DEV Community: Micha Rodriguez

Install Node using the package manager

Micha Rodriguez — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:18:46 +0000

When you go to the Node download page, you will see the following instructions under the Package Manager tab:

Install nvm (Node Version Manager)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
Download and install Node.js (you may need to restart the terminal first)
nvm install 22
Verify the right Node.js version is in the environment
node -v
(should print v22.12.0)
Verify the right npm version is in the environment
npm -v
(should print 10.9.0)

This seems pretty straightforward. So let's start with step one. Open a terminal and enter the following command to install nvm (Node Version Manager):
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash

Fair warning - you may hit a snag when you get to the second step listed above. Go ahead and try it though, run: nvm install 22. If you receive this message: zsh: command not found: nvm, you need to do a couple of things before you can continue.

First, you need to make sure your bash profile is set up. Check to see if you have a bash profile. In the terminal, enter the following:
open ~/.bash_profile
If you do not have a bash profile, follow these steps:

Navigate to your home directory cd ~/.
Create the file touch .bash_profile.
Now you can use open ~/.bash_profile to edit your bash profile. (You do not need to edit it at this time, so you can close the window that has opened.)

Now you need to load nvm and nvm bash_completion. Copy and paste the following into the terminal:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" 
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"

Try running nvm install 22 again. This time you should see the following in the terminal:

Downloading and installing node v22.12.0...

Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v22.12.0/node-v22.12.0-darwin-arm64.tar.xz...

######################################################################### 100.0%

Computing checksum with shasum -a 256

Checksums matched!

Now using node v22.12.0 (npm v10.9.0)

Creating default alias: default -> 22 (-> v22.12.0)

This is what success looks like! (In this situation, anyway 😅)

You should be able to follow the last two steps for installing Node now.
Enter node -v first. Then enter npm -v. These final steps aren't absolutely required, but they will verify which version of Node and npm you are now using. Running node -v should print v22.12.0 (which is what was indicated in the message that loaded when we ran nvm install 22). Running npm -v should print 10.9.0, which was also in that message.

Now you can create and run Node applications, install packages and libraries, and more!

Stay curious, find fulfillment

Micha Rodriguez — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 16:12:02 +0000

Note: With the exception of a few edits, I originally posted this blog on Hashnode in January 2022.

When the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, I was laid off from my job in the restaurant industry and I just had a feeling that I wouldn't ever return. What was I gonna do though? I have a bachelor's degree and I've tried my hand at jobs in other fields, but I never found anything that really clicked (and also payed the bills). I actually really enjoyed working in restaurants, I love working with people and I like the dynamic environment. But with my own health in mind, as well as my family's, it just didn't seem like the best place for me any more.

I was unemployed for a while and uncertain of my next steps, like so many of us were. I ended up getting a certification to teach English as a Second Language. By March 2021, I was teaching English to kids in China from a makeshift desk in my kitchen. The hours were a little difficult to adjust to, but the money was good and I didn't have to be out in public. That was going great for a while, until we got the news that new regulations had been passed in China and the majority of ESL companies went under. I still had work lined up for the next 6 months, but after that my employment status was less certain. I realized I was kind of back to square one.

When I got this news, I was actually visiting my best friend in LA. He asked me if I'd ever thought about learning to code. I looked at him like he was crazy. NO. I had never thought about learning to code. In fact when I thought about people who code, I had a specific image in my mind, that just wasn't me (or was it? 😅). I didn't take him super seriously, but a seed had been planted.

A little while after that conversation, I got an email from a job recruiter. Back then I was signed up for alerts for miscellaneous "entry-level" jobs, not really knowing what else I should try for. This email was different though. It wasn't from LinkedIn, it was from some random person named Christopher Robins. And it wasn't a position in a call center or data entry, it was a position as a Front End WordPress Developer. I was like - how did you get my email?! This isn't the kind of job I look for... I'm not qualified to do anything remotely like web development.. But... then I went down the Google rabbit-hole. Could I get qualified to do this job? How long would it take? What would the pay-off be? A few clicks later and I had discovered freeCodeCamp. I was skeptical. Why was this free? Was there a catch? Was this site legit? I decided to just roll with it. That same day I started the Responsive Web Design certification and wrote my first lines of HTML. By the end of the week I was building my first projects!

