What a Ride

Over the course of this last semester, I believe I have gained a respectable amount of exposure to techniques and industry standards in the field of software engineering. Having taken Object Oriented Programming last (Spring) semester and Software Engineering this Fall with Dr. Downing, I have learned invaluable information that will no doubt stay with me for years to come.

I believe one of the most valuable things I have learned is how to work with a group. I currently work at ARM, but I am mostly a one man show. I work with a collection of engineers that tell me what they want, and I do it. In a way, the computer engineers are my consumer, and I am constantly going back and forth with them, creating new features and determining the next feature to implement with the highest priority. Another is testing. Dr. Downing stresses and stresses test driven development. You test first, you reap the rewards. You get things done correctly. Your code changes work predictably. If you do not test first, you develop software that is half-baked. It is not guaranteed to work. You have no real way to demonstrate that your code works, and no real way to test your consistently test your changes against the established behavior of the system, and make sure it complies.

I encourage all comp-sci students at UT Austin to take Dr. Downing's class. The information he gives is truly invaluable, and he always presents it in a way that prevent you from simply slipping by. His classes are truly in-your-face and get down to the nitty-gritty of various C.S. languages. As far as I am concerned, there is no better person to learn C++ or python from. He will not only teach you the language, but he will also tell you how badly they suck. Java sucks. C++ sucks. Haskell sucks. Of course, they all have their respective benefits, but he doesn't simply begin a love story with a language when you take a class from him. He will tell you what makes the language beautiful, but will not forget to tell you what truly doesn't make sense.

All in all, I might not make extravagant grades in Dr. Downing's classes like I do in others, but I learn an incredible amount. Dr. Downing, you will truly be missed. Peace.