Been working on the MIT Problem Set 1C for the past few days, and I think I finally had a major breakthrough. The big problem didn't seem to be the code I was writing (shock!), but in the indentation that I had done. Whoops!
Finished problem set 1b today surprisingly quickly. Felt good!
A bummer today since I'm in Huntington and the hotel internet isn't working for me, but luckily I had some offline learning to do. Finished the one of the coding problems, and I feel like I learned a lot with my many (dumb) mistakes!
Finished second lecture. On to more problems tomorrow!
Finally got the Python modules working. It was a pretty annoying process, but I'm glad that I finally got it done. It was certainly a good way to learn my way around the MacOS python backend.
Working on figuring out how to import modules into VSC, mainly NumPy. Think that it should be working, but for whatever reason, it isn't. I'll come back to it later today or tomorrow.
This should be somewhat frustrating, since I'm not doing any learning on programming, but reading all this documentation and trying to figure out what's going on (and learning how all this stuff is connected on the back end) is really useful.
After talking a bit with Emily last night, and getting some of my current work with a new website, I think I'm going to switch gears for a little bit.
I'm moving from reading the MDN docs over to the MIT OpenCourseware Intro to Comp Sci. It focuses on Python, but it will also give a more fundamental knowledge of programming concepts and best practices that I don't have right now.
Should be fun!
More on functions.
The "function stack" seems super confusing - I'll need to dive into more on that in the future. Also the nested functions are making my brain hurt a bit, but I'll continue those tomorrow morning and maybe some space will help me to clarify things a bit.
Finished the loops page, and while I don't know how well I can do all those things from "scratch", I was able to understand them pretty well at the end.
On to functions now!
Finished up my learning today at 10:10pm. Got sidetracked this morning with some work that I should have done last night. But at least I got it done!
Starting to be able to figure out what some programs are doing (slowly) without running them, and only following through the syntax. This is a minor victory, but it fees pretty neat since I don't think that I could do this (at least not as well) a few months ago.
Using a seperate file to try and see some of the differences between these different loop types. It really does help to try to type them out from scratch, since it shows how much (or little) I really get the syntax and how to think programmatically. A little bit demoralizing now, but I am confident it will help in the future.
The throw...catch was something I've never heard of (or at least something that I don't remember). I'm sure I'll need to come back to that, but I don't know what exactly is important to get out of that section, so I didn't want to just copy things without being able to think through them.
Starting on the loops now, and this is going to be an important section, and it's already getting a little bit confusing. Going to probably need to use multiple resources to get a full picture of how these things work.
Back home. Did a pretty good job with not missing a day of learning over vacation, even though it certianly wasn't as effective as the work I am able to do early in the morning. At least I got something done!
Trying to get some of this learning stuff done consistently on vacation, and while so far I've been getting it done, I'm not sure how much actual retention is getting done.
Been working ONLY inside VSC and reading through the MDN docs, and while it was a bit more of a pain to set up, so far I really like this "workflow". It definitely moves faster and feels a bit more lightweight than using the C9 service, but only time will tell how it works out when I go back to the Udemy videos. I'd like to keep this development stuff more local, though (and backed up to Github).
Starting to get more stuff working locally on the MBP. I feel like I'm starting to get more of a handle on things, which is good, but I still feel like I don't know what I don't know, which is never super comforting.
Now I've added the Thinkpad to the remote repo as well. Not quite as easy, and I don't think I've gotten it all setup completely, but not too bad for a half hour or so of work.
Been a long time since I've updated anything here, but I haven't missed a day. Finished the first Udemy course, and have since gotten the notice that Cloud9 is going under, so I've started setting up my own local dev environment on my own machine.
Although I only last updated this 5 days ago, it feels like it's been much longer, considering all the (new to me) stuff that I've covered. This backend server stuff is definitely more than a little bit confusing at times (especially trying to keep track of variables and references that are flying all over the place) , but really good to know. I don't know how many web apps I'm going to be making (as opposed to web pages), but it's definitely been good to learn this kind of stuff, since it gives me more of an idea of what's going on in web sites in general. Once this course is over, I think I definitely need to take a look at PHP, since that doesn't seem to be covered at all in this course.
Switching from Node and Express into the database side of things right now, and once again it's enlightening (and a little bit embarressing) how much stuff I've picked up over the years of skirting around the edges of doing "real" online work, and what sort of fundamentals I'm lacking knowledge in. I suppose being aware of these vulnerabilities is the first step to getting rid of them, though, so that's a good start.
Been doing a good job with regularity so far this year. Into Node and routes and some of the backend stuff now, and although I still feel like I'm sometimes just barely afloat, it's actually getting pretty interesting knowing some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that's going on. I'm definitely feeling more confident about what I do (and don't) know what to do!
