I am double majoring in both Information Engineering Technology and Information
Communication Technology, so ET 362 is a requirement for me in both majors. I found this
course to be quite interesting, as well as very challenging. Once I graduate from NMSU, I plan
on pursuing employment where I can use my programming experience and knowledge to
contribute to a company, as well as gain experience and knowledge from other Information
Technology professionals to further my career opportunities.
I obtained my first bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the NMSU Business
College, so I was able to transfer the required courses to enroll in ET 362. Throughout the first
couple of weeks in ET 362, we were required to warm up our java programming skills from
previous java programming courses. During those weeks, we were required to submit a program
for every class, so we had to refresh our programming skills quickly.
First, we began the semester by creating a program similar to Hello World, called Hello
Kitty. Soon after that, we started working on Graphical User Interfaces, and honing in on those
skills. By mid-semester, we were GUI geniuses. We were learning how to create GUIs with
buttons, text fields, and combining those to request items from a MySQL database. As the
semester drew to an end, we began combining all that we learned to create reading and writing
tools, simple word processors, and jargon dictionaries.
The most positive thing I received from taking this course was learning how to code java
programs from scratch, instead of using a drag and drop java editor. In previous java
programming courses at the Business College, I was taught simple java programming skills and
then was allowed to use drag and drop editors. When compared to this class, those courses felt
like a cheap lesson in learning how to program.
Another positive thing I learned this semester was being able to code using the VIM
editor. I normally use JEdit, but it was great learning how to code using VIM. VIM makes you
learn how to code using commands that aren’t normally used with other programming editors,
and you seldom have to take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse.
I now feel confident in my ability to build a graphical user interface from scratch and add
buttons and text fields to respond to inputs and create outputs. As long as I keep practicing, I
should be able to improve my programming skills and have a better understanding of what I am
doing. Eventually, I would like to be able to open up a program editor and build an entire
program from scratch without the use of a textbook or Google for additional help.
For my portion of the project, I built the graphical user interface from scratch. I started
off by building a frame and setting the bounds so the frame would cover most of the user’s
screen. The next step was to add TextAreas, Labels, Buttons, and a ComboBox. The most
challenging part of my portion of the project was aligning everything inside of the frame to make
it look “pretty”. In order to do this, I had to experiment with different setBounds parameters.
Finally after many attempts, I was able to align all of the TextAreas, Labels, and Buttons. The
next step was to add an action event to the Quit button, so that when selected, it would “close
out” or exit the window. I added Key and Window events to the end of the code so the frame
wouldn’t have any issues closing out, maximizing, or minimizing. This would also ensure that
the buttons would act accordingly when pressed. Last, I set the Background to the color red to
make it look a little less boring.