- How do you write programs that are maintainable, readable, and adaptable? Especially consider your work on the CRUD Python module from Project One, which you used to connect the dashboard widgets to the database in Project Two. What were the advantages of working in this way? How else could you use this CRUD Python module in the future?
In order to make programs that are maintainable and adaptable, I make sure my code is very modularized. I try to make pieces of code (i.e. functions) that work independently of one another and I make sure that I repeat code fragments as infrequently as possible. In order to make the code readable, I make extensive use of comments so that each of the aforementioned functions has a description of what it does and each while loop, if-statement, and profound line of code also has a comment shedding light on its purprose. Doing things this way carries a benefit for both myself and any future developers that want to add onto the source code in that it makes it easier to understand (or remember) how the code works. It is impossible to make meaningful additions to something without understanding what is already there.
- How do you approach a problem as a computer scientist? Consider how you approached the database or dashboard requirements that Grazioso Salvare requested. How did your approach to this project differ from previous assignments in other courses? What techniques or strategies would you use in the future to create databases to meet other client requests?
The way I approad a problem as a computer scientist is that I first and foremost make sure I have a clear definition of what the problem actually is. Once I have a clear picture of the issue, I can then break the problem down into its individual parts and begin to find then implement solutions that address the individual problems. These small actions will ultimately culminate in a solution to the entire problem. This is exactly how I plan to continue dealing with problems in the future.
- What do computer scientists do, and why does it matter? How would your work on this type of project help a company, like Grazioso Salvare, to do their work better?
Computer scientists essentially exist to increase efficiency. They make it so that things that can be done by a human, don't have to be done by a human anymore. The Grazioso Salvare project is a perfect example of this. It is certainly conceivable that a human being could manually log all of the AAC database records using a physical storage method and then manually look up the necessary information whenever needed, but this would be unnecessarily time-consuming and full of effort. Having a software program do all of these tedius tasks automatically frees up human being to attend to other, more complex, matters.