DEV Community: Laura Ashcroft

About Me!

Laura Ashcroft — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 22:30:10 +0000

Hi everyone!

I'm Laura, I'm 26 and I'm mega excited to be here as an official School of Code 4.0 bootcamper! I've just finished my Markdown tutorial and wanted to practice my new skills straight away.

A bit about me...

I try to be quite sporty and have played competitively in tennis, football and American football. I'm hoping to keep at least some of this up while working at home for 16 weeks and be as active as possible. I grew up in West Bromwich but now live in Tamworth with my fiancée Helen, who also codes from home and is loving it! We now have a shared office space called the Sunshine Room (because of the yellow walls!) where we can spend the day together but wear our soundproof headphones when we need to! 🎧 ☀️

I have been working for the police for the last year in Forensic Science, using a variety of techniques to identify fingerprints from crime scene evidence. I did enjoy the laboratory work, however once you've seen one bloody machete, you have seem them all unfortunately. The novelty wore off after a while and I found myself almost working back towards my 'roots' and becoming interested in game development and physics engines.

I have always loved gaming and have been interested in it for many reasons:

I am a major geek and will happily spend any free time I have playing video games.
The landscapes and details on some video games are just beautiful and it always makes me wonder how it's done and how I could do it. (Can we stop to think about Red Dead Redemption 2 for a moment and sit in awe at that scene?)
Learning to play video games is a skill that can be developed and even envied - some children earn £2 million for winning at Fortnite!!
Video games bring friends together and become something you have in common and can discuss.
Video games show finally who is the best and who gets to Finish Him.

I've been learning to code at home for the past few months and have so far been learning from:

I have been really looking forward to starting School of Code since I read the email to say I've been accepted, and have been working my way through the Pre-Course Checklist to make sure I'm up to date and ready to go for the 21st!

See you soon! 👋

School of Code Weeks 4 - 5

Laura Ashcroft — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 22:19:08 +0000

Week 4 and 5 continued with lots of learning and building up my confidence with the topics we have already covered. I've carried on using Codewars to keep developing my problem solving and am now on my 7th Kyu!

During week 4, we continued with:

Backend
NODE.js
Rest APIs
Async / Await
Express
Query Parameters
Middleware Functions
Testing
Jest

In week 4 we continued to develop our backend knowledge and learned to build a server from scratch. It was a difficult couple of weeks - I don't think backend comes to me as easily as frontend does! Grateful to have had the two weeks to learn though as I now feel much more confident about building a server and using a database.

At the end of each day we've been encouraged to complete a 'daily reflection'

I've recorded what I have learnt from the lectures and what my feelings are at the end of each day. For each DEV post I'll give a brief overview of what I wrote in these reflection tasks...

Week 5 Day 1-3 Reflections

Object Oriented Programming - a style of programming that is based on Objects.
Classes are a large part of OOP and contain constructors - the objects of that class. i.e. for an animal, constructors may include head, body, legs, etc.
Variables can be assigned to create a new version of that class - i.e. const rabbit = new Animal().
We can check that the variable has been correctly assigned to that class by checking it is an 'instanceof' that class.
Methods can be created within a class to change the constructors that exist - i.e. taming a wild animal
Methods can also be used to create anything else! Such as a console log, an alert, another function, etc.
Classes can be extended by inserting another class into it i.e. extending Animal with Pet.
The super constructors know about the parent class' objects and methods. We don't have to write them all out again!
Canvas API is a way to draw graphics in JavaScript and the HTML canvas element. This week we used it to create games!
Canvas can be used to create literal works of art - much further along than the rectangles and circles I managed this week!
Solid OOP - There are 5 main principles for OOP.

Single Responsibility Principle
Open-Closed Principle
Liskov Substitution Principle
Interface Segregation Principle
Dependency Inversion Principle

Last of all... making games is fun!!

Thoughts and Feelings
This week has felt pretty good! I've enjoyed learning OOP and being able to start 'works of art' using Canvas, as well as understanding the fundamentals of a game. I've definitely been aiming for the stars in each project, and learning more about MVP has reigned in my ideas and keeping things realistic - until I've completed the MVP.

