About Me
Hello there, I am Christopher Zavala but you can call me Chris. I am a software developer with a degree in computer science from North Carolina State University. I created this website in order to demonstrate my web-development skills and to experiment with layout and javascript. My programming interests include the following:
Game Development
UI/UX
Full Stack Web Development
CLI programs
Open Source Projects
Skills
Languages
Python Java Javascript HTML CSS C Godot Script SQL
Overview
I am most familiar with Python, Java, Javascript, HTML and CSS as I have made the most amount of projects with those languages. The others I have built atleast one project using said language.Python
I have made mostly CLI tools with Python including a Music Composition program. This program simulated an RPG Dungeon with a hero character and monsters using Dungeons and Dragons style rules and mapped the resulting simulation to MIDI output that I used to compose a music piece.Java
As for Java my experience largely lies in a semester long datastructures project, a coffee inventory and order management full-stack web application, and a course management application. The course management application got me familiar with test driven and object oriented development while the datastructures project got me familiar with algorithm focused development. Finally the coffee shop management project got me familiar with software development practices including documentation, teamwork, deployment, and much more.Javascript HTML CSS
Javascript, HTML, and CSS are languages that I have used to develop several full-stack applications including a movie database like IMDB, a web-scraper, a black-jack website, and this website. I also have quite a bit of experience with C as I took two courses that focused on C programming, one focused on learning C and one focused on operating systems, but because I have more experience with the previously mentioned languages.Tools
Vim VS-Code VS-Codium Git Version Control Google Suite Eclipse
Overview
For programming I am comfortable using several different tools as listed above. This is not necessarily an exhuastive list of tools I use but instead a list of tools that I use most of the time when working on development projects.Vim
When I need to make quick edits or I am ssh'ed into a remote machine I am comfortable using Vim. Once I got past the initial learning curve I have enjoyed it very much as a simple text editor that allowed for fast edits. I am still not a level where it can replace an IDE like VS-Code for me but I am interested in getting to that point.VS-Code/Codium
VS-Code is the first IDE/Editor that I used for programming outside of the assigned Eclipse IDE that we were expected to use in Java courses at NCSU. I liked it's extensibility as I could add plugins to allow for testing and live previews of my projects. I have recently started using Codium in place of VS-Code for various reasons.Git Version Control
Git version control is something that I have been working since the beginning of my programming career at state. It has become integral to my development process as it has for many others. I use it not only for development projects but also for "syncing" my notes across my laptop and desktop.Google Suite
The google suite has all but dominated my document authoring experience. From high-school to now I have used google docs to make word documents, slides, spreadsheets, and to store files in the cloud. I am also familiar with Microsoft Office and Libre-office suites aswell.Eclipse
Eclipse was the default IDE that was required in virtually every class at NCSU that focused on Java development. I have installed it several times on several different computers including several laptops with linux-based operating systems on them. I have spent a lot of time in this IDE even though it is not my prefered editor.Frameworks
NodeJS Nextjs Python Flask AngularJS MySQL
Overview
While this category is labeled frameworks I understand that not all of the technologies listed are considered frameworks. In this case I am mostly just listing off tools that aren't quite as broad as an Editor or Language. For example the Python Flask Library.NodeJS
For all but one of my full-stack development projects I have used Node-JS to run server-side javascript. This includes two team projects and several smaller individual projects. This includes setting up package jsons required for deployment. These projects included a black jack pwa and movie database web-app.NextJS
This javascript framework was mostly used in my senior design project as my teammates chose it as the framework they wanted to work with. I ended up using it to develop a landing page for our project.Python Flask
Python flask is a library that we used in my senior design project to run our server code. This was done upon the request of our sponsor who prefers developing his web applications with this backend. I became familiar with it as I had to write our database ORM scripts for the server to properly interact with the MySQL database we created.AngularJS
AngularJS was the framework that was chosen by the teaching staff in my software development course that focused on the engineering process behind developing full applications. It was used to help us develop the frontend of the Coffee inventory and order management app that was assigned as the project.MySQL
I used MySQL in both my senior design course and a databases course that I took. During the databases course it was used to teach us the basic concepts of relational databases and for developing our own database application, in my case my group decided on a movie database.Operating Systems
Linux Windows
Linux
Personally I have been using linux on and off since I was in middle school, roughly around 2012, and have had basically the full spectrum of experience with it. When I first used a linux distro it was a laptop that had a currupted windows install that Ubuntu replaced. I got used to using the terminal in the most basic sense, mostly copy pasting code to run minecraft servers. Eventually I replaced the bulky laptop with a school provided chromebook and didn't return to linux until my first C class at NCSU. The testing environment for the assignments was linux and thus we were expected to use a linux environment to work on our assignments, or atleast test them. I decided that instead of WSL I was going to install linux on my laptop because of that and got familiar with Linux on a deeper level this go round. I learned how to navigate folders, manage programs, and even modified some bash scripts to help with screen tearing I was experiencing. This time with an, at the time, Ubuntu based distro Pop-OS. I then got familiar with the low-level aspects of linux through the OS class I took. Now I have Fedora installed on my laptop and used it as my primary development machine during my last semester at NCSU.Windows
Windows has been an operating system that has been my default for most of my time using a computer. In my personal life many of my hobbies involve programs that only work on Windows and as a result it has been the primary OS on my personal machine. I do end up working on development projects on said machine so I have learned how to get Windows to work as a development environment. I used WSL to run programs I wrote on my Linux laptop whenever the need arose. I personally have been using it more for development lately as I have had less of a need to develop on my laptop. I prefer using git-bash as my terminal on windows because it allows me to use unix-like commands as opposed to the windows cmd line or powershell.03-2024 | Job Search & Portfolio Site
It has been roughly 2 months since my last blog post and since then there have been some changes since then. First of all, welcome to the my new portfolio website. This was a project meant to demonstrate my ability to develop a standalone website and to demonstrate my ability to develop a project on my own. Grasnted this website is pretty simple. I used the bulma component library to experiment with their compenents and found they were useful. I also wrote some javascript to help out with page navigation in order to make this a single page app. I am still looking for work and if you are potential employer considering me for work I would love to hear from you at the email listed under the contacts-page.
