Adapting to development under CakePHP and the university's information system architecture has been slow but steady and really picked up today. Now I see that whatever I developed in the past under MVC frameworks has really been scarce. It obviously helped to understand the foundations of what models, views and controllers are but I guess I still hadn't grasped what they really are. That, alas (or not), only comes with extensive exposure to somewhat complex system that use them.
In any case, it's been a really interesting trip so far and the best side effect has been learning a lot of simple but neat Emacs tricks with Gonçalo, my supervisor on this particular project. Another important thing is that I'll probably be developing another information system, with different subject matter entirely, and the knowledge I've been acquiring will surely prove invaluable later on. Today has been somewhat of a breakthrough, as I've been implementing from scratch a lot of functionality which, despite simple at the core, were nothing but a major headache less than a week ago.
And when it comes to database design, I may not come up with the best relational designs in the world but I surely understand them much more clearly. Proof is how different (and may I add worse) a schema for a side project of mine was before I got to work on this stuff here and now that I learned a couple of things.
Oh and I've been carrying the Macbook along to work again. I simply cannot live without this baby and I guess using a shitty keyboard on the desktop also prevents me from really feeling comfortable. Other than that I just miss the comfort I find in Mac OS, regardless of my everlasting love for Linux, which I've used for over a decade now.
It's also been two months since I started working and the truth is that I've done little else on the side. Football Manager 2008 Portuguese translation has kicked off and there's a web app I'd like to take a stab on but both are on the backburner until I get back on my feet, so to speak. The translation, however, I need to start as soon as possible.
More to come. Interesting, albeit difficult tiresome and sometimes nerve-wrecking, times.