Week 5 Days 4-5

Reflection

We had a two day hackathon this week so we could create a game using Canvas and OOP.
In my partnership this week, we created a Flappy Bird game that used a SoC avatar as the sprite rather than the traditional bird.
I LOVED working on it! It was definitely a challenge learning to create different functions that were needed in the game, such as:

Gravity
Collisions
Flight
Generating random obstacles
A scoreboard

Some things aren't 100% - like the obstacles don't always generate with a gap in the middle - but I'm hoping to work on it and finish it off!

Thoughts and Feelings
Glad I made it through the week! The intensity definitely ramped up this week but with enough notes during class and practice in the evenings, I had enough confidence with node.js to work through it systematically. I even understood why I had some of the errors that flagged up!

End of Week 5

I've had a really good week! Game development is the industry I want to get into and this was my first real taste of it at SoC. I set my mind to the type of game I wanted and while it may have been ambitious, I was determined to pull it off. By the end of the hackathon, we had a functioning game that is accessible and fun! I'm looking forward to learning React next week!

School of Code Bootcamp 4.0 Weeks 2-3

Laura Ashcroft — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 16:40:25 +0000

Week 1 went extremely quick and my brain was filled with so much new knowledge! In week 2, we moved onto advanced JavaScript to build on our existing knowledge and learn how to write functions differently.

During week 2, we moved onto :

Advanced functions
Composition
Immediately Invoked Function Expression
Refactoring
Destructuring
Methods
Callback Functions
Asynchronous JavaScript
JSON
Scope

Week 2 was building on our frontend knowledge and getting to grips with some of the more advanced parts of JavaScript. Week 3 was the real battle! 👇

At the end of each day we've been encouraged to complete a 'daily reflection'

I've recorded what I have learnt from the lectures and what my feelings are at the end of each day. For each DEV post I'll give a brief overview of what I wrote in these reflection tasks...

Week 3 Day 1-4 Reflections

Persistent storage is any database that retains data even if the power is shut off to that machine.
C(reate) R(ead) U(pdate) D(elete)
Servers or databases could be on your own computer, or on different machines entirely (the "cloud"). As long as they're talking to each other, they can exist on the same machine.
There are relational databases and non relational databases.
SQL stands for Structured Query Language.
SQL has more 'human readable' syntax. A few examples are:

The * means is a wildcard and selects all information.
We SELECT information FROM a database WHERE a condition is present.
We can UPDATE users by applying SET to their new information.
DELETE FROM shows where we are deleting somewhere and WHERE shows what we're deleting.

SQL also contains operators such as =, BETWEEN, NOT BETWEEN, IN, NOT IN, LIKE, NOT LIKE, %, and - to create conditions when finding information from a database.
SQL can be used to navigate between different tables and select relevant information from them.
Node.js is a way to use JavaScript without the browser. It runs in the terminal in VS Code and is our way to backend code.
We can run files in node by typing 'node main.js' in the terminal.
Importing modules into a file uses the require("") syntax.
In the Pg Module, "Pool" is the active connection to the database from node.js.
Npm init will create a package.json file with the relevant information in.
Environment variables allow us to hide our credentials from GitHub without hiding the rest of our code (by putting them in the .gitignore folder).

Thoughts and Feelings
This week has felt more overwhelming than the last 2 combined! We've had our introduction to the backend (node.js, SQL) and I've definitely found some parts much easier than others. The SQL Murder Mystery was way more fun than creating a server and making it listen to requests. Nervous about the hackathon but looking forward to seeing what I learn!

Week 3 Day 5

Reflection

Today's hackathon was difficult!
We git cloned a web application that had already been designed and needed to get the server to listen on the correct port.
We added functionality so we could get the data as needed for the front-end.
Turned the data into persistent storage by refactoring our code and made it interact with a database instead of an array.
Created a Postgres DB on Heroku, connected to it, and then interacted with it through SQL queries to allow all the same functionality as we had earlier.

End of Week 3

Phew! I'm happy I've learned backend and have now got a knowledge of the full stack rather than just front end. Looking forward to building onto my skills and understanding the code instinctively. Definitely glad for this weekend though!

School of Code 4.0 Bootcamp

Laura Ashcroft — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 11:02:01 +0000

I made it!!

School of Code 4.0 started on Monday 25th September 2020 and I was one of the lucky people who got selected to be a bootcamper. The selection process was long, with quite a few hoops to jump through to get where I am now, but that was the easy part!

