Spring 2018
For this one,
I was seating and thinking about what I am going to do. I just started to try to put image into background using code. I had to figure how I need to do. So, I searched processing site, and finally I could completed to put image and sound.
I will try to make interaction using mouse.
I think chapter 10 of the reading really aligned with our midterm projects. For me, since I really wanted to work with classes, classes naturally had me break down my project in the way that chapter 10 advised. And so for each of my elements/functions, I would make a separate sketch and write that one element/function before copy and pasting it into the final sketch. I think this is a good way to organize everything, because it’s easy to write messy code and to get lost in it (especially when I have to refer to it again hours/days later). The only problem that would then arise would be getting everything to connect and work as one sketch. For example, when I worked on each class individually in another, I automatically set the background to another color and so when I compiled all of them into one sketch, my background wouldn’t change colors like I wanted it to because all the classes’ set backgrounds would inhibit it to. From chapter 11, I think I should definitely take more breaks, since it code can be really frustrating. Additionally, I think I should reach out for more help (whether it be another coder or office hours), since it’ll help me learn code and fix it if I talk about what I’m doing. Also it might be worthwhile to utilize the println() function more. I’ve never used it, but for more complicated sketches, it might be helpful to learn it and use it.
After reading chapters, I could learn how to approach the concept. Also, I realized there are better ways to express or represent my idea. For example, using ‘dist’ ,which was explained in chapter 10, was easier to complete intersecting with object instead of using check collision which I used for midterm project for interesting. I am happy to realize this notion. I think i’ll probably have to learn lots of way for coding to be able to do a good thing when I say what I want.
After reading chapter 10 and 11, it reiterated that I should continue some habits and that I need to improve on others. While working on the midterm, like the book said, I primarily worked on the project by breaking it up into parts. I would work on making one object at a time and making sure one worked before I tried to implement another. I also did what the book recommended; I often created new classes in separate sketches so that when I knew it was working, I would add it to the compiled sketch. I think the debugging chapter was the most helpful to me because while making my midterm sketch, it was really easy to get frustrated. Going forward, I will take more breaks from my sketch and talk through it with someone. I think since we know our code so well, problems or errors don’t stand out to us. Something the book doesn’t talk about is not breaking it down into parts, but what tools to use to make something. While working on my sketch, I wanted to make or do things, but I had no clue where to begin. It wasn’t a problem of having too many things or being overwhelmed, it was a problem of not knowing what to do whatsoever.
After reading sections from Learning Processing, I feel like I have a better sense of how to approach programming. I think if I read this before I started working on my midterm project, I definitely would have tried to utilize the methods of breaking down my problems into smaller, more manageable chunks. I was probably already using some of these methods in my head, just without realizing it. The debugging chapter was also very useful, and some of the tips are things that I’ve already been doing, again without realizing how practical they really are. Whenever I encounter a problem, I try to step away for a while, or talk it out to myself or a friend to find the issue. I think I don’t do enough simplifying or enough println(), so if I knew about these tips before starting my project, it’s possible that some of the problems I had could’ve been solved more quickly and efficiently. Overall, I think this was a very valuable read and gave me a new perspective on how to write and debug my code.