When I started writing code and seeing what I could do, I was like wow! How did I never know about this?? This is totally a career for me! It combines all my favorite interests - language, logic, AND design - into one thing! And I could get a JOB doing this some day?! Wow! I tried not to get ahead of myself - which I always do - I told myself you just have to do this day by day and be patient. I thought, maybe by the end of the year (2021) I could do all of the FCC certifications and get a job. Hahaha. I didn't realize that was actually getting ahead of myself! (Each certification - there were 10 at the time - is 300 hours, give or take.) But I had finished the RWD certification pretty quickly (a couple of weeks, I want to say), and so I moved on to the JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Certification. I'll knock this out in a month, surely.

Oh... sh--enanigans! Well this was over my head. I was really boggled by these challenges and thought, maybe I'm not actually cut out for web development... 😔.

I didn't stop trying, but I was rattled. By that point I had already learned that a developer's best friend is Google, and that there is a wide world of blog posts and YouTube tutorials and web documentation, in addition to forums for students and mentors to talk shop. I was using these resources liberally, but the JS certification was still moving really slowly and I was getting frustrated.

I can't remember where I found out about Scrimba... Was it from a Google search, or did someone in a forum tell me about it? I found myself over on that learning platform, and decided to check out the Learn JavaScript for Free course. Instantly, I liked the interactive aspect - you are watching a screencast of an instructor teaching you JS methods and coding them on the screen. But then they have you pause the cast, and you can actually interact with the code! They challenge you to write things for yourself, to see how it all works. If you get it on your own - great, if not, you un-pause and the instructor shows you how they would do it.

That course was so cool. I liked hearing a teacher explain and at the same time demonstrate how JavaScript works. Seeing how to interact with the DOM and actually doing it myself clicked a lot more than what I was trying to do on FCC just from reading and trying to guess at what I was doing. I also liked that I was building actual projects from the jump. The first project was a passenger counter app. It already had a little styling on it, but I got to practice a little more CSS and also learn the JavaScript to get it working. The next one was a simple Blackjack game. That was fun! Finally, I built my first Chrome extension. What?! I built a Chrome extension?! So freakin cool.

When I got done with the free Scrimba course, I felt much more confident that I could learn JavaScript. I went back to freeCodeCamp, and I made a little more progress in that certification before stalling out again. Ugh. Dangit. I swear I'm going to finish it one day. (Edit: I did finish it, at the end of 2023.) I started looking around on Scrimba some more. They have a lot of free courses that are honestly really good. There were some that were only for Pro members, and then there was this "Frontend Developer Career Path." I thought, I'm already doing freeCodeCamp, and it's free but... at the same time, I've kind of reached a road block. I want to keep coding. I want to make this happen!

I decided that I had already gotten so much out of just one course on Scrimba, that I would go ahead and drop some coins to get a six-month Pro membership and do the Career Path. Best. Decision. Ever. It's all self-paced, and sometimes I would knock out a module in a couple of days, other times it would take me a few weeks. At the time this article was written, I was 70% of the way through it and feeling great. I looked back at where I had been a few months before that, and I could see how much my confidence had grown, the projects I had been able to build, the skills I had learned that I could put on a resume and possibly get hired. I didn't feel quite so bold as to apply for jobs just yet, but figured it was around the corner.

I know that I still have so much to learn (even now), and probably will never stop learning! There are so many different programming languages and frameworks out there, so it's really a matter of deciding which one to learn first. For me, part of the secret to a fulfilling life is to stay curious. Whether it is web development or another language on Duolingo, embroidery or auto mechanics, keep asking questions and solving problems, and enjoy where the journey takes you!

