Today we began a capstone, the first of three large and arduous projects that we will be assigned throughout the program. We are being tasked to make software for a vending machine. In my mind, the challenge seemed pretty manageable.
That being said, the first day was rough. We were randomly paired and I drew Argun, a high-energy programmer about ten years my junior who is always smiling and goes with the flow. Craig sits on my right every day and Argun is to my left so we are pretty familiar with each other and this paid dividends when trying to communicate over the architecture of the program.
We ran into some trouble right away and it got pretty frustrating. We were given a text file that contained the names, prices, and types of food in the vending machine. We had to import this file and then get the data into a state where we could manipulate it and put it where we needed it to be to make our software work.
This step was one in about a hundred that we need to complete. We were given the task at 10:30 and by 1:30 we had basically nothing. We couldn’t get the data out of the file in a way that was usable. We were stuck.
We eventually got some help from Andrew who tipped us off on how to use a piece of code called a Switch to trick the names of the vending machine items objects, instantiated and ready for purchase. If it sounds complicated, that’s because it was. At least, it’s complicated for our current skill level. Most of the other teams got stuck in the same place as us. Maybe we’ll look back in a month and chuckle about how little we once knew. For right now, there’s no chuckling.
After we got the data all sorted, we made good progress. We were both starting to fade around 5:30 and decided to call it quits. The vending machine is due on Tuesday, but we will be assigned new homework on Monday, so we really need it done by Sunday night.
As it stands, Argun and I have a stocked vending machine which prompts a user to insert money. The machine can take the money and increment it in a balance and display that balance for the customer to see. Not bad, considering a good portion of our day was spent spinning our wheels on one single problem.
If everything goes perfectly tomorrow, we could be finished by six or seven o’clock. Though I would say the smart money is on me spending my first weekend at Hotel Elevator.
From Retail to Programming 