Category: Uncategorized

I would say the most difficult challenge regarding this project was just getting started. It’s very similar to making the first brushstroke on an empty canvas; it feels a bit intimidating. However, due to the time constraint of the project and waiting team members, it’s necessary to begin whether you feel ready or not.

Part of that feeling comes from having to share your code with other team members, compared to working on a project alone. There might be some worries about making a mistake or not implementing the feature correctly. I found that once the foundation of the project was complete, it was far easier to fit into a groove while working on the project. I think that the anxiety of the unknown made it more challenging in the beginning.

One thing I feel like could’ve been better throughout this term was teamwide management. I think due to the nature of the communication style (asynchronous), it’s easier to avoid conversations that probably should have been had. There is also the feeling that I am on equal terms with every other team member in the group. Who am I to try and push someone to complete their assigned work, even though I feel that we are falling behind as a group. I think that in many group projects, there ends up being a skewed amount of completed work among the team members by the end of the project, and I feel that this project is no exception.

Although everyone in the group has contributed to the project, I felt that I needed to step in and take some control of it at times to help it stay on track for the upcoming deadline, primarily by spending more hours per week debugging and coding missing features.

Overall, though, I am happy with how far we have come as a group. We are starting to see the end result of our hard work, which is very exciting.

C++ is the main technology I have been learning for the NES emulation project. Before this school term, I had only used C++ a handful of times for niche scenarios, such as computer graphics. So, I always felt that C++ was a daunting language to learn and use. However, after several weeks of development, I’m starting to really appreciate this famous programming language. I feel like I have a lot of low-level control that is perfect for a project such as this, such as assembly, but it is very similar in syntax to newer high-level languages. The main difference I had to get used to was how you have to write your own Makefile for the compiler to know how to link and compile your code correctly. I am very used to writing Python scripts and pressing play.

Another technology I have been slowly learning is a C++ GUI library called Dear ImGui. This library is very lightweight and easy to implement in existing projects. I am primarily using this library to display the graphical output of our emulator and also as a debugging tool for visually seeing simulated hardware components update in real-time, such as the CPU registers. This is useful and has saved me some development time.

GitHub (and git) are the last main tools used in our project. I have used different version control software for many years, so I feel confident in using this tool to maintain our codebase and work on our project asynchronously.

Overall, my favorite technology I have been using on this project is C++. I think it will be a very useful language for future projects, as it seems most tech stacks have started with some version of C as its base.

One thing I would like to start considering more while I write code is creating code that is more readable. For a lot of my coding career, I have written code that was only meant for me to engage with and understand. This would usually only be for a short term as well, such as an assignment where I would never have to see that code again. Though I would try my best to write code that was clean and readable, it wasn’t usually a priority. I would usually focus on meeting requirements and creating functional code.

When writing code for larger projects, especially ones involving other team members, the importance of creating clean code increases substantially. The short-term gain of creating messy code quickly will cost even more development time down the road. This is also true for solo projects, where you need to understand your own code at a later date.

// Bad Code
class CarouselRightArrow extends Component{render(){return (<a href="" className="carousel__arrow carousel__arrow--left" onClick={this.props.onClick}> <span className="fa fa-2x fa-angle-left"/> </a> );}};

// Good Code
class CarouselRightArrow extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <a
        href="#"
        className="carousel__arrow carousel__arrow--left"
        onClick={this.props.onClick}>
        <span className="fa fa-2x fa-angle-left" />
      </a>
    );
  }
};

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/tips-to-write-clean-and-better-code/#

This code snippet was taken from the link above and shows the difference in code that provides the same functionality but varies in readability. As you can notice, the second class is far easier to understand.

One thing I want to avoid when coding is creating methods that are too long. Methods should achieve one function and should try to be constrained to 10 lines of code if possible. It’s easy to start expanding methods by a few lines at a time, but usually this means that a new method should be created to contain this new code. I have always tended to create longer methods, so this is something I definitely want to work on for future projects.

https://refactoring.guru/smells/long-method

Problem

void printOwing() {
  printBanner();

  // Print details.
  System.out.println("name: " + name);
  System.out.println("amount: " + getOutstanding());
}

Solution

void printOwing() {
  printBanner();
  printDetails(getOutstanding());
}

void printDetails(double outstanding) {
  System.out.println("name: " + name);
  System.out.println("amount: " + outstanding);
}

https://refactoring.guru/extract-method

Here is some example code from the link above, showing the separation of two functionalities into separate methods.

