Weblog: Week 1

Thursday, May 15th, 2003 21:15

Tonight I went to the Software Engineering End of the Year Party. I got lost on the way there, but made it in time for the food. It was a bunch of fun and I was able to meet many of the people that I will be working with this summer. I also learned a little bit more about what I can expect this summer as well.

Saturday, May 17th, 2003 23:30

I just got a phone call from Jessica that woke me up, but she had some good info about Pat's roommate's new kitten, Scabbies. Yesterday and today was really busy. Yesterday I meet Pat's parents for the first time. They are incredibly nice, and I think that they like me! Today I had to get up early for Pat's graduation at the ESA (or RBC center, but really, Canada should not be allowed to name a sports arena in the US.) I was able to save seats for Pat's family in a pretty good location. We were able to see the faces of all the grads. I was able to see Ben and Tom when they came in as well as Pat.

The speaker for graduation was Phil Donahue. His speech was quite funny, but I felt bad for him because so many people walked out. Of course he should not have chosen a Southern school to give a speech about Liberal ideas.

Then we went to the Electrical and Computer Engineering graduation. Pat's parents, aunt, and I ended up standing for over 4 hours first waiting to get into the graduation and then in the graduation itself.

Monday, May 19th, 2003 17:30

My first day of work was very interesting. I first had to go fight the lines to get a parking permit for campus so that I can drive here everyday. That also involved getting up way to early. But I was able to get my parking permit and make it into school by 8 or so. The first thing I did was meet with Dr. Williams. She showed me my office and computer. We discussed more the different activities that I would be working on this summer. I also found out that I would be going to Nortel this afternoon to be introduced to the team I would be working with there.

On Mondays we all get together for a reading group. This is where papers that are being worked on for publication are discussed and edited. We read a paper on Internet Security and one on Reliability.

First, I downloaded Eclipse so I could start learning how to work with it. Next, I loaded Rational XDE to start learning how to use that as well. Rational XDE will be used in Software Engineering Labs next fall so Dright, Lynn, and I will be writing tutorials for the software specific to the lab (I have a vested interest in making the tutorials good because I will be a TA for the SE Lab in the Fall.)

In the afternoon I went with Lucas to go and visit the Nortel team. We sat in on the beginning of they're meeting to briefly discuss what I will be doing for them this summer. First, I will be creating a script to input test result data into their database. Then I will work with them on their testing and helping them automate their testing. My observations about how they go about their testing processes and how difficult it is to automate testing processes I will bring back for Nachi's research.

Tuesday, May 20th, 2003 20:00

Today I started working with Dright on the first Tutorial for Rational XDE. This tutorial is a basic introduction on how to use Rational XDE.

Also, saw the Matrix Reloaded today. Very awesome movie!!

Wednesday, May 21st, 2003 19:00

Still working on the first tutorial. The screen shots are a pain. I also worked with Lucas on an outline of my responsibilities this summer at Nortel. Mark showed me SWT Unit for Eclipse and sent me the files so that I can load the plug-in. SWT Unit allows for the automated testing of GUI's. It looks really cool because it quickly goes through all of the GUI tests by filling in the fields, checking all boxes, etc.

Played catch with Mark and Colin during lunch today. I must remember to bring my glove so all three of us can play on Monday.

Thursday, May 22nd, 2003 20:00

Finished up the first tutorial at least for the moment. The pictures will probably need to be edited when the new version of Rational XDE comes out that is based off of Eclipse 2.1. Dr. Williams is going to test the tutorial on Tuesday.

Met with Dr. Williams and Lucas about the Nortel Outline that Lucas and I worked on yesterday.

After finishing the tutorial I started looking SWT Unit. I got the program that Mark sent me running. It includes the SWT Unit and a sample program that shows how SWT Unit works. I got the sample program working, however I am having problems creating a small SWT program of my own. SWT stands for Standard Widget Toolkit and is a built in GUI application of Eclipse. It allows for the Widgets of an operating system to be used when a Java program is run.

Friday, May 23rd, 2003

Worked some more on the SWT Unit experimentation. Started understanding how I am to format and structure the GUI's better. Also, I spent some time fiddling around with the tutorial some more. Dr. Williams is going to test it on Tuesday.