Lessons, Growth, and Goodbyes: My Time with the Scrimba Bootcamp

Micha Rodriguez — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:01:57 +0000

Today a chapter is ending.
A little more than three years ago I found a game-changing platform called Scrimba that helped me to learn web development. At the time I was underemployed, and looking to switch careers as soon as possible. Over the course of six months I went through the Frontend Developer Career Path - learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, git, GitHub, web APIs, UI design, React and more. I say that Scrimba was game-changing, because I don't think I would have been able to learn as much or be able to apply that knowledge in such a short time if it weren't for the interactive screencasts known as scrims. It's as if YouTube and VS Code had a baby, because you are listening to a teacher explain a concept and then you get to pause the video to interact with a code editor right there in the same browser window! Keeping my hands on the keyboard was an effective way for me to learn, and a lot of fun besides!
Throughout the course of my self-study, I marveled at what a great learning platform Scrimba is. I also engaged with an amazing Discord community that added so much to my experience. I found some study buddies, shared updates in the channels, asked questions when I got stuck, and helped other coders when they needed a hand. I got so much from the program and the community that I always knew I wanted to give back to it in whatever way I could.
Shortly after I finished the Career Path, Scrimba started a new program - a bootcamp that would offer students accountability, mentoring, exclusive projects and more. I learned about another important skill that is vital in web development - code reviews. I began working with the Scrimba Bootcamp as part of the code reviewer team, giving students detailed recorded feedback on the solo projects they were building. This was a fantastic experience all around - I ended up learning so much by reading other people's code and offering suggestions for them to optimize their project or consider alternative approaches.
It was such a joy to continue to be involved with the Scrimba community in this way. I continued to look for ways to pour into the community, and secretly had hopes that I would someday join the Scrimba team. I loved the work they were doing and wanted to be a part of it. Persistence and consistency paid off, and a year after I joined the code reviewer team I had the opportunity to become the code reviewer lead, and then eventually the bootcamp lead!
For the past year and a half, I have had the great honor of working as the learning program manager for the Scrimba bootcamp. It has been such a great experience, getting to know hundreds of dedicated students, and to see them progress in their coding journeys. I feel lucky that I was able to lead the team of brilliant mentors that brought such value to the program with their code reviews and mentoring sessions.
I am proud of the work I did with the bootcamp! As I expanded my network within the tech community, I invited guests to come and chat with the group during our weekly meetings. It was awesome to learn from their experience and expertise. I also started facilitating coding workshops to supplement what the students were learning on the career path. In these live sessions we took deep dives into different topics in web development. I encouraged other mentors on the code reviewer team to lead these as well, and I feel like we brought a ton of value to the group.
A few hours ago, I waved goodbye in my last Zoom session with the Bootcamp students. The Bootcamp program is coming to a close, and my chapter of working with Scrimba will be ending too. It is bittersweet, I'll admit. But as I told the students in this last meeting, everything comes to an end, but hopefully this is a chance for new beginnings. I've seen students come and go over the past two and a half years, so many of them finishing the career path and going on to find their first jobs in web development. We don't have to say good-bye though. We can say see you later. I look forward to keeping up with all of the incredible people I have met during my time with the bootcamp, and I'm excited for the next chapter for all of us.

Scrimba's Teacher Talent Program - An Awesome Learning Experience

Micha Rodriguez — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 17:54:13 +0000

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Scrimba changed my life. Well, learning to code changed my life, but if not for Scrimba I might not have made it through that first 'desert of despair.' Their interactive screencasts are really a game-changer. The way the instructors break concepts down into small manageable tasks in a fun, engaging way had me wanting to code in every spare moment, and my confidence grew day after day.

After completing the 'Learn JavaScript for Free' course, taught by Per Harald Borgen, I was hooked. I decided that I was ready to invest a little bit of money in my future in coding. I got a 6-month Pro membership and set off on the Frontend Developer Career Path, which starts with the basics of HTML and CSS, and progresses to more advance topics - JavaScript, JSON, web APIs, UI Design, GitHub and React. I went through the path all in about 6 months, completing coding challenges and solo projects along the way. Then (as part of the career path) I learned how to make my LinkedIn profile look sharp, did practice coding challenges and considered answers to potential interview questions. Less than three months later, I landed my first job in tech!

I'm currently working as a Software Engineer apprentice, getting paid to learn backend languages like Java and SQL. I'm glad I get to add more to my skillset, and it's cool to see how the server side works. I also know that frontend web development is my happy place, and I want to return to it eventually. I'm not actively job-hunting the way I was post-graduation. But.. I can't help but scan Scrimba's careers page from time to time. I don't know if you could tell, but I'm a big fan! It is a dream of mine to one day be part of their team.

