The relationship between students and computer science at Tufts ranges from hate to love-hate to love, some are counting the days until they can say goodbye forever and others are gearing up for a whole life in the field. Despite these differences, I think we can all relate to the emotional roller coaster that is doing a CS assignment.
1. Absolute denial.
2. Procrastination.
3. Slow, creeping realization that you only have a few days left to get this done.
4. Looking at the assignment document and screaming inside.
When did any of this come up in lecture?! Oh, right... I haven't been going to lectures.
5. Starting the assignment having no idea what is happening.
*Codes randomly hoping for a miracle*
6. Figuring it out and feeling pretty good.
7. Compiling for the first time and getting knocked over with compiler errors.
8. Fixing these errors and then getting knocked over with segfaults.
OK, phew.... wait! What the—?!
9. Fixing those errors and discovering that your program isn't doing what it's supposed to do.
No, program! Bad, program!
10. Contemplate the option of curling up and evaporating.
If I don't exist... do I still have to do homework?
11. Showing up at Halligan
Someone please help me.
12. Waiting for your turn on Halligan Helper.
13. Receiving help from a TA (aka angels)
14. Running your program and it WORKS!
15. Commenting your code and writing your ReadMe file when all you want to do is go out and celebrate.
16. Providing for the first time and watching the test results.
17. Providing for the last time.
18. Enjoying life without the emotional turmoil of a CompSci assignment and finally being able to breathe.
19. Getting your next assignment.
Happy coding, everyone!