what you changed and includes a message describing what you accomplished. The command "git status" shows you what’s been modified and what’s ready for your next commit. Then, "git add ." stages everything, and "git commit -m 'your message here'" records those changes with a note about ...

 My Process of Solving the Coding Bat Challenges:      When I approach a Coding Bat challenge, I start by examining what the function is expected to return and what parameters it takes in. This helps me understand what I’ll be working with and what I need to produce as an output. After that, I carefully read through the problem description, paying close attention to keywords like and, or, equals, and doesn’t equal. These clues help me anticipate the types of conditional statements I’ll need to use—things like &&, ||, ==, or !=. In a way, this process builds a mental framework for how the program will take shape.      Next, I consider whether there’s a specific range or scope involved, and then I think about which tools or functions might be most useful for solving the problem. Since I’m still fairly new to Java, I sometimes need to look up syntax or refresh my understanding online. Before I start typing, I usually try to reason through the prob...