CS Online Learning Journal

CST-334 Week 1 This week we started a new class, CST-334: Operating Systems. This class discusses the ideas behind operating systems, why we use them, what they are for, and how they work. Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces In CST-334 we will be reading  Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces , which is available for free on the book's website . Chapter 2: Introduction to Operating Systems This week we read chapter two of  Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces.  This chapter discussed the basics of virtualization, concurrency, and persistence. Virtualization is the way in which operating systems share physical resources with processes. This includes giving each process its own virtual CPU, and its own portion of memory. Concurrency relates to the problems operating systems face when running multiple processes at the same time. How do operating systems allow multiple processes to run in a way that prevents errors or conflicts? Persistence relates to storing data in a more p...

 CST-363 Week 8 This week is our final week of CST-363, also known as Introduction to Database Systems. Questions Briefly summarize the what you consider to be the three (3) most important things you learned in this course. In this class I learned how SQL script works, and how to design and read SQL statements. In this class I learned how both relational and NoSQL databases work. In this class I learned the ways databases are integrated with general purpose programming languages, and wrote a simple program in Java utilizing both MySQL and MongoDB.

 CST-363 Week 7 This week was our seventh week in CST-363, also known as Introduction to Database Systems. Questions Compare MongoDB with MySQL. What are some similarities?   Both MongoDB and MySQL are database applications. Both function similarly in fundamental ways, such as having tables/collections. Both are best used alongside a general-purpose coding language, such as through the use of an API.  What are some differences? MySQL uses SQL, while MongoDB uses Javascript. Because of this the two applications are very different to use. Using the two applications with Java works very differently also. MySQL uses relational databases, while MongoDB uses document databases. This results in the two applications acting very differently. For example, MySQL has strict schema, whereas MongoDB has flexible schema. When would you choose one over the other?     If the database needed to be very structured, or the structure was guaranteed, then I would use MySQL. If t...