It feels like our class is at some sort of finish line. So far my coding experiences have oscillated between triumph, euphoria, fixation, anxious ambivalence, and quiet resignation. I second Noah, in that pseudocode is so inexplicable helpful, that I’m not sure how I was able to accomplish anything without it. I had drawn diagrams for my dailies before, but any other planning was done solely in my head, and usually the night before, as I sat around not paying attention to whatever show I was watching with my partner. The actual doing bit often took too much time and preparation, all of which could have been remedied by writing pseudocode.

On two separate occasions (once with Aden, and with Kelly and Diana) I was able to sketch out a reasonably logical plan for making things work in Not Pacman. Doing things step-by-step, talking them over with lab partners, asking for advice from Scott, and writing pseudocode was essential. At this point all that’s left to do is to incorporate these habits into writing code outside of lab. I’ll have to do some of that while I am out of town next week (I wonder what its like to code in Savannah). I’ve also come to realize how crucial it is to know proper syntax, as it becomes cumbersome to constantly reference simple java commands, but memorizing computer language does not happen easily.

What a mixture of math and spoken/written language code can be. I am yet to fully grasp arrays and prototypes as concepts, although I understand that they are at once larger collections of properties, and higher levels of abstraction. Watching Shiffman helps, but he often concentrates on different aspects of the same exercise we are doing in class. I hope I can make all these resources work for me by next week.