git-refamiliarization

mid shot

Welcome to my page!

int main(void) {
    std::cout << "Hello World!\n";
    return 0;
}

prints “Hello World!”
exits with exit code 1

Preface

This webpage was created as an assignment for UCSD’s CSE 110 course. Part of it is to introduce myself as a programmer and as a person.

There’s a youtube video featuring Leslie Lamport where he relates the idea that math is to coding what writing and ideas are to language.

Writing is something that involves mental effort; you’re thinking about what you’re going to say. The words have some importance, but even they are secondary to the ideas. In the same way, programs are built on ideas. They have to do something, and what they’re supposed to do is like what writing is supposed to convey.

Throughout my time at UC San Diego, I’ve come to subscribe to Lamport’s application of this thinking to problems, math, and code. When I code, I try to the best of my ability to:

Describe a real problem I or others are dealing with in the present using math
adhere my code to that mathematical description.

These aspects of my ideal software engineering process provide aim for my work. I recognize that often I have to throw out and test code quickly, without checking rigorously if it will work; as one of my professors has stated, “cowboy coding” is sometimes necessary, especially if time and mental constraints are placed on a complex issue. Regardless, I try to be precise when I can.

I started learning code with Java, but am now mostly familiar with C. I’m currently aiming to work with computer systems, but in my personal projects I’ve often found a need to provide a clean user interface, and therefore hope to pick up some skills relating to that during my time at UCSD. I believe CSE 110 will be excellent exposure in this regard.