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CailieS
CailieS

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Fear and Loathing with a CLI

The biggest lesson I learned with how to build a CLI from scratch is how to mind my own hubris.

Up until the start of project mode I had the labs down. I chased the green passing methods relentlessly, I thought the project was going to be a breeze, I thought I had this, I thought wrong. When I actually started to code I realized that the undertaking was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be and I maybe didn't know things as well as I thought I did. I started to panic.

The New York Times Book section has always been a favorite section of mine, I have found a few of my favorite books reading their reviews and opinion pieces. So when it came down to coming up with an idea for a project, I thought about doing a New York Times API. So I decided to make a CLI that used and API that pulled book summaries from the New York Times and provided summaries for those books.

My biggest struggle with writing the API class was getting lost in the details. I'd get so focused on some small side thing that I would loose sight of the bigger picture. In the future, when writing a program from scratch, I definitely want to come up with a plan of action before I actually start to code.

When all is said and done though, as hard as it was, I'm really proud of myself for finishing the project. It really brought home topics I wasn't very strong in to begin with and I learned a lot of in depth coding. It was a very cool process to be able to use what I've learned so far to make something like a CLI, and to also use those skills to learn things I needed to know to finish the project. As much sleep as I lost stressed about this project, I would absolutely do it again.

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