DEV Community: Lucy

Moving to Backend (Starting with Ruby!)

Lucy — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 06:05:57 +0000

Introduction

Good evening everyone here in the DEV community, I'm back again but this time I'm switching from frontend development to backend! Surprisingly, I found that Ruby was easier to learn compared to JS/React. Maybe because it was my second language I had a bit more experience to know how to tackle learning about something new. I initially struggled in the start, but so far I've been enjoying my experience with it! Stay tuned if you're interested in more details about my journey with Ruby.

Initial Feelings

Jumping from React to Ruby was a bit confusing at first, but I expected such since it was a swap from front-end to back-end development. Some of it was pretty familiar actually! For example, comparing a method in Ruby to a function in JS was very similar and I got the hang of it quickly! Swapping from using function to using def wasn't completely foreign to me, so that was a relief. I think that learning your first language is harder than learning the next, so if you're worried about struggling more with your second language versus your first don't worry too much! You'll get the hang of it quicker than you did the first since you have experience tackling problems now.

Fundamentals of Ruby

Let's talk about some important fundamentals. The first one should be simple things like puts and what a method is. I briefly explained what a method was earlier, but to put it simply I would describe it as very similar to any other function in other programming languages. I would also describe puts as logging something to the console in any other language (ex: console.log() in JavaScript.) Below this paragraph will be an example of both, so check it out if you'd like an example! Continuing with this section, other important fundamentals of Ruby would be variables such as instance variables and class variables. A class variable is a variable that belongs to a class, and an instance variable is a variable that holds a value that is local to a specific instance of an object. It might seem confusing at first, but after a bit of practice it will be easier to understand what both of those mean!

Final Thoughts

Jumping from frontend development to backend development might seem scary, but once you learn your first language you'll see that it's easier for you to tackle the challenge. Ruby is a developer-friendly backend language and I've enjoyed the time that I've spent with it so far. There were times where I felt like it was too hard for me to do, but I promise you that persistency really is the key to succeeding in what you strive to accomplish! I'm eager to keep learning more about Ruby and what it can do and I can't wait to update the DEV community again with what I've learned in a month or two. Thanks for reading my blog post and see you soon!

Transitioning to React (from vanilla JS)

Lucy — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 14:03:13 +0000

Introduction

Good morning, DEV community! Today's topic will be about my experience switching to React from using vanilla JavaScript. It was definitely a rocky start, but soon enough it became easier and easier. It takes a lot less code in React to provide the same functionality that you'd get in JavaScript! Even though there's always more to learn about it, finally learning the basics feels like a big accomplishment for me and I'm excited to share it with you guys!

The Initial Shock

To start off, React is a JavaScript library that's used for building UI components. When I was first shown what syntax I'd be using for React, JSX, it didn't seem all that unfamiliar for me. Creating buttons and headers is much easier in React, so that was a pleasant surprise (provided below this paragraph is a simple example of React versus vanilla JS!) It didn't take as long for me to grasp that right off the bat, so the initial shock didn't settle in until I started learning about later concepts, such as useState and useEffect hooks. Hooks are a way for functions to access state, otherwise known as data. It can be overwhelming to learn how to use hooks when you're coming from a more simplistic approach, but that's completely fine! As web developers, we will often times be confused, but not giving up is how we'll be successful.

Wireframes

After being shown all of these new concepts, I was confused but eager to learn. At the school I'm currently attending, we were also introduced to wireframes. Wireframes are a way to visualize what you'll be building out (essentially a blueprint.) Building out these wireframes really does help you be able to create React applications smoothly without the struggle of internally visualizing what you're building. I recommend to any beginner to try building out a wireframe before they tackle their new project! You'll be surprised at how much easier it is to build them when you have a template visually in front of you.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're learning about JavaScript for the first time or switching to React, we'll all struggle at some point! I learned that it's okay to take your time learning new concepts and you shouldn't feel rushed to do so. React is a great way to create applications efficiently and provides reusable components that you can use in different parts of your app (if needed!) Despite the struggles with relearning some old concepts with new syntax and learning about hooks, I think that React is fun and rewarding to use! Thank you for taking your time to read this short summary of my journey thus far.

My Journey: Part I

Lucy — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 13:48:00 +0000

Introduction

Good morning, everyone! I'm back to share some of the things that I've learned over the past 2 weeks since I started my coding journey. It's been a bit rough to retain so much information in a short amount of time, but it's been fun and I am pushing through. I think all of this work will pay off eventually, so I'm looking forward to learning more!

JavaScript Basics

Where should I start with JavaScript? It's a programmer language that I've been working on for two weeks now and I think I'm learning it slowly, but surely. I've learned some basic things, such as arrays, objects, and their related methods. It can get pretty complicated the more that they get nested into each other, but learning to navigate them to get the information that you want is key. Methods such as .find() and .filter() seem to be very important as well to finding the information that you want. I still have a lot of things to learn and remember with the basics, but I'm getting into the groove of things I think.

JSON

This has been the one that I've struggled with the most for some reason. Maybe it's just remembering it all? Either way, I find that persistence is helping me even if it's taking a bit to learn how to use it. For example, knowing when to use POST, GET, PATCH, and DELETE is important and I feel that I'm slowly getting the hang of using them. I've been using them in a lot of school-related projects and I sort of understand, but I seem to struggle with remembering it all right now. If you have any suggestions for memorization, please let me know!

Wrapping Things Up

Overall, my journey so far has been a bit bumpy and it's taking me longer than I initially thought to remember these things, but I know that I'll get the hang of it all eventually! JSON is a bit hard for me right now, but after working with it for a while I have confidence that it'll be a lot easier. Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

The Start of My Journey

Lucy — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 05:45:51 +0000

Hello, DEV community! My name is Lucy and I'll occasionally be making posts about some interesting things that I've learned on my journey to becoming a software engineer. For example, I've recently learned about how to integrate API data using fetch(). It was a bit confusing at first, but the more that I use it in my projects, the more that I become familiar with it's uses! Keep tuning in if you want to see where my journey takes me.