DEV Community: Reid Aumann

Building a Rails App from Scratch

Reid Aumann — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:28:58 +0000

I'm building my first rails app from scratch right now and I've been learning a lot. I'm designing it entirely in custom CSS (I know, it sounds a little crazy) and I spoke with my mentor who is a UI/UX designer about improvements in styling.

I also am learning a lot about my different routes and implementing authorizations so users can only access the pages they're supposed to. I am using the Pundit gem which I have a better understanding of now.

Setting up my entity relationship diagram and my associations was the step that made me the most nervous. I did it correctly for my first version, but now that I wish to add columns to my database I'm a little anxious about breaking it.

I feel that the most I've learned is by far in user research and feedback. As I'm developing I've been asking users about different search filters and features they might want and I'm currently working on adding those in.

If you want to see my project so far you can visit it at right2restrooms.com or my Github Repository and feel free to send me feedback!

Learning React

Reid Aumann — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 20:52:58 +0000

I've been learning about React and other JSX basics for the last few days, and I even got to create a simple tic-tac-toe game that allows you to go back to whichever move you like.

Here's what I've learned so far:

use className where you would use class in HTML
use JS features like for loops and array .map() functions to render lists that have several components
to have two child components communicate with each other, declare the shared state in their parent component
you can only have one export default function per file

TIL 2/15

Reid Aumann — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 17:35:40 +0000

Today I'm learning more about ui/ux design and it's principles. I've always enjoyed the creative or artsy side of things, so I'm intrigued by ui/ux because it combines both technical and creative skills. I've been reading a lot from Erik Kennedy and other people he mentions as well as looking at others portfolio projects on dribbble.

I'm starting with designing in one color (as suggested by Kennedy) and learning about how to make wireframes in Figma. Once I've finished I'm thinking of doing a unsolicited redesign of Ravelry, creating wireframes for an app just to put into practice what I'm learning about design elements.

The next step would be to include this design work in an actual app, but I hope to get to that soon!

TIL 12/5

Reid Aumann — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 01:41:31 +0000

Today I'm preparing for my interview tomorrow by working on the example program and watching the videos in the personal interview section.

While working on birthday_cake.rb I think I learned a lot about debugging and got to put my knowledge about classes to the test! I stepped through each error in the original file and was able to fix them all by figuring out what to add to or change in the code to make it correct.

I am working on identifying when to ask questions versus working the problem out on my own, but I am confident that I will ask those questions when I need to.

TIL 11/14

Reid Aumann — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 02:57:29 +0000

Today I worked on the Arrays and If Statements Ruby modules! I have worked with arrays in Python and C++ so that wasn't new, but some of the If Statements information was new to me. The "truthy" and "falsy" information was especially interesting to me, as I assumed 0 would be "falsy". I know that If statements are going to be important in the future, so I'm excited to learn even more about them!

TIL 11/12

Reid Aumann — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 23:55:14 +0000

Today I created my links page with HTML and CSS and worked on Ruby Fundamentals! I reinforced what I know about flex boxes and had fun selecting my favorite links for the first assignment. Ruby is new to me, but I feel like it's been easy to learn so far! I learned about strings, floats, integers, and dates. The dates were new to me, but the others I've learned in Python and C++ before. The codeacademy lesson was really interesting, and I am definitely curious to learn more about the loops and if/else statements.

TIL 11/6

Reid Aumann — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:21:35 +0000

Today I was working on HTML and CSS on Codeacademy. I have been learning HTML and CSS since August in a course through City Colleges of Chicago, but I still learned a lot today. I knew most of the information about HTML and CSS basics, but the course helped me to understand flex boxes and grid displays better. I will definitely be using what I learned in my assignments and career going forward!