Bugging me out!
This week, I worked on a rather mundane but necessary task for LoopLogic: debugging scripts. Hardly the most exciting of ventures, but certainly an important one, especially when you're working with various API programs. Reviewing three scripts of about 9000 lines each is not easy.
To explain, let me describe what debugging is: a simple proofread of a program's script. It's like proofreading an essay, but a bit longer and a bit more tedious. Of course, a lot of modern programs have built-in runtime script checkers, such as Eclipse or Selenium Webdriver. An apt comparison would be to Microsoft Word, which automatically checks your document for you while you type.
However, the script was written on GitHub, which lacks a runtime script checker. Therefore, I've had to comb through each script carefully and check out everything. Even the slightest semicolon omission can topple an entire script, so it's very important that the script is flawless of anything that would throw a major error.
On the other hand, while proofreading, I've discovered that Internet Explorer doesn't support a lot of basic browser features in programming. A lot of code in the script was dedicated to just figuring out what to do in the case of a user with IE. Go figure. It's amusing in an odd way to know that despite being the oldest web browser, Internet Explorer is the one that gives the most trouble to websites.
Well, that's pretty much my entire week summarized. My eyes are kinda strained and I'm now thinking in lines of conditional codes. Hopefully this comes in handy next week!
Till next time!
Hey Alfred! Sorry to hear about your eyes feeling strained! I was just wondering what an API program is.
ReplyDeleteAn API program is essentially a toolkit that a web developer can release to the public so that any aspiring programmers can use the developer's website better. In this case, LoopLogic is releasing an API kit that allows for other programmers to user the streaming features of the site easier, which should hopefully encourage more buyers.
DeleteOof, sounds like a lot of hard work. Do you feel like you're learning a lot through doing all this?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm learning quite a lot through debugging! You get to see all these advanced methods in programming or how to shorthand write something that would normally take hours to code. I've also learned through debugging that programmers have different styles of writing code, similar to how writers or artists have doing their work. That means that if you look closely at the code, you could maybe see where my style influenced the script writing.
DeleteOh man. That doesn't sound fun. As a relatively new student to comp sci this year, I learned quickly how annoying a single semi colon could be. Have you managed to improve you debugging skills at all? Have some errors become easier to anticipate or spot?
ReplyDeleteThe code was mainly flawless, as expected from people who code for a career. I spotted only tiny and minor errors here and there, such as a reversed symbol or confusing bracket text. You really do need a runtime engine of sorts to be able to spot all these errors in relative ease, otherwise you end up like me, having to read line by line and figure out in my head if the code blocks make sense and don't loop.
DeleteAlfred,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ellie and I am from Lutheran High School in Parker, Colorado. I find your topic to be very interesting, mainly because I don't know anything about technological types of things! Through reading your posts, I can actually understand what you're talking about, so that's something you're doing really well! Almost everyone in my family is really into computer things, and I find it cool that people can understand how to find mistakes like you are doing, or how to completely code something. How did you get interested in computers? Was it something you grew up around? Or were you more interested in the software/site itself and from it you've gotten to explore computers? I'm interested in further following your project, so good luck!
I just got interested in computers once I realized what they could do to make everybody's life easier. I realized that I could actually do stuff on them once I learned the Java programming language, so here I am, learning more about programming and how it can apply in the market.
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