School is in full tilt, with no sign of letting up through Spring Break. In senior project, we're now into what we software engineers call "Release Mode." We're coming up to The Big Deadline, and we're churning out code and documentation as quickly as we can.
We have a number of big features in Volumizer that are still not quite the way we want, but we don't have time to really do all of them justice. It's not for lack of trying, mind you; I don't function as well without sleep as some of my fellow students, but I haven't been getting my full, comfy 8 hours a night for the past couple of weeks either. I get up, start working on this or that project, maybe go to class, program more, and roll into bed. There's just too little time left to make any more huge changes. We tested with users, found our weak spots, and we'd be golden with two or three months more. But that's the breaks, I guess. Software has one distinct similarity to fine art: it's never finished, only abandoned (to quote Da Vinci). We just have to finish up the most important stuff, and leave any future work to our sponsors.
I'm still quite proud of what we've accomplished. Our project would've been nearly impossible 5 years ago, bleeding edge 2 years ago, and even today is part of the first generation of 3D programs for the mainstream web. Even with its limited range of functionality, it still lets anyone who can use a paint program make their own 3D models. We've dealt with changing internet specifications, buggy development browsers, and a ton of other eye-opening experiences. We can now say with confidence, "Yeah, I've done that before." And that's worth everything.
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