This full-stack stuff is definitely interesting. While I knew lots of stuff went on behind the scenes of the average website, I don't think I've really realized exactly how it was all put together until relatively recently (considering how long I've been working on this). Despite still feeling a little bit lost in some of the more detail-oriented code writing, I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable with JS, and that is something that I've never really been able to say before.
It's been a little while since my last update, but I haven't missed a day so far in 2019.
Gotten more into the server/backend side of things, and while I knew that there were some holes in my knowledge, it wasn't (quite) as bad as I was afraid it would be! Certainly doing some of the SEO learning (with all of the different kinds of requests and bots scraping various kinds of code) has helped in unexpected ways.
There are about 150 more lessons or so, but the individual lessons are getting a bit more complex and I'm having to think and do research a bit more, but I think that I may be through this course before summer - then I need to find another course to keep going so I maintain and improve on what I've done!
Day one of the backend (just about 30 minutes in) and I already feel like this is going to be one of those course sections that helps me morethan it probably should, considering how long I've been doing this kind of web development, I've gotten by on a pretty shallow and wide understanding of somethings. I think this will deepen that pool of knowledge significantly.
Finished the front-end-only portion of the Udemy Course. This is definitely the longest I've stuck with trying to really learn coding and web development at a higher level, and I am really enjoying it. I wish I had a bit more time and energy to focus on it on a day-to-day basis, but with the progress I've made so far over the past few months, I think that I am doing a good job at getting some in just about every day.
On to the backend portion!
Finished the todo list project. At times I was able to think ahead and figure out what needed to be done before hand. Although I felt like I was a step behind doing it the most efficient and least-verbose way. But the fact that I could (somewhat) know at all what to do is a good sign, I think!
Progress!
Been in jQuery for a bit and while I still feel very much adrift in a sea of functions that I don't completely grasp, every now and then I make a connection that surprises me (and means that I must be internalizing some of this.
It's not always easy to do this early in the morning (before 7am right now), but I think the best way for me to learn and really know this stuff is to make sure that I am being as active as possible - don't sit back and listen, but make sure to type and get to know some of the syntax and how the code works.
Feeling pretty good about how things are going. But it's pretty extraordinary (to me, at least) at how quickly the styling comes together when someone knows which properties to change and how best to go about changing them. What would have probably taken me hours (or longer) took him about 20 minutes, and that's including him talking through things to explain what was going on and demonstrating how each change worked.
I've definitely still got a ways to go before I'm that competent, but you've got to start somewhere!
Still plodding through the JS portion. I'm doing a better job at anticipating the way to solve some of these coding problems, but sometimes the syntax and some of the formatting or layout of the code is just a bit of a head scratcher.
For example, for whatever reason over the past couple of days the for loop just seems weird and arbitrary and I can't seem to ake sense of what's going on, even though I feel like I understood it quite well when it was introduced a few weeks ago.
I need to take some time today and do some extra reading about it, I think. The Udemy class, as good as it is, isn't necessarily going to be a 100% complete learning solution.
It's been a few days since I've updated, but I've not missed a day.
The JS is still a bit of a brain twister sometimes, but I think I'm getting better at it than I ever have been before, so that's nice.
I need to remember that even though it's a lot easier to just passively listen or read about the coding, I internalize it much better when I'm actually doing the typing (and the thinking). Don't settle for knowledge when I need hands-on experience.
Moved on from a really in-depth (at least to me) working with Javascript to working with the DOM.
There's starting to be a lot of information that I'm not very familiar with that I'm trying to hold in my head, and it's getting to be a bit much.
One thing I need to remember is that knowledge is not as important as skill. It's better for me to actually try and do something actively than passively listen (and maybe zone out or not fully internalize the knowledge).
Still chugging along on all this Javascript code. I haven't missed a day so far in 2019! I feel like I'm getting a much better handle on figuring out how stuff is done, and reading the code that has already been written, but I'm not super comfortable (or that good) at writing it out from scratch.
I don't know exactly how much longer the JS unit lasts, but this will almost certainly be something that I'll have to keep working on in order to get more comfortable with it after this unit is done.
Going back and forth on this Javascript learning. Sometimes I feel like I have a decent handle on some of the conceptual stuff, but when it comes to the down-and-dirty job of writing out the syntax I feel like I'm floundering.
Other times I feel like I'm totally underwater, but then when I look at the sample exercises, they look easy and (relatively) obvious.
All part of the process.
Oof. Getting into some of the JS stuff that I remember as being a bit tricky. Functions, the various different kinds of statements (if, if, else, while, for,) and all that kind of stuff. Remembering the syntax and the differences between all the statements is going to be something that I'll need to definitely work on drilling and just doing more than I have in the past in order to get comfortable with it.
