Git Reflections

This week in class, we explored Git more deeply, covering topics like branching, merging, and reverting commit history. While I had some prior experience with committing, and pushing from my software engineering class, I found branching particularly interesting. The ability to work on a feature separately and then merge it into the main project is incredibly useful, especially in collaborative environments. However, I also realized how easily things can go wrong if you’re not careful. Merge conflicts and unintended changes can be frustrating, but this lecture showed experiments with different commands to gain confidence in using Git more effectively. The merge process felt seamless, but when we intentionally created conflicting changes, resolving them was more complex than I expected. Seeing Git highlight conflicts in fun.txt and manually choosing how to resolve them gave me a new appreciation for how real-world collaboration works in software development.

Another important takeaway was understanding the detached HEAD state—when we checked out a specific commit instead of a branch, it made it clear how Git keeps track of historical changes while allowing us to navigate through different points in time. Overall, these exercises helped demystify Git’s inner workings and reinforced best practices like committing often, using clear commit messages, and handling merge conflicts carefully.

Browser Extension Presentations

This week’s class presentations were interesting to view. Seeing how different teams approached their browser extension projects expanded my own understanding of what’s possible. Two projects that stood out to me were Quick Notes and I Did That Extention.

• Quick Notes was a simple yet highly practical tool that allowed users to take notes in a pop-up window. It’s the kind of tool I could genuinely see myself using.
• I Did That Extention was a fun parody showcasing a dynamic web sticker of President Trump pointing and saying “I did that”. I was impressed by how the image was able to flip its orientation based on the midline of the webpage.

Key Takeaways from My Own Group Work

A link to our project: Color1ze

Working on my own group’s project was a learning experience in both technical problem-solving and collaboration. A major takeaway was the importance of scoping ideas realistically. At the start, we had big ambitions for our extension, such as being able to choose text color from a plethora of choices. However, as we developed it, we realized we had to narrow our focus and prioritize features that were actually achievable in the given timeframe. Ultimately, we settled on our dynamic rainbow effect to get strated. This experience taught me how to balance creativity with feasibility—something that will definitely help in future projects.

Additionally, seeing my classmates’ work and reflecting on my own group’s progress has motivated me to keep pushing my limits and experimenting with new technologies. I’m excited to apply these lessons to future projects and continue improving both my coding skills and collaborative workflows.