In college, I ate up every programming assignment thrown my way. While not yet keen on the science part of computer science[1], I could not get enough of hands on programming. But for the first couple years, I felt all the assignments were lacking practicality. I had a hard time understanding how to translate what I was learning to beyond the walled gardens of the programming exercises. This changed in a big way with CS2335: Software Practicum[2] in the summer of 2003.

Per the course name, CS2335 shed light on some of the more practical parts of creating software. For example, we learned how to use source control for the first time with CVS[3]. By far and away, my favorite part was the projects. For the first time in my life, I worked with a group of people to create real software, from scratch, to a demonstrable state. Even better, the final assignments were games. Heaven. We created a working email client in 2 weeks, a clone of Dig Dug in 2 weeks, and for the 4 week finale: a clone of Excite Bike. I enjoyed CS2335 so much and found the experience so valuable, I worked my way up to head teaching assistant and helped run the course for 7 semesters.

My group’s hard worked paid on Excite Bike paid off. We earned “Best in Show” come demo day. What an honor.

Footnotes

[1] Or the rest of my college course load for that matter.[/f]

[2] Very happy to see the course still offered at Georgia Tech![/f]

[3] Yes, I vividly remember source control before Git. You want a branch? Good luck with that.[/f]

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