Edward's CS Journey

Week 1: Introduction to Operating Systems One of the main topics that I learned about this week in CST 334 was operating systems and the role they play in running programs. Operation Systems have two main tasks. One of the tasks is to provide an abstraction layer to the user. This layer shields hardware information from the user, as the user should not have access to it. In addition to the layer of abstraction, the operating system also acts as a resource manager. It optimizes the use of the resources in a computer while allocating them to each program in a fair and equitable manner.  Both of these tasks are completed with the help of two modes provided by the CPU: kernel mode and user mode. While in user mode, the information about the hardware is hidden, and the user is provided an address space to do the intended job. This mode provides the user with access to user, application, and system programs. While in kernel mode, the administor has access to hardware and can change the mode

Three Main Learning Outcomes from CST 363 1. Learning SQL with MySQL One of the biggest takeaways from the class was learning how to code in SQL. In this class, we had multiple opportunities to practice creating queries with given sets of data. I was not familiar with SQL before this class, so it was a learning curve for me. Reflecting back, I feel more comfortable writing queries in SQL, joining tables to obtain the correct data, and using subqueries in queries as well as views. 2. Creating Entity-Relationship Diagrams between tables Another important takeaway from this class was understanding the relationships that tables can have with each other in an SQL database. We had the opportunity to create and understand an entity's definition, the relationship between two entities, and its attributes. From these relationships, we can create an entity-relation diagram that describes how tables are related. Tables can have 1:1, 1:Many, or Many: Many relationships and those relationships c

  MySQL vs MongoDB This week, we had the opportunity to work with MongoDB in our labs. After experiencing MongoDB and MySQL, there are a few similarities and differences that I noticed between the two.  Similarities  Both MySQL and MongoDB help the user create and interact with a database, especially large databases. After experiencing both, I feel that they are user-friendly and easy to use. They are both open-source software available for the public to use. They are also both adaptable to database programming. During this class, we have used both programs with Java to see how the programming language uses each one as a database with information obtained from a webpage.  Differences  MySQL is a relational database, while MongoDB is a non-relational database. MySQL holds data in tables with columns and rows, while MongoDB holds data in collections with documents in a JSON format. Each database uses a different programming language to complete its queries. MySQL uses SQL, and MongoDB ca

Weekly Reflection This week, we learned about database programming. This process involves building applications with SQL and general-purpose languages such as Java. Integrating the two presents two main challenges: syntax gaps and paradigm gaps. To overcome these challenges, three techniques can be used, Embedded SQL, Procedural SQL, and application programming interface (API). APIs are the most commonly used database programming technique since they allow the syntax gap to disappear and reduce the paradigm gaps.  When data programming with Java, the API Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is used. This API allows the use of Statements that define and execute SQL queries. Values are set via a ResultSet and a next() method. PreparedStatement allows us to use parameters in SQL statements. This practice was put into use for Lab 17, where we used these interfaces to insert and select data from the student table in the Course database. We also implemented these interfaces using a Web App call