First Quarter Assignment

1. How well did you meet your original goals for your project this quarter? Please be ''specific''. What were your original goals? What did you actually accomplish? How do these compare? Why?

I believe I did fairly well completing my goals for the quarter. My original goal was to learn the C language to the best of my ability. The brief one hour class periods didn't allow me to learn as much as i would have liked but still allowed me to get a firm grasp of the basics of the language. What I actually accomplished is, from no prior knowledge of the language, to have worked through the first chapter of the C Programming Language book and the majority of the second chapter. I had hoped to work through this language a little faster but am fairly pleased with my progress, especially in recent weeks.

2. Did your project turn out the way you planned? What unexpected things did you encounter during the quarter?

For the most part the project turned out as I planned. The most unexpected things i faced was the complexity of the C book I was using, and the expectation of prior knowledge it was built on. It was far more in depth when dealing with memory and often dealt less with actual programming.

3. What did you learn this quarter?

This quarter i learned the basic structure of C programming, along with the functions of several libraries and how to access them. These libraries include and

4. What can you do now that you couldn't do when you started?

I can now write programs in C which can solve a variety of problems and do many basics tasks. I have yet to write any programs of any real complexity but can generally write a long, simple program to accomplish basically the same thing.

5. What things did you hope to do that you can't do yet?

I hoped to get further into the C book and deal with longer and more complex programs. I especially wanted to learn enough useful programming to be able to get an internship working as a programmer. I know I am not even close to having this extent of expertise, but will continue to work towards this goal.

6. Will you continue with this project next quarter? Why or why not?

So far I am undecided whether to continue with C in class, or work with Java. I'm going to do some research over this weekend and try to determine which will be more useful in my professional life. If I continue with C I'll keep working on the C Programming book along with several online tutorials and most likely at least one other book from the classroom. If I switch to Java, or a different language, I'll request a book on the subject and most likely consult an online tutorial as well.