Class Journal Week 3
From LMU BioDB 2015
Nicole Anguiano
- Pull out a quote from the first two sections of “What is Code?” that you think directly relates to what you experienced in the individual portion of this assignment. Explain why this quote is particularly resonant for you.
- "Every character truly, truly matters. Every single stupid misplaced semicolon, space where you meant tab, bracket instead of a parenthesis—mistakes can leave the computer in a state of panic. The trees don’t know where to put their leaves. Their roots decay. The boxes don’t stack neatly. For not only are computers as dumb as a billion marbles, they’re also positively Stradivarian in their delicacy."
- This quote is relevant for me not only in this assignment, but throughout the entire course of my learning as a computer scientist. So many errors are caused simply by a single character being mistyped. The number of times I forgot the / after the sed "y/words/words/" command was a little excessive. I've struggled through countless bugs that were caused only by the misplacing of a simple semicolon or space, usually only realizing my mistake after hours of struggling through trying to solve the problem. While I didn't experience quite that level of frustration on this assignment, it definitely came up. Rarely was my mistake caused by a mistake in an algorithm or the inability to think of a solution. Rather, the majority of the errors were caused by problems with the syntax. Seeing this quote made me laugh simply because of how true it is.
- "Every character truly, truly matters. Every single stupid misplaced semicolon, space where you meant tab, bracket instead of a parenthesis—mistakes can leave the computer in a state of panic. The trees don’t know where to put their leaves. Their roots decay. The boxes don’t stack neatly. For not only are computers as dumb as a billion marbles, they’re also positively Stradivarian in their delicacy."
- What are your thoughts on gender issues in computer science? How different/similar do you think the situation is in biology? Feel free to speak from a particular lens (biology major, computer science major, LMU student, etc.).
- It is easily apparent that computer science and biology are primarily male-dominated fields. Perhaps just because of my upbringing, I don't particularly view this as a serious issue. I believe that women can choose whatever they wish to become in the future, whether it's in a STEM field such as computer science or biology or not. I have been nothing but encouraged to continue along my path in computer science, and have felt nothing but support from my male peers. That being said, I do believe that there have been inappropriate comments made to me and to my other female peers that perhaps would have not been made to a male peer, and I have felt occasionally that my abilities have been underestimated, perhaps due in large part to the fact that I am female. However, I have always proven my abilities and proven that I am no less able than my male peers. Regarding the inappropriate comments, I believe that there are people who are unprofessional and inappropriate in every field. In my experience, the majority view me as equals despite my gender. While I have no doubt that there are those that have had very different experiences from myself, I believe that women can choose for themselves whatever career they want to pursue, and should be able to make that choice without being pressured to enter into any field, including a STEM field.
- What do you think you need in order to grow more comfortable, confident, and effective with the command line?
- At this point, I am quite comfortable with the command line. The command line is best learned simply through experience, and it can be awkward and uncomfortable to learn at first due to the incredibly simple user interface and lack of any real guidance. However, with experience (and googling!), the command line can be mastered just like anything else. To become increasingly more effective with the command line, I know that I must simply practice more.
