100 Days of Code: Day 5
So I was told by one of my friends that I have good coding skills for a programmer in 2008, but not for 2017. And this is due to my lack of going “beyond the basics of coding” and not looking in how I would set up my apps for architecture and scalability. My friend referenced one of my weather apps and asked how would this “scale” and how would I incorporate it into an actual app (that actually angered me when I read that and I’ll explain why in a little bit). How would I document my app using js-docs? And I need to move on to ES6 syntax since let and const are taking over and var is being dropped. And if they were going to interview me, even for a junior position, they would look for things like this in my portfolio.
I was generally pissed by what my friend said to me, especially since it felt like they had just insulted my intelligence and my coding capabilities. I felt like my work on my Rick and Morty Random Quote Generator and both of my Weather Apps were all made in vain since they’re not “scalable” and lack “architecture.” But I swallowed my pride and asked how I could get the things I lacked, which is when I was suggested the Professional AngularJS book as a good starting point, along with two others I’ll look through later on. I was trying my best to be positive, but it’s really hard to do so when you’re reading a book talking about all this extra stuff you need to do to make the architecture of your app “correctly” while flaunting your published coding skills and verbose vocabulary (there are sooo many big words and pretentious sentences in this AngularJS book that I think if they were all removed the book would be 2/3 lighter and still get the point across).
I felt like I was stuck in a rut again and pushed into a corner as well with having to “keep up with technology” which is damn near impossible with how many Javascript libraries are available now. I felt very much like the person in this article who just wanted to use jQuery to display information from a REST dataset on a webpage.
What all of this boils down to is this: I was so worried about learning all this new tech, that I lost my way and my reasoning for going back through FreeCodeCamp in the first place. I wanted to show that I understand how my code is written, be able to explain what my code does to different people of varying tech backgrounds, and beef up my portfolio with some work I’ve done. Yes, I need to learn ES6 and AngularJS, and Angular 2, and Angular 4 (yes we skipped Angular 3…long story…easier to just Google it) and ReactJS, and Ember.js, and any other framework out there for creating web apps. But that’s soo beyond the scope of what I want to do and my real reason for my motives.
I’ve been so down about it I stopped coding once I was feeling better after my second flu and my on-going cold due to that varying temperatures in Virginia. I felt like there’s no way I can learn all of this and “git gud” so people will want to hire me. What’s the point of my putting all these hours in to my apps on Codepen, that I always saw as stand-alone apps to begin with and not scalable ones, if I’m just going to be called “amateur hour” and ignored?
So when I was in a sleep deprived stupor last night, I went onto FreeCodeCamp and looked at the way some people made their Wikipedia Viewer apps. I didn’t look at their code (cause that would be cheating!) but I looked at what they used to do their interactivity. At the same time, I Googled if jQuery had a way to auto-complete when you start typing. Surprise, surprise, jQuery UI has an auto-complete option you can use. Shortly after I found that out, I also saw all of the apps I looked at the Summaries for on Codepen all used jQuery and/or jQueryUI for their interactivity. And their apps worked fine! There was some talk about having to learn Ajax to retrieve the JSON formatted data, but I’ve been attempting to learn Ajax on my own so I know what to do for my next project.
Which leads me to my conclusion (finally, right?): I’m going to keep going with my FreeCodeCamp path using jQuery or Ajax to retrieve my JSON data and use jQueryUI for my interactivity and not let anyone guilt me into thinking my work is less than because it doesn’t use the “latest JS framework” or “ES6 syntax.”
As I mentioned before, the whole point of my going back through FreeCodeCamp was to beef up my portfolio with apps I created, be able to explain my code, show I can consume JSON data from an API, and show off my creativity and design choices. And who says I can’t go back and rewrite my code in ES6 or AngularJS or React at a later point? No one! And that’s what I’m going to do!
So tonight, I went through the first section of lessons and started the second section of lessons of Codecademy’s AngularJS 1.x course. And I’m learning a TON! More than I’ve learned from Lynda.com courses that just seemed to confuse me the more I took them when it came to AngularJS. Will I learn Angular (which is the new term for Angular 2.x and up) at a later point? Probably. Will I let that hinder me from doing something I like and enjoy and can show my creative side along with my technical side? Hell no! I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and stop listening to what the masses are saying for now. Because I need to show that I can do the work, complete the user stories for the challenges, and be able to explain my process to someone that has no coding background/experience and have them walk away knowing how my app works.
I won’t lie, I just let out a deep sigh of relief after I wrote that last line. Because I figured out what the problem was and found a solution that will work out for me and others in the near future. I have ES6 on the docket to learn, since I’ll need that get the new syntax for any future apps I use, but I’m going to use good ‘ol Vanilla JS/jQuery in the meantime and learn to relax, chill, and let this shit go. Cause having all of the stress from this bottled up inside does nothing good for me and hinders me from what I really want, which is to code.
So sorry for the long winded post tonight. I had a lot I wanted to say and felt needed to be said. I’ll probably get mean comments on this one, and everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless of what the Internet says, but it’s the best learning path for me at this point in my life and I’m going to run with it until I can’t anymore.
So as usual my dear readers, stay classy, keep being awesome, stay focused on your goals and don’t lose sight of them, and code on!
