Javascript No Pain No Gain

Familiar Grounds

Prior to using javascript in ICS 314, I’ve been using the language to build web applications and creating dynamic functionality for websites. I don’t consider myself an expert in javascript but I felt comfortable with what we learned so far in class. I truly like the language as it’s pretty easy to learn and apply to projects right away. In comparison to other languages, I would have to give more favor to others such as C# and Java when it comes to object oriented programming (OOP). I put more favor in those languages because of its strongly typed rules. I just feel more comfortable and complete when I assign a type to my variables. But this would not deter me from using javascript because of the fact that you can use TypeScript to put in strongly typed functionality to javascript.

A New Trick

At this moment in class we just learned the basics of the javascript language:

var 
for () {
} 
console.log()
etc…

All these I’ve already been familiar with but one thing that I did learn from our learning module and TA, Danny, was the other syntax for iteration:

for (let i of array[]) {
}

That was a pretty neat trick compared to the for or while loop, and even the

array.forEach()

Learn It Use It

If you were looking for a language to learn, I would first say pick something that you enjoy and would use most in your career field. Then I would say, especially for web development, make sure to learn javascript. I firmly believe that javascript is a good language to learn because of its low learning curve and value among employers. Attached below is an indeed chart from an article at codingdojo.com highlighting the most in demand programming languages.

We can see that javascript is third in most demanded languages for employers.

WODs

In class to learn javascript and overall software engineering, we employ an athletic software engineering learning style. This consists of doing workouts of the day (WOD) which are programming problems under a time limit in class. If you complete the time quickly you get the points but if you do not complete in the max time provided, e.g. 12 minutes, than you do not get any points. If that sounds stressful it’s because it is. Consider doing a programming problem within a time limit and amongst your classmates. You probably don’t want to be the last one to finish. Although it is stressful, I see the value in doing this over time to get acclimated to the situation. The more I do these WODs the more I’ll be prepared for job technical interviews. I frequently go to the gym to exercise so I use that to relate to the WODs. There’s the old saying “No pain no gain” which I believe can be used to explain these WODs. Even though I’ve been familiar with javascript, throwing these WODs have really pushed me to become well versed in the language.