DEV Community: Alexander McMillan

What I'd do differently in Bootcamp. (spoiler: Everything)

Alexander McMillan — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:09:08 +0000

So, now with the end in sight for my bootcamp journey I get to reflect on what I've learned (so much), how far I've come (pretty far), and what's left to learn (pretty much everything). More than that I get to look back on my progress, all my accomplishments and say "Wow, I did that COMPLETELY wrong. It's literally amazing my house didn't burn down."

So, number one:

Biggest thing I can say is, just start coding. Every lab seems Machiavellian and every app seems like an impossible task for anything other than Androids. Just start with one thing you can do. Whatever the bare minimum is. Write a function. Import something you know you'll need. Even if its just writing pseudo code for something that you have no idea how to do. Write it. Code it. Get the clickety clack of the keys going in some way shape or form. It doesnt matter whether you're right or it works. What matters is you're coding. Inevitably, a great deal of coding is actually just staring at a screen in bewilderment. Bewilderment is fine, but procrastination is not. Too much time is spent wondering how to do something instead of trying to do it, even if the result is abject failure (which will become a close friend).

Number two:
Good lord, dont hesitate to ask for help. Especially from people who are making their living being there to help you. I promise you, you're not going to ask a question they havent heard or asked themselves. No amount of trouble you're having will make them think you're stupid and shouldn't be here. Accept that being wrong, failing, and not understanding a concept is all NORMAL. It is actually quite necessary. No matter who you are, there will be issues you cannot solve on your own. More than you can count. Give yourself time to struggle, but you dont want to lose progress getting over one hill. Everything you learn will be connected to something else. The more you learn, the more other things that are seemingly unrelated will make sense. This includes hearing people that are more knowledgeable than you talk about things and you have no idea what they're saying. Give it your best try. Try again. One more time. After that point its ok to ask for help.

Number 3:
Take a break. Not too many, but an 8 hour crunch is going to be exponentially less effective the longer you go without stepping away for a bit. Take a refresher now and then. Dont let it get too long, but make sure you dont skip it either. Taking 15 or 20 minutes to charge will work wonders in the following hour or two.

Number 4:
Somewhat related to number 2, but dont let criticism get you down. The best instructors will not hesitate to tell you exactly what you did wrong and, just like efficient code, they wont waste any time or mince any words. Make sure not to take it personally, no matter how badly it seems like they're eviscerating your idea, your pitch or the logic of your code. They're probably right. Take it in and whatever you're working on will be in a better spot because of it.

Number 5:
You deserve to be here. By whatever metrics such a thing can be judged, you meet them. You earned the spot. All the success in the world is available to you, but no one will hand it to you. Work on bettering yourself as much as getting your code. This is an opportunity that you've earned. Make the most of it.

Crossing the Line before the Finish Line. Also the line before that.

Alexander McMillan — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 23:04:14 +0000

As the end of my coding boot camp can be seen just over the yonder horizon, I can look back at the experience of building something from scratch. Now, with 4 projects done ("projects" being a loose term for "A bunch of code that somehow works for the most part"), I can remember the initial experience of overwhelming dread at seeing the size, scope, and complexity of the job ahead. Many minutes, and hours if I were being honest, were lost just sitting in front of my computer and not knowing what to do. The task seemed simply _impossible _for my meager talents.

That's when the first line is crossed. Simply starting. Doing something, no matter how small of a task it may be. One of the things I would tell my previous non-coder self would be to pick something small and start there. It doesn't matter what sometimes because anything is better than your hands hovering over a keyboard without producing the clickety-clacking of the first strands of error, bug-ridden and nearly indecipherable scribble that are sure to be produced by your initial attempts at making any amount of code do what you want it to do.

But persistence is the key that opens the door. I've struggled to do even the most mundane of tasks, and I'm sure I will continue to do so in the future. One step will eventually be successful, and it will lead to more utter and abject failure. And the process will continue more or less like so.

But there's one more line to cross that isn't the finish line. That's when somehow, some way the impossible has happened. Your code is working. After gallons of energy drinks and you're surrounded by the empty plastic wrappings of whatever terrible food you had been consuming until this point, the things you want to happen actually happen at the time you want them to. It's a mystifying result and looking back is almost like turning around to see that the road that leads you here is very hazy and blurry. You're not quite sure how it all got to this point, but here you are, and the picture of a clown eating a cheeseburger on your app is somehow being displayed appropriately and in the proper proportions!

How? How did this happen? Persistence. Now the possibilities that seemed non-existent before now turn into dozens of idea pop-corning inside your Mountain Dew fueled brain. First you didn't know where to start, and now you're thinking of all the possibilities. _That _is the point where I feel success. The finish line itself is just icing on top.

Becoming a multi-lingual programmer

Alexander McMillan — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 20:25:47 +0000

Now that JavaScript and React have both been mastered (and by "mastered" I mean "acquired a rudimentary base understanding of"), the time has come to move on to the favorite database buddy of many a programmer, Python. Having spent a considerable amount of time dealing with front-end programming, swimming in the nuts and bolts of object-oriented programming was yet another learning experience. Not just in the sense that for the first time I was dealing with a much more abstract presentation, that lacked the same visual feedback of my front-end buddies, I was now dealing with something a programmer needs to understand with a new programming language.

Syntax.

How familiar it can seem is both a blessing and a bane of learning a new language. As a programmer, there can only be so many tasks you can code. These tasks don't change much from language to language I have recently learned, but the method of coding these tasks properly can differ greatly from language to language. A method is not just a method but a function! Oh, how familiar! Why, a list is nothing but an array!How simple and easy this new language will be!

Whoever coined the term "familiarity breeds contempt" was probably a programmer.

While familiarity is certainly a positive at times, you become set in your ways as a programmer. Even with pythons sleek, streamlined syntax the muscle memory in your fingers will simply do things that python does not like at all. The new syntax might require less keystrokes but the _placement _of these keystrokes can render an entire file practically invisible to everything except your own eyes (which are the ones that don't matter at all in this case).

Hours will be spent with your nose inches from the screen looking for a sign....any sign of why it isn't working....only to find that your if/else statement is one space away from where python wants it. Just one. A single space and Python absolutely refuses to acknowledge that your code exists. Like a pet cat that turns it's head away from the new brand of food you're attempting to feed it because it's several dollars less. Like your fat, spoiled feline, Python simply _does not have the time for this. _

So you press the space bar one time and everyone is happy. Except the programmer, but that's to be expected at this point. However, perhaps I dwell on the negatives. It's certainly easier to learn something once you have a reference point. The technical aspects of python certainly come easier now that you know what's happening. Moving forward, all languages will essentially become learning a syntax more than anything else. Is that a good things. Yes, probably it is. Even if it means going blind staring at your screen looking for the single keystroke of error.