First couple of sessions done with the new to me MBP, and so far I quite like it.
JS is still just a bit over my head, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the last couple of exercises I was able to figure out on my own. Both in terms of the actual code to write and the syntax.
First day with JavaScript, and most of it was a review of stuff I had done before in various fits and starts.
I'm curious to see how long before I start running into things that I don't understand (or don't understand well, at least), but it was a pleasant surprise to not feel like I'm completely out of my depth on the first few JS lessons.
First entry in this log in 2019, but except for that one day in December I still haven't missed a day. Just finished up the BootStrap4 course, and although I think I was starting to get a handle on it, there are still a some (many) things that aren't as comfortable as I'd like them to be. But I don't know how often I'll be needing to actually build a site from scratch, so it may be that it's not as important as I think it should be, but I'm glad that I've gone through it.
On a different but related note, I was able to pretty quickly and easily get both Jessica's and SBB's websites SSL-equipped today in about 30 minutes each. Messing around the .htaccess and wp-config.php was a bit stressful, but copying and pasting and following directions made it much easier than I thought it was going to be. Another win for InMotion!
Ooof. I knew there was a bunch of stuff to Bootstrap, but after digging away at it for what feels like weeks it seems like I am a bit more underwater than I was in the beginning. That's not true, though, since now I'm able to anticipate some of the classes (and how to organize them) before they are actually put in. But it does feel that way a bit. There's just so much depth to it, and so many options, and that's before the possibility of modifying the BS source comes into play!
Still hacking away at this BS4 stuff. Sometimes it feels relatively easy, and sometimes it feels like I'm just copying what's going on in the video and hanging on for dear life.
Was working on the "PatternProject" today though, and had to do a significant amount of debugging on a (relatively) simple problem, which I was able to figure out in the end. So that's good, I guess. I'm getting more comfortable using the tools and using them effectively.
Progress!
Got up and was able to get (at least) 1 pomo of work done today.
Flexbox is crazy.
I don't know whether it's because my knowledge of Bootstrap 3 was relatively low, or because Bootstrap 4 provides so many more options and more flexibility, but the sheer volume of different classes is getting a bit overwhelming. I imagine it will make more sense once I spend more time with it, but right now it's a back to drinking from a firehose again.
I know that actually doing the examples given (even though I'm mostly copying them instead of thinking through them myself) helps, but I have to remember to stay more active and not just let the videos wash over me.
More Bootstrap 4. It's almost comforting to still be in the land of HTML and CSS, even though lots of this stuff is new to me, it's a lot more familiar than I'm sure something like JS is going to be!
Going out of town today again for a family thing, hopefully I'll be able to maintain my 1 pomo a day (at least).
Damn. First time I missed a day since I started this was yesterday. Had to go out of town to get my horn worked on and I (mistakenly) decided to try and do my learning at the end of the day. But the repair went longer than I though and so I got back in town after 11pm with no energy and a bunch of stuff left to do. Oh well.
This Bootstrap 4 addendum looks interesting. I wonder how much stuff has changed, and while I'm glad to put off Javascript for a little bit longer, I know that's going to be a real hurdle to start learning. At least I think it will be - time will tell.
This Bootstrap stuff is definitely more complicated than the basic (and pretty ugly) CSS stuff I had been doing before, but it certainly does make it so much easier to easily(ish) make a website that doesn't look like trash and also doesn't take dozens of hours to put together.
Trying to do this learning in 25-minute chunks, and I had some extra time today after one of the lessons so I'm perusing through the documentation and there are a lot of typography things in Bootstrap (and HTML) that I never even considered. I wonder what other things I've just been obvlivious too - I should make a point to read more documentation with extra time.
Whew! Got a lot of Bootstrap stuff today - <form>, navbars, and lots of copying and pasting. I've got a better idea of what is actually going on behind the scenes, though, and the copying and pasting isn't such a negative since it streamlines the work (and since I know what different attributes are doing (more or less)).
Also got a tiny bit of JS and JQuery - copying and pasting the scripts only - in order to make the navbar expandable (or not). So that was also pretty neat!
Getting started today with Bootstrap. So far it seems pretty dang easy! Glad I went through the rollercoaster of doing it by hand, but Bootstrap + its good docs make hand-coding so much less of a tedious job. Neat!
Started working with the CSS grid in today's lesson. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. The CSS float property was a bit new, but it seemed to be much easier than the flexbox or whatever it was that I was doing earlier.
This is a pretty strong case for having a person-to-person connection going on instead of just reading (and sometimes zoning out) web pages or reference docs. I feