I successfully worked through the coin changer kata yesterday in JavaScript. After 2 previous attempts, it felt like a real win. I’d been on the cusp of getting it right, but realized I was confused about how I was actually using the modulo(%). I didn’t need the modulo after all — simple division did the trick and here’s what I ended up with:

Refactoring would be beneficial, but I was pretty pumped about a solution at the time, and saved it for another day.

I finished two JavaScript courses on Treehouse yesterday, one building interactive webpages with vanilla JavaScript and the other for AngularJS. Both tutorials were using the Todo app as their exercise, just at different angles.

The gift and the curse I’ve discovered during my evolution as a programmer is that one problem can be solved in many ways. Though math is a constant and programming does take advantage of its tools, you have many tools at your disposal. It’s just a matter of understanding what is available and choosing how to reach your end goal in the most efficient way. Clarity is also key, so those with whom you collaborate have an easier time understanding the methods to your madness.

I’ve been dabbling with a little CSS here and there, remembering how to best select elements using this little game. I’ll probably dig into more CSS tutorials to revive it in my memory while I await the spec for styling the Todo app. Display and position have always been a little tricky, so I look forward to getting a better grip of those with greater practice. I’ll continue reading The Passionate Programmer today, and probably get into the roman numerals kata using JavaScript as well.