Week 4
“The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.” — George Eastman
This week was awesome. We dove headfirst into the world of API’s and made some really cool things. We made single page applications using hash routing and created some projects that had our browser talk to a political organization, github, and a weather forecasting service.
We put our html/css/javascript together last week, but this week we really brought it to life. We’re making things that are useful to other people and can serve a real use in the world.
I feel a bit like Daniel in The Karate Kid. Mr. Miyagi had him wax the car, sand the floor, and paint the fence. Daniel never understood why he was doing this. He didn’t see the big picture. Then Mr. Miyagi decided he was ready, and threw some punches. Daniel handled them with ease. He came to realize that all of these small tasks were actually training for something more.
I haven’t been waxing, sanding, and painting, but I sure have been iterating, invoking, and requesting. All the little pieces are coming together into something that I’ve been dreaming about.
This weekend’s project is pretty large. It involves several asynchronous requests and our first look at promises. The bouncing ball that travels nicely down our code and reads line by line now jumps all over the place and works in magical ways. It’s a lot to grasp.
I’m feeling good with everything, although the homework is beginning to take a little longer than normal. The days of knocking out the weekend project by Saturday afternoon and doing optional assignments on lazy Sundays might be put on hold while we tackle these bigger, more involved projects. It’s becoming increasingly apparent why things like commenting code and consistent naming are so important.
I’ve got nothing but code on my plate for this weekend, so I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work. See you next week!
/* The best thing about a Boolean is that you’re never totally wrong — you’re just off by a bit.*/
