Chapter 2 Reflection

Ola Soltan

Chapter 2 Reflection

1.       The Visual Basic Environment in Microsoft Visual Studio: What did you struggle with?  What have you learned about the environment? How does this environment compare to other programming languages you have explored?

The thing that really tripped me up in this chapter was remembering to not just modify the text displayed in labels, buttons, etc., but also remembering to name the elements themselves. I did not realize I had to change “Label1” to “lblQuestion” or “lblAnswer” or whatever, and so when I went to write the actual code and I tried to add a value to “lblAnswer”, it did not come up as an element and it took me a while to realize that I had to ‘create’ it. Despite this trip up, this environment seems easier than some other programs I’ve looked at, like C, but definitely more challenging than SmallBasic or Scratch from last year.

2.      Running, compiling and saving programs.   How comfortable are you with the process?  Is your routine established so that you have saved to the lab students drive as well as the C drive?

This is super easy and I’m definitely comfortable with the process- I also put in so much work into my programs that I’m often saving more than I need to just in case!

3.      Displaying and formatting output:  How confident are you that you can write code to produce output precisely using the concepts covered?

I am fairly confident I can produce output precisely, though I do sometimes have trouble with new exercises and new concepts where I forget basic old ones, and have to go back to previous programs to see how I did something and build off of that.

4.      Coding conventions: Are you clear on naming conventions as well as when you need to put comments in your code?

I’m clear on naming conventions, though not so sure about comments. I put a comment whenever an integer is set, and I suspect I should have comments about the date, my name, and the program, but I’m not sure if there’s anything else.

5. Radio Buttons, button, label control

All of these elements are easy to understand and manipulate, and I know how they work (basically).

5.      Challenges you had while getting used to the VB programming environment this week?

Like I said, mainly difficulties with understanding the properties and what each part stands for (text is for text displayed inside an element, while name is the name that the element is referred to by in the code, etc.)