Hi! My name's Dave. I'm a software developer and have been studying for longer than I'd like to admit 😂. I also am a huge gamer nerd, and implement way too much gaming influence into my programs, despite the fact I don't actually develop any video games.
My Skillset Thus Far
I first started my coding journey learning Python and Django, with a focus on web development. I've also delved into the typical web dev languages, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while also messing around with MySQL and most recently, React.
The job market has been difficult to figure out on my own. So, for the sake of trying make actual progress this year, I joined some tech communities to make more connections and network better with people. I joined the Commit Your Code discord several years ago, but only recently this year I've been more actively and socially involved.
In the last 3 weeks alone, I've attended at least 2 workshops that hone in on that focus of learning how to talk to people (Game changer, I know...), and have made some genuine connections thus far, gaining some insight in how to proceed in this field.
I've met several amazing people in this Discord thus far. However, with Python, I wasn't really getting anywhere with it. I had developed some programs and recently implemented some basic APIs into Django, but it didn't quite feel like I'm getting everything I want out of it. After some further conversations, I decided to change my stack to Java/Spring Boot and combine it with React. So as of right now, this is my current goal, and with a mountain of evidence, seems to be the right choice so far.
My current progress in the Java course
I'm using Tim Buchalka's Java Masterclass to learn this language. Thankfully coming off of Python, a lot of the skills are transferable, I just need to learn Java's version of those fundamentals.
Currently I'm learning Java's way of coding with Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Unfortunately I've been sick for the past week-ish, which halted my studies.
Now coming back afterwards, I decided to re-visit some topics that I had been rusty on, specifically the use of static and void.
Stay a while and listen...
One of the things I've had to get used to coming off of Python is programming getters, setters, constructors, overloading, and learning where to properly place data types and specific java keywords.
I already understood the concept of OOP from Python: You essentially create a class, and that becomes your template. That template can then instantiate what some languages will call instances (or in Java's case: objects), and you define the values for each of the data points in that object.
However, the use of static and void still confused me to some degree.
The use of static as far as I understand gets mitigated when you define instance fields in a class.
void is typically used in situations where you're not returning or retrieving data, such as when you are creating setter methods.
Now that I look back at my notes, I also remember when I was creating my own classes and constructors, I noticed that I was struggling with the use of this, a keyword that is used when an object needs to access fields in a class, which were already defined at the top level.
Closing remarks
I think that currently I've been making a pretty decent amount of progress, but the big goal is to get a job once I've got my stack all setup.
I'll be posting future updates on ideas and progress as well. It's been a pretty good month, but now that I've finally gotten over this sickness, it's time to grind and keep going. 💪
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