DEV Community: amberchisholm

Question for Self-Taught Developers...

amberchisholm — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 06:21:57 +0000

I'm curious...for those of you who self-taught yourself to code, how much did a mentor play a factor in your journey?

A lot?
A little?
None at all?

As I've been going over my JavaScript studies and struggling with certain things, I couldn't help but to wonder if most other self-taught developers go at this whole thing solo as well? Or if most find a mentor at some point to help guide them?

While I'm fully confident in my abilities to become a full stack developer on my own, there are definitely times when I think an experienced developer who has done all this before would be super helpful in the coding journey.

What do you think, my fellow self-taught programmers? Is having a mentor unrealistic these days?

Day 15 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Sat, 18 May 2019 02:49:25 +0000

Ok, I know it's been almost a week since I've posted so there's been a few days between "Day 14" and "Day 15", but I promise I haven't been slacking on those "between" days!

I've actually been going back over a few of the earlier Javascript fundamentals that I learned previously. Mostly because I realized while learning more advanced Javascript concepts, I had forgotten some of the basics. And for me, I typically can't go over this stuff once and instantly get it down. I need repetition to retain all this cool, fascinating, and sometimes frustrating Javascript goodness.

So, to the 5 or so people reading this, hang tight.

Btw/Random: You mean to tell me all this time I've been putting my script tags at the bottom of my HTML like a sucker when I could've just used "async" or "defer"?? Oh Javascript, I love when you make my life easier.

Day 14 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Fri, 10 May 2019 04:34:58 +0000

Closure, Currying and Compose.

Yikes. I attempted to learn about the above techniques today, and I'm not going to lie, it mostly went over my head.

Well, I kind of get the concept of Closures, where it basically allows the child scope to always have access to the parent scope. But Currying and Compose left me scratching my head. Which is strange because I got all the answers right to the exercises for these advanced functions. But I think it's the process of how I got those solutions that I need to clarify and make sure I understand.

Time to do some googling and find more resources to explain this madness.

Day 13 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Tue, 07 May 2019 02:59:33 +0000

"let" is the new "var"....

Or so I've heard. I was both pleased and slightly frustrated with learning ES6. On the one hand, I love that'll make coding Javascript simpler. On the other hand, it'll take a little getting used to learning new syntax after getting so used to typing "var" for everything.

Oh well, shouldn't take long. By the way, cheers to ES6 template strings! Soooo much better.

Day 12(?) Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Thu, 02 May 2019 03:16:52 +0000

Confession: I was working on an Advanced Control Flow exercise involving Ternary Operators and the Switch function, and got stuck. Grrrr!

I typed my solution code, looked at it, and deleted it. Then tried again. I looked up a few resources on Ternary and Switch functions (Stack Overflow, YouTube vids, etc), typed my solution again, looked at it...then deleted it.

It was only when I finally looked at the instructor's solution and realized I was correct with my FIRST solution that I wanted to kick myself.

Lessoned Learned: I need to just trust myself and not overthink these things.

Day 11 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 01:34:03 +0000

Fresh Scope!

After struggle a bit with DOM manipulation, learning about global/root scopes and local scopes seemed like a fresh, Spring breeze. And very good stuff to know as well, since figuring out the accessibility of certain variables seems pretty important for future coding projects.

So far my coding journey has been about how I expected it: Some pleasure, some pain. But all of it totally rewarding.

Onto Advanced Control Flow...

Day 10 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 21:49:43 +0000

I know the title says "Day 10", but it's more like day 15 as I've spent the past few days working on a DOM Events exercise where I had to create a shopping list web app. Pretty simple right? Ha.

It took me quite a long time to figure out how mark through each list item when the user clicks on it. Same for creating a delete button beside each item, including any new items the user inputs. And it took me even longer to figure out how to actually remove that item from the list when you click on the delete button.

Honestly, I felt pretty discouraged while working on this, since I know shopping lists and To Do lists are supposed to be a few of the easier things you can create with JS. I thought, "What is wrong with me? Why am I having so much trouble with something so simple??"

But then I realized, right now, it really doesn't matter how long it takes me to grasp something, or create something. What matters most is that I figure it out, and use the many awesome resources available to me. Which I did.

That's a win in my book.

Day 9 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 04:42:03 +0000

DOM DOM DOM...

Learning about DOM was pretty interesting. I wasn't sure about it's usefulness at first, but then I began to see how essential it is for selecting certain elements, classes, and ID's.

I created a shopping list in HTML and used Javascript and DOM selectors to add interactiveness to it, such as adding an input text field with an enter button and the ability to add new items to the shopping list.

Nothing fancy, but a good way to work with the DOM and have some fun with it.

Day 8 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 03:03:16 +0000

JS just threw me for a loop! Eek!

So, I mentioned in my last post how easy I found the subject of Objects, and the exercises I did along with it. And how that probably means the next topic I tackle will give me hell. Well, I was right.

I learned about Loops today.

I. Am. Lost.

Everything else I've been able to grasp pretty well, and whatever I didn't understand initially I researched deeper into the topic via MDN, Stack Overflow, and video tutorials until it made sense. But so far, nothing about Loops make sense to me. I don't get the syntax. I don't get when to use for, forEach, while, or do-while. I don't understand the results the Loops return.

Looks like I have a LOT of extra digging to do into Loops.

Day 7 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 01:37:07 +0000

The Object of my Desire...

Not sure why, but learning the basics of Objects in Javascript has been one of the easiest subjects for me to grasp so far. Or maybe everyone else finds them super easy too? I don't know. But I just did 3 different exercises on Objects and got all 3 of the solutions right. The exercises involved adding "username/password" Objects as well as adding Objects to an Array I created.

I think this only means the next topic I learn is going to give me grief, which seems only fair.

Day 6 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 03:40:25 +0000

Hooray Arrays!!

That was corny but I don't care, because I just tackled Arrays in Javascript! But I'll admit, for some reason this one was tough for me. I understand the methods fine, such as push, shift, pop, etc. What I didn't understand was the Why, or rather the purpose of Arrays. I think I need to see it in a real use case on a website to put it all together for me.

Also, trying to find the index value in a multidimensional nested array was confusing as hell to me. But, I found a great article that really explains nested arrays in a very simple, understandable way. Plus, the article uses Simpsons and Lost characters as examples which is always a win in my book.

Day 5 Learning Javascript

amberchisholm — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 23:53:23 +0000

Function, Function...what's your Function?

So I finally delved into functions, one of the core components of Javascript. I feel like I accomplished something, as I know how important functions are to using Javascript. And it feels great!

It's a little confusing a first, but after playing around with it more I had a better understanding, that functions are basically actions. And the () just "calls" the functions to actually execute. Pretty cool stuff. I can definitely see how useful all this will be once I get deeper into it.

But I can also see how easy it is to wreck your whole code by misplacing a semi-colon. Fun times with functions!