One day, when I went to the Careers page, I saw there was an opening for a Coding Instructor. Wistfully I thought to myself, someday... I have teaching experience, and I also have somewhat of a mentoring role as a code reviewer for Scrimba Bootcamp students. Still, I wasn't sure if my skills were where they needed to be to work as a Coding Instructor. Something caught my eye on the job posting though! It said something to the effect of "Not sure you're ready for this job? Check out our Teacher Talent Program." And there was a link. What was this?!

I looked into it, and the Teacher Talent program ' ...aims to help aspiring coding instructors kick-start their career.' Cool! I kept reading... 'if accepted, you will get a $1000 USD grant to make audiovisual coding tutorials, and you'll have guidance from a Scrimba teacher.' Holy smokes! Yes! I must apply! And that I did. I filled out the application and completed the take-home challenge for job applicants. Within a week or two, I was accepted to the program!

What to do, what to do? So, it was up to me to create whatever coding tutorials I wanted. There were no real restrictions, but that also meant I had to narrow it down myself. There are so many different topics one could create tutorials about. But what did I feel confident to teach? And could I present it in a unique and engaging way, and not rehash what other people have done? I discussed some ideas I had with my mentor, and it did take me a little while to settle on a topic. I decided to create a series of tutorials on creating forms with HTML and CSS, and maybe sprinkle in a little JavaScript too?!

Once I had decided on a topic, I had to think about how to present it. First I built a form myself, thought about all the moving parts and came up with a vague outline in my mind of how to break it all down into short, manageable lessons. I had ordered some audio equipment with the grant money, and so I practiced recording - a new learning curve for me. After getting some pointers from my mentor, I scripted out a couple of introductory scrims, took a deep (shaky) breath, and started to record!

Once I started recording, my outline began to solidify, and I thought about how many lessons I would do in total and what I would record in each one. At first I thought I might do 12-15 scrims and that recording might take 3-4 weeks (that's with me working a full-time job and spending time with my family, and you know, sleeping and eating and all that!). Well, it turned out that the task was a bit more involved and time-consuming than I was expecting.

Building a form is one challenge, explaining how to do it is another. And recording yourself explaining how to build a form is yet another! When you come across a scrim that is 5 minutes long, just know that it might take have taken me a full weekend to record! I would kind of script things out. Then I would record. Then I would listen and realize that there was background noise, or I forgot to include an important concept, or that I said 'um' a kajillion times! Sometimes I would have to re-record a scrim altogether. If I was lucky, I would have covered everything, and I all I needed to do was spend an hour or two editing the video to trim the dead air and the 'um's! I actually really enjoyed editing though, haha.

Honestly, I enjoyed the entire process, as challenging as it was. I had Guil Hernandez, Scrimba's bootcamp instructor, as my mentor. He is so awesome! He was very encouraging and offered great feedback along the way. He gave me some insight into his process when he creates content, the Scrimba 'way' of putting courses together, and how I might hone my playlist of scrims into something that could potentially be featured as a stand-alone course or as part of the career path.

I learned a lot from this experience. Watching my scrims (which I've watched dozens of times by now, probably) I definitely notice where there is room for improvement. I'm also more aware of the time that such improvements would require. I have a better understanding of the balance that must be struck when presenting material. You want the lessons to be comprehensive and detail-oriented, but you also don't want to overwhelm students with information, and you want it to be fun and engaging so that the material will stick with them! Easy, right?!

This was an awesome challenge for me, and while the final product might not be as perfect and polished as I'd like, I'm proud of all the work I put into it and I'm happy with the outcome of my first effort. I hope other Scrimbans will be too! Here is a link to my playlist - Build a sign-up form. I hope you'll check it out, and please let me know what you think! If you are part of the Scrimba Discord community, reach out to me there (I'm Micha). Or holler at me on Twitter! I'd love to hear from you!

