CSUMB Learning Journal (Chris - Group 1)

  What is the most interesting thing you have learned in your reading of "Software Engineering at Google"? The most interesting thing I've learned so far is how Google chooses to store their code. According to the book, Google chooses to have one giant repository for all of their code company wide that every employee has access to. Their goal with this is to encourage better collaboration and code improvements from a variety of sources but I expected members of different teams to be limited to their access to the scope of their projects.

  How does React compare to other frameworks you have used for front end development?  The main quality of React that stood out to me was how it was primarily comprised of JavaScript. For example, the entirety of the front end environment is coded in JavaScript with HTML embedded in return statements while the other framework I've used, Express, had ejs files which were primarily HTML with embedded JavaScript.

  In lab 1 on Junit you used a Mock.  In your own words describe what a Mock is and why it is useful in unit testing.      A mock is a fake Java class that mimics any external dependencies a program might have such as a database or API. It's useful in unit testing as it can give our test a consistent, predictable, and quick alternative to accessing the final production dependencies it might rely on. For example, testing logic on receiving data from an API when that API's output is constantly changing.

  What did you expect a course in Software Engineering would cover?        I'm never really sure what to expect going into many of our program's courses as I don't have a lot of preconceived notions of what a course should teach -- although generally when I think of Software Engineering I think of programming. After completing week 1, how has your opinion changed?      This course seems to cover a lot of the business aspects of careers in the Computer Science umbrella, such as making sure we're proficient in the use of pivotal trackers and GitHub.