The Summer Thusfar at CDOT w/ Popcorn

A quick summary for anyone who doesn’t know what I have been up to here. My name is Matthew Schranz and I’ve been working full-time specifically on the Popcorn and Popcorn Maker projects since May but was also assisting part-time from January to April. The difference between today and the beginning of May is definitely a big leap in terms of what I understand and the kinds of things I have been able to tackle. I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of a much larger portion of the code base than I do now because of the opportunity I’ve had to tackle various different aspects within the entire Popcorn Maker ecosystem.

Confidence is a major factor. I actually feel like an important part of the team now after spending a lot of time on the project and it was easy to get that opportunity because I was willing to work for it. I’ve gone from pretty low on the totem poll for the project to someone who is counted on to get a bunch of work done and it’s been quite the learning experience getting this far. I’ve been able to work on many different areas of the code, from our server Cornfield to the templates, editors, tests and other general bug fixes. I’ve had the opportunity to expand my knowledge immensely, learn about a lot of different practices/coding styles and just working for a professional organization like Mozilla.

At the same time, I still know I have a ways to go. I feel like I have a lot left to prove and I want to continue working on this as much as possible, often meaning I’m on at night when most of the team isn’t and they think I’m crazy. None the less, I want to push as much as possible.

The rest of the summer is going to be interesting for us. Plans for the entire team/project have definitely changed a fair bit from what we all intended maybe a month ago. For one, David Seifried and Robert Stanica managed to get Popcorn Maker working on the iPad all while not a single person on the team even knew about it. I don’t know if we realistically thought we could get the app working on a mobile device before 1.0 but it’s actually looking very possible.

There are still many hurdles to overcome along with many awesome moments to be shared between now and the 1.0 in November. I just hope I get the chance to go to London for Mozfest to celebrate it 🙂