Over the past couple of weeks, most of my major projects for this school term have been submitted. Even though finals week is approaching, most of my difficult assignments have already been completed. As this is my last assignment for CS 461 (first quarter of senior project), I am starting to feel a sense of relief. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the classes I took at OSU, and this quarter was no exception. Having most of my classes related to CS at this stage of my degree is a lot of fun, as I enjoy learning more about the various sub-genres of information. The main challenge I had for this school term was the amount of work I had been taking on. This is my first term, where I have taken five classes, and adjusting to the increased workload took some time. However, I feel like I have succeeded in doing well in every class I took, so I feel confident taking five classes for future terms.

The most unique and also the most challenging class I had this term was operating systems I. It felt like most of the term was about building up your knowledge for one big project that was the entirety of the class. This system is a bit different from other classes I have taken, and I felt like you had to have more self-motivation to succeed in the class. This is because you could procrastinate most of the modules, as the major points were all due at the end of the term. The project itself was very interesting, and I think it was one of the most challenging assignments I have had in my academic career. Something I am proud of is the fact that I got 100/100 on the project. It took around 30 hours to complete the project from start to finish; most of those were just debugging code, though.

Overall, this school term was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to developing my senior project more next term.

The project I have been assigned to is to create an NES emulator that can run ROMs on modern hardware. So far, in this senior software engineering project, the rest of the team and I have mostly been writing documents designed to outline and support the creation of our project. I believe the research aspect of creating these documents will be very useful, as most aspects of the project will already be well-known when we start development. I think that, overall, the progress made at this stage of the project has been really successful, and I have been enjoying learning more about the NES hardware.

I have also really enjoyed working with the other team members so far on the project. Everyone gets along and is respectful, and everyone has contributed to the project for each assignment. I am unsure what the next two school terms will look like in regard to the project, but I feel confident in the group I am in. I think that we will be able to accomplish the mandatory goals set out for us, as well as achieve the optional goals within the project. 

Something I am looking forward to is the developmental phase of the project. As much as I enjoy writing over a thousand words a week, my passion lies in coding. I think translating all of these design documents into a tangible, working emulator will be a lot of fun. There is something special in recreating a piece of hardware, such as the NES, even if it is only in software. I have a lot of fond memories of the NES when I was younger, even though it was before my time. I think that it has a unique feel to the games that it was well known for.

Overall, I’m very excited to see how the project will turn out after the year is over.

Hello World! This is my first ever blog post, not only at OSU, but also in my entire life. As someone who grew up in the early 2000s, I have always heard about blogs but have never spent much time interacting with them in my daily life. As a novice blogger, I plan to take this first blog and introduce myself to the world.

My name is Ethan Pilskalns. Most people get the first name with no problem, but my last name has always been the cause of hesitation and awkward pronunciation. If you sounded it out, it could be broken up as so: Pill – scowl – inz. If you’re wondering, the origins of my last name are from the country Latvia, and means Castle Hill. My family would always joke and say that our ancestors used to be royalty and lived in a castle there. However, the only link to royalty I ever felt was that my sister was a royal pain while growing up. (Just kidding, I love you, Ari).

Here are some other interesting things about me: I know how to play the piano very well, in fact. I won awards in high school at my local university for playing in competitions. I also grew up playing hockey, rock climbing, skateboarding, and various other physical activities. However, the main interests I always had were computers, technology, and video games. This doesn’t surprise me looking back, as the early 2000s had a huge technological boom.

The first interaction I can remember having with computers and video games was watching my dad play Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. From that moment on, I was hooked. I learned everything I could from the limited resources I had at the time, as this was before every kid had an iPad with access to the internet. I would read books, magazines, and anything else I could find to learn more about how the technological side of the world worked.

Over the years, this progressed into learning programming, making my own simple games in Python, and realizing how much more there was still to learn. This thirst for knowledge has pushed me all the way to now, where I still want to learn more about how computers work and how to express myself through them using programming in all of its various formats and facets.

This brings me to my last year at Oregon State University, where I am excited about all the projects I will be working on this upcoming year.

-Ethan Pilskalns