Thank you for reading!
01-2024 | New-Year and Graduation update.
First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR. I am looking forward to this year and getting to explore my interests in computer science on my own. Particularly I look forward to joining a professional team and working on learning Game development on my own. This includes following some tutorials for Godot and joining a game jam during January. I hope to produce some projects that I am proud of. I am also applying to various companies to see if I can join their teams and start my professional career in computer science outside of academia. I am currently working on updating my portfolio to include projects from school that I am allowed to share in my portfolio.
10-2023 | Half-way Through My Last Semester at NCSU
It is now the beginning of the second half of the 2023 fall semester and my graduation is on the horizon. My projects have been going well and I have been keeping my head above water. This semester is a heavy workload meant to allow for my graduation in december but that also means that I have had little to no time to update this repo and most of my projects that I am working on are not quite at the state that I can confidently push them to this repository, so in their stead this update will serve as a log of my progress so far.
Senior design: I am currently taking the senior design course at NCSU. I was assigned to a group working on a project involving CRUD, User Account Management, Web Scraping, Client-Server project implementation, and task brockering.
Web-Development: I am also taking a web-development class focusing on client-server computing. I have developed several smaller projects used to demonstrate basic web-development skills such as HTML, CSS, DOM object manipulation in JS, Node-JS, API implementation, Client side and Server side rendering, Docker deployment, Session cookie management, and much more. I am also working on a semester long group project focusing on implementing all of these skills.
Databases: I have also been learning about database management with a focus on MySQL as the core technology used during the course. I have learned a lot about Normalization, Database insertions, Table creation, and SQL Connection libraries. I am also about to start yet another project, this one focusing on designing and implementing a database
Social-Computing and Decentralized AI: This course has been focused mainly on the theory behind Social-Computing and Decentralized AI. Learning about how agents interact, how contracts can be violated w/ out technically violating them, and how to properly motivate user agents without violating concepts such as autonomy.
Computer Music Composition: And finally we get to a course that has been great for making me consider new ways of thinking and widening my perspective. This course has taught me how to combine one of my biggest hobbies and the field I have dedicated myself to. Learning about the history of algorithmic compisition and synthesis. I am now also embarking on a journey to produce my own piece using said techniques. As of right now I am looking into simulating a simple rouguelike dungeon game in python and using the output to compose a piece using midi.
08-2023 | Creation of my portfolio repository
I created this repository to host my portfolio projects in order to keep track of and demonstrate my skills as a developer. I am fully aware I should have done this earlier and excuses do not fix that issue, that being said here are some of the reasons I have for not doing so earlier in order to reassure some doubts as to why a senior in a CSC program took so long to set up a personal portfolio.
1. Time: during my first few years of schooling I was still going back to my hometown during the summers. During this time that I could have started developing a portfolio I worked 5 days a week at an internship and then spent my weekends working with my parents in the service industry.
2. Awareness: I will admit I should have been more aware of what the differenece between software development and computer science was, unfortunately due to a lack of resources growing up and lack of awareness I did not and that has led to my "late" start.
3. Knowing Where To Start: The internet is amazing in providing resources to learn how to grow as a developer and learning new technologies. What it isn't great at is guiding people who are naive. Sure, there are those who have great courses out there for guiding newbie developers but most of the time the kind of guidance I needed was the kind a mentor would have provided but I didn't know who to ask, what to ask of them, or even that I needed to ask someone to guide me in the first place.
4. Laziness: This one is a hard pill to swallow. No one likes to think of themselves as lazy, especially in a field where grinding out long hours on development projects is a badge of honor, but if I am being honest with my self this has set me back. Now I'm not saying that I was sitting around staring at a wall. What ended up happening was that when I finally was able to have a summer where I could have focused on working on my portfolio it was also the first summer since I was a child that I was not working 7-days a week. -Side Note: while this might seem like an exageration I assure you it is not. The town that I grew up in was a tourist town with no secondary industry to rely on, therefore it was necessary to work as much as possible during the tourist season and use the money earned during that time to hold you over till the start of the next season, now back to the point.- As a result I did not know how to properly relax, I overdid it and ended up wasting my time overindulging in hobbies and sleeping. This led to massive amounts of guilt during the school year and one thing led to another leading to a severe mental health decline that dramatically tanked my scholastic performance as well.
With all of these things considered I am now in a place where I can finally start taking the steps to start honing my skills. I have learned a lot at my time at NCSU but it is now up to me to demonstrate these skills, hence the creation of this repo.