outreachy intern 2018
I was busy. I worked hard on my final task: convert the single themed app into multi-themed app. There were lots to do. Changing activities, layout, styles, drawables and so on. I learned a lot such as if you using layoutIntent and themes specific attributes (with tag ?attr) you cannot use applicationContext() for the layoutIntent.
I changed activities, layouts, tested, changed, tested, made commit, changed, tested, changed, tested….
Do you know that situation when you have done something and go to bed and sleep, and suddenly during the night you just wake up and realized that what you had done is not the perfect? And you cannot fall asleep until you have solved that problem? Oh I know it. We are old friends with this situation! It started during the university…
But I don’t want to make you bored with events from the past. Instead let me tell what happened a few days ago.
First, you have to know how I work. Normally I work 6 hours during the day (while my son is in school) and 2 hours during the evening when there is peace and quiet.
So a few days ago I my mentors requested me some modification on the task I worked on. I was not a big deal. I implemented it during my evening shift. I tested a little and went to sleep happily with the knowledge I had done everything as I wanted.
Then at 2:30 am, my eyes opened, my brain wake up and started thinking. Ok, I realized, that I missed something. Let’s start figuring out how to solve it. It took a while, but I made it, only in my mind. Then I stored in a segment of my memory.
Next morning the first thing I had done was to write done my thoughts. Then I tried it, and it worked! Big clap for me!
During the last week I worked on gmail API. One of my sub-task was to implement google Gmail API into the application. I found the API’s java quickstart. Oh, I would be fine, I thought. Of course it didn’t work. I always got exceptions after exceptions. I fixed one of the, I got a new one. It made me frustrated. Finally all the exceptions had gone and I could send an email via my demo application.
Before I started my intern, my mentors sent me my Project Timeline. Well, I was shocked. It’s only contained the the the title of my scheduled sub-tasks and the dates (design, developing, demo). After, my brain started working…I started thinking. Of course I had questions ans also ideas. Then during our first call (and first chat), everything cleared. So that’s how my intern started…
So…
First of all I determined, what I wanted: learning something new and doing something what I have done before. I browsed the list of projects and made a short list which projects were interested me and why (pros and cons). Then I reduced my list into one or two projects. After I chose one project: mUzima documentation.
Why did I choose it? I was familiar with writing user manuals and technical documents but I have never worked on an android app before.
After it, I introduced myself and stated working on my first document. While I was writing that document, I found a bug in the application. I reported it and I was curious how to fix it, so I got the code and investigated how can solve the problem. After half an hour, I reported my idea how to fix the bug and I got the opportunity to fix it. So that’s how my story began.
So, I’m in! I was chosen for an Outreachy 2018 Winter internship!
This blog is about my internship. During the next three months (04/12/2018 -04/03/2018) I need to blog how my internship goes.
First of all, I’d like to share my story…
I started years ago, when my husband read about Outreachy in Reddit. It was around 2014, just after our son was born. Since that I kept Outreachy in my mind. Now our son is in school and I’m ready to restart my career. I think Outreachy is a good way to do it.
So in September I finished one of my home project and browsed the current projects…
Zita's Experience 