Edit: If you are wondering how to make your own video tutorials using Scrimba's awesome interface, I definitely recommend this helpful article by Michael Larocca: https://selftaughttxg.com/2021/02-21/CreateAScrimbaScreencast/

Learn markdown for READMEs and more

Micha Rodriguez — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 02:05:55 +0000

I've been building web pages for over a year now, and at first I didn't create README files at all. Doing Frontend Mentor challenges introduced me to the concept and gave me a basic template for doing so. But without that scaffolding, I sometimes feel a little unsure of how to create (or in the case of open source, add to) a README file. These files are written in Markdown, which I hadn't learned until now. I am going to share what I've learned as a start.
If you are on Discord, you may have already learned a few things about Markdown. You can pull up emojis by surrounding their alt text in colons, or share an inline code snippet with backticks - <p>like this</p>. But Markdown is also commonly used for code reviews, comments and of course, the README file. It allows us to write HTML in a quick and fluid way.
.

Important elements in Markdown

Headings

Headings are useful for breaking up your content into meaningful sections. You can create heading elements with the corresponding number of pound symbols. For example, an <h1> would be one '#' followed by a space and then the text of that heading. <h2> would be two '##', <h3>, '###', and so on... I've done this below.

Heading one

Heading two

Heading three

Heading four

Heading five

Heading six

Inline styles

In order to emphasize text in your markdown, you may want to take advantage of inline styles.A few examples of styling text inline in markdown are:

bolding with double asterisks surrounding text
bolding with double underscores surrounding text
italicizing with single asterisks surrounding text
italicizing with single underscores surrounding text
~~striking through~~ with double tildes

You can create a horizontal rule with three dashes '---' beneath the text you wish to underscore.
You can create a blockquote with a carat '>' to the left of the text.

"Alright, alright, alright... " - Matthew McConaughey

Lists

You can create ordered and unordered lists pretty easily. If you want an ordered list (numbered), you simply put a number and a period in front of the text. The numbering will be sequential by default, even if for some strange reason you randomized your numbers. You can also nest lists. Below is an example of an ordered list (note the indentation):

Ordered list item
Second list item
1. nested list item
2. nested list item
Last list item

An unordered list can be created by putting a '-' (dash) before each list item. (You can also use '*' (asterisk) or '+' (plus symbol), each of these will have the same appearance, a bolded dot next to the text.) As with ordered lists, these will be indented accordingly.

Unordered list item with a dash
Unordered list item with an asterisk
Unordered list item with a plus symbol
- Tab to nest list items.
- Consistency is best practice.
- Using a dash is more common.

Code Blocks

To offset blocks of code, wrap the desired text in nested backticks

``` <-- A set of these surround code.



    <body>
        <div id="compiled-markdown"></div>

        <script src="./marked.min.js"></script>
        <script src="index.pack.js"></script>
    </body>

In this code block, the first script tag links to a markdown linter that Dylan Israel is using in his Learn Markdown course on Scrimba.
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Adding Images

You can add images in your markdown in the following way. Start with an exclamation point ('!'), followed by square brackets ('[ ]') that enclose alt text, and then the image URL inside of parentheses ('( )') - (No quotation marks are needed to surround the URL.)
I will add an image in this way -

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Links and Email Addresses

Links are created in markdown in a way that is similar to how we added an image. Basically we just leave off the bang/exclamation point('!'). You use square brackets ('[ ]') for the text that you want to display on the page, and parentheses ('( )') to enclose the URL.
I can link to my Twitter profile in this way.
Emails are simpler. You merely enclose the email address in angle brackets ('< >') (No quotations are needed for any of these URLs by the way.) Feel free to email me at micha.ella@hotmail.com with an amazing job offer. 😅
It might be appropriate to share some links here for some Markdown reference guides. There's Basic Syntax as well as Extended Syntax, which I'll touch on in the next section.
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Extended Syntax

You can create a task list that can be checked off by yourself or others. It starts with the syntax of an unordered list (a dash '-'), and then opening square brackets('[ ]'). This will create an empty checkbox. One can check the box by adding an 'x' inside the brackets with spaces around it ('[ x ]').
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Checklist

[ x ] Talked about what markdown is for
[ x ] Gave examples
[ ] Checklist supported by Hashnode?
[ ] Checklist supported by Dev?

Conclusion

Now that you know many of the main markdown elements, you will be able to use them to enhance the appearance and readability of README files for your projects, pull requests, code reviews, and much more. I learned Markdown by taking Dylan Israel's course on Scrimba. Whether you're starting from scratch, or merely want to enhance your skills, Scrimba offers a variety of high-quality courses for Frontend Web Development, many for free. Check it out, if you haven't already.!