My brain has been jam packed within the first week, where we have covered basic JavaScript and have put into practice what we have learnt each day. Within 4 days we had covered:

Types

Number
String
Boolean
Undefined
Null
Bigint
Symbol
Object
Function

Variables
Arrays
If Statements
For Loops
While Loops
The DOM
Events

And the most important thing...

= is not an equals sign! Everything I have ever known about = is a lie. It is now the Assignment Operator and used to assign or reassign variables to an expression (to give a value).

There's also a few different ways to type...

thisIsCamelCase
this_is_snake_case
kebab-looks-like-a-skewer
PascalIsAllCapitals
SCREAMING_SNAKE_IS_SHOUTY

At the end of each day we've been encouraged to complete a 'daily reflection'

I've recorded what I have learnt from the lectures and what my feelings are at the end of each day. For each DEV post I'll give a brief overview of what I wrote in these reflection tasks...

Week 1 Day 1-4 Reflections

JavaScript is made up of operators, variables and types, logic flow, loops and functions. There are different types within JS; number, string, boolean, undefined, null, bigint, symbol, object and function. Numbers operators include + - / * and % (modulus showing remainder) and boolean operators show true and false rather than a number value.
Variables store information and labels are used to point at a value that is unreachable - it's just our way of extracting information out of 'space'.
Assigning variables means "must be a pointer" = "must be an expression" as a layout. You have to 'point' your variable to a value.
Prompts, alerts and confirms are all functions. Using a function() will create a 'pop up' that requires user input.
Loops repeat a script. While loops are indefinite and for loops are definite and have an end as long as there is a condition.
Parameters are when you define slots for things to be taken in by your function. Arguments are when you hand things to your function.
Variables can be let, const or var.

let is a variable that can be reassigned i.e. let myVariable = 1; || myVariable = 100;
const cannot be reassigned i.e. const myVariable = 1; || myVariable = 100; would fetch an error message
var is just the old version of let and can be reassigned also.

${} should be used when joining strings together as it is easier to do and uses up less time and space. It can also be used to fetch a live update from a function i.e. a number counting up.
Key is a string.
Values can be nested or listed to show there is more than one value to an object.

let myLaptop = { brand: "HP", screenSize: "16-inch", price: "£400", aesthetics: { color1: "purple", color2: "silver", hasTouchpad: "true" } };

Arrays are lists and can be shown in different ways, i.e. on a single line or in a horizontal column (latter is easier depending on how much information is being stored).
.innerText is more secure than .innerHTML as it disallows the user to create their own code within a website.
Function is a type that can be used within functions in the same code block to make the web page more interactive.
.addEventListener is waiting for a certain (event) to happen before the code is read by the computer - this can be a button click or a 'keyup'.
DO NOT put () after a function within .addEventListener as it will call the whole function rather than the part I need.
Bubbling is the hierarchy of code and how it flows through each element.

Thoughts and Feelings
This week I started off feeling a bit overwhelmed, but overall pretty good! It's nice to have seen the pace that has been set and I feel that I mostly kept up. I feel confident that I can ask any questions when I need to, especially when I don't fully understand something. The morning and afternoons tasks really cement in the learning and make me feel more confident with my progress.

Week 1 Day 5

Reflection

This was our first hackathon!
We made an interactive game of Rock, Paper, Scissors where the user (human) played against a randomly generated move (the computer).
We used radio buttons to select which move you wanted to make and a "go" button that waited for a click event before moving.
The computer move was generated by selecting a random number between 0 and 2, with each number assigned to a move. We used math.floor() and math.random() to generate the numbers.

If 0 was generated, computer would choose rock.
If 1 was generated, computer would choose paper.
If 2 was generated, computer would choose scissors.

It needed some styling but the game was complete and indefinitely returned to play for as long as you like!

Thoughts and Feelings
I feel really good at the end of today! I worked really well in my trio and we tackled lots of problems together to overcome them and create a working, interactive game!

End of Week 1

So the first week went really quick! A lot of information was injected into my brain but I really enjoyed it! There was some ups and downs of completely getting the tasks and not understanding everything properly, but with practice after the session, the support from the SoC Team and the other boot campers coming together to solve issues. I really enjoyed my first week at School of Code and I'm looking forward to learning more next week!