Blogging about my installation adventures

Computer, Check!

When I first came to Del Norte, I wasn’t used to the norm of bringing a personal laptop to school to use for coding. However, becoming used to it made it easier to code as well as store my code in places I could access easy.

Draw A Picture

Below is a picture of the tools I notice and appreciate in APCSA so far: ![https://www.canva.com/design/DAFskwUxoV4/tGqo_k81Md9ZE_TXAibF6Q/view?utm_content=DAFskwUxoV4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink]

I LOVE My Tools

  • I love my laptop. Since 2016, it has guided me through my programming journey. Although it wasn’t powerful enough at times to run bigger things, it is the first laptop I used to really start code/code/coding. Eventually, I will move on to different machines, but I will always remember the HP Spectre x360 as my first.

  • I love Visual Studio Code. Back in the dark times, I used to search up, “Code compiler online” to compile my simple console applications. Then, I discovered a free version of Visual Studio 2019. I used that for most of my code/code/coding, sometimes opening up Sublime Text if I wanted to tinker around with HTML/CSS/JS. At the time, I had heard of VSCode, but didn’t think much of it because it sounded like a substitute for the real deals. Since coming into DNHS, I never want to stop using VSCode. Its versatile environment to run any type of code, version control system, and the large extension pack make it a necessity for me.

  • I love GitHub Pages. If I were to go onto GitHub right now, I would find so many templates for websites, some of which may be for blogging websites. But none of them are as simple, classic, and familiar as GitHub Pages. From the Leuck Reunion to the NCS student-teacher repos, GitHub Pages is the way to academically code/code/code.

  • I love Jupyter Notebooks. I had heard about the tool back in 2019, but barely tinkered around with it. When I came to DNHS, however, I was able to learn its true capabilities. Since then, Jupyter Notebooks are my go-to tool for talking about my code and teaching it to others.

  • I love Slack. The only other social media I use is Discord. But, Slack is so much more professional than Discord. Slack also has the ability to connect to my Google Drive account, which helps when others share documents with me. It is also a great way to pair program from home, or collaborate with more than just one person.

  • I love WSL. Linux is home to so many tools and resources that are great for making outstanding projects. However, using a Linux computer is weird. Enter WSL! When I first heard about it, I was confused on what it was for a good trimester or two. But as I got to working with it more, I really liked working with it. It is an outstanding environment to store projects, tools, and extensions in.

  • I love Docker. Again, I had no clue what it was or how to use it, and its errors made me very cranky at times. But as I got to using it more and more, I realized just how powerful and versatile its use cases were. I am grateful to have Docker in my life.

User Database

I have added myself to the user database.

Conclusion

I have two main takeaways from the APCSA tools and equipment:

  • Not everything is what it seems. What looks complicated at first is actually very useful for code/code/coding.

  • In CS, instantly liking a tool is rare. However, that doesn’t mean that hating every tool you work with is the way to go. Instead, take time to let a tool grow on you, as you will then realize just how important said tool is.