Road to WebDev

[gregdev]

Quick recap

I haven't been studying too much from TOP lately, and the semester has started so I think I will but it on hold for now. The thing is, I was doing fine in the JS section of foundations until I got to the section on how to use JS to manipulate the DOM and then I got kind of lost. It took me looking at a few youtube tutorials to finally get my rock-paper-scissors app take use input from clicked images as opposed to the input box I had originally designed it to do. I think I'm confident that with a couple days of work and a few more tutorials, I can at least get the logic of the program to work how I want it to and then I'l have to utilize CSS to make it look somewhat decent. A lot of the students made very fancy apps, I'm not going to worry about that.

My next route is to start working on my Udemy, full stack JS course so I can get a better grasp of JS before the end of the semester and I can proceed with TOP.

As far as classes for this spring Semester:

CIS484 - Database Management Systems

CSC163 - Hardware Virtualization and Data Communication

Also, I have to complete these classes in their entirety before April 10th since i will be going on mission and don't want to have to figure out how I will have to hunt for Wifi while dealing with the stresses of this stupid mission.

[gregdev]

Finishes the landing page!

After procrastinating on the landing page for, what seems like, a week, I finally finished it. In reality, I finished most of it over the course of 8-10 hours or so, and I'm sure that someone more experienced with HTML and CSS could have finished it in less than an hour, but that's how it goes. I actually feel way more comfortable with html, css, and flexbox as a whole after finishing the exercise. I still don't really enjoy working with those technologies though, but at least I'm done with those for now. Now it's on to the juicy stuff...Javascript!

My prediction is that, with my foundation in C, it the JS section shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[gregdev]

Weekly Recap #2

So, what I've learned this week:

-- Flexbox basics

Last time I attempted the Odin Project, they didn't go over FlexBox this early. However, flexbox seems to much more useful compared to the grid css I was using before. TOP had a few assignments where we had to work the CSS for a page in order to make it look like something, and the challenges weren't too difficult. My current assignment is to pretty much create an entire landing page from scratch--I'm pretty confident I can work through the assignment with the prep from the exercises. I think I;m going to try to spend all day working on this page to get it done because next is the Javascript portion of the foundations section which is what I'm really looking forward to.

[gregdev]

Recap #1

So far, I'm still following along with TOP's cirriculum. I'm currently on the section that goes over CSS in the Foundations course which is pretty much a recap for me. Not gonna lie, I understand that HTML and CSS is essential to become a WebDev, but I'm eager to get to the part that goes over JavaScript. The HTML and CSS sections are pretty boring, and actual programming is what I fine both challenging and interesting. As I mentioned before, a lot of what I learned in my intro CS classes carry over to the few introductory JS classes that I've dabbled in (but never completed so far). I set up a few goals for myself to accomplish by the end of next year:

1.) To be able to create a deploy a fully functioning webside: It doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to be functional. I suppose creating my own website should be my target for this goal.

2.) Complete most of the classes for my AS degree: While I don't thing a degree is essential to what I want to do, it is important given the amount of time and money I've invested in it to at least get SOME credential out of it. I will go on the DSU website sometime this week and reduce my scheduled 2 classes to 1.

3.) Complete TOP cirriculum: I have a hard time finishing things that I start, so it would help me gain confidence and prove that I can accomplish long-term goals that benefit me in the long run. Even though I plan on stopping at a certain point to work through the book: Head First JavaScript, I plan on finishing at least most of TOP.

4.) Complete a simple freelancing job: Even if it's just some basic HTML and CSS stuff from a freelancing site, I want to be able to do this so I can claim to be a "professional" developer.

5.) Transition into developing Android apps: This is REALLY what I want to do. From my understanding, I will eventually have to learn Java and/or Kotlin to be able to accomplish this goal, and I think I can do it with my foundation in C.

Everyone wants/has an iPhone nowadays though, so it will also buy me time to think about if I want to transition to the Apple infastructure and purchase a Macbook before I start to learn how to develop those type of apps. There will probably more opportunities for work if I go this route though.

[gregdev]

Day 00

I made this Tumblr to keep track of my progress as I make another attempt at building my skills as a Web Developer. At this point, I know some of the basics of HTML, CSS and a lot of the skills I’ve learned in C from college transfer over into JS. So when it came to learning about loops, i..else statements, and functions, it came pretty easily. I plan on lowering my courseload from DSU to 1...MAYBE 2 classes a semester while I focus on my Web Development skills before my contract runs out. I’ll go into details about it in another post.