OHHHHH, NOW I GET IT!
This week marks my third official week in class and after the super low I was feeling last week, my spirits were picked up again! I am finally starting to understand this stuff. OK SO NO FULLY, but to the point of I'm not hiding under a desk to avoid doing my homework. We began using Rails to write our Ruby code, which has been making a lot of things easier. Even though my brain hurts every day, being able to figure out solutions to problems makes me feel like I might actually start understanding the way Ruby reads the code I write. My main goal is to try and get through an exercise without getting stuck or asking for help, but I feel that might be coming soon. Collaborating with my classmates and getting amazing help and advice from my mentor has been motivating. I broke down last week and really thought to myself if this is what I even signed up for, and it wasn't. This class isn't at all what I was expecting or what I wanted to learn. My goal was to know how to front end develop and that was it, and maybe learn a little bit or Ruby here and there, but now that I am getting more into programming, I am starting to realize how powerful this knowledge is. Whether or not I create an app that will be successful or even continue wanting to build web applications, I know for a fact that I don't want a career in straight up programming, but what I DO KNOW is that I am going to know so much more about the potential of designing and building products, what is possible and what isn't. (even though anything is possible, duh).
ANYWAY...last week we started using API's and today we learned about how to gather information into data bases. Never again and I going to look at a form field the same way again. I am going to picture a black screen with lime green text slowly filling up with information I add to it in some server in San Francisco or something. I can't wait to get started on our own projects and build actual web apps with inputs that users can CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Destroy...just so you know). Everyone has an app idea.....EVERYONE. I bet you, reading this right now, have a great app idea. My cat has a great app idea, EVERYONE HAS IDEAS....but what is important to pin down at this moment is something simple and doable within the next two months. If I could design and build and app that solved the world's problems, by all means, I would take the time to do that....if I had a whole year and by the time it was built and designed, new information/technology would have already be updated or changed somehow. So the main goal is simplicity, and what is the most important function I need this product to do...then build off of that. Starting simple is something that is being engrained into our heads, from an idea standpoint as well as when we dive into printing the code.
I'm at the point in this class where every time I do something without ANY error messages, I allow myself a 10 minutes of internet surfing...followed by day dreaming about drinking margarita's on a roof somewhere. Hopefully my next post will be me talking about how much progress I've made and that I've sold my app idea to some big company. Followed by packing my things and having me and the live a magical life on some tropical island where ABBA performs weekly....ahhhhh that'll be the life.