This week we completed Phase 3 of our web development project. We integrated data processing features into our website, all of which now work more or less as desired. We only have one project update left, which is basically just refining and completing all of our previous work, so we're just about done.
What did I do this week?
I spent about half of the week working on the frontend of our website. I've essentially become the odds-and-ends guy, or the IT guy, responsible for all the framework and modifying it as needed to support the delivered website. I spent the other half of the week planning the vacation I'm leaving for right after this class ends. I'm going backpacking in Alaska and I'm pretty darn excited about that.
What is in my way?
Reading. Lots of it. I'm a few weeks behind in the class reading. I've read all of the articles, but I haven't read any of the textbooks except for the first one. So I haven't read about SQL or refactoring at all. That's going to take up most of the weekend.
What will I do next week?
As required, lots of refining of our website. I'd like to automate the few remaining manual components, such as the counting of tests. Then we need to improve our search results arrangement. Currently we only give links to search results, instead of itemized descriptions with highlighted keywords. We have several theories about how best to do that, we'll probably flip a coin to decide.
What did I think of relational algebra and SQL?
Clearly it's useful, I've read bits and pieces of regular expressions in the past, mainly to improve my Google results. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to find very specific, not-necessarily-supposed-to-be-public information when you know regular expressions.
What is recommendation of the week?
This class has only increased my dislike of Javascript, but I was surprised to find
this post on Quora, explaining that Spotify isn't an application so much as a website. The desktop application is really just a browser, and the entire interface is written in js. Very interesting. Of course that makes it very, very easy to update, not requiring constant downloads and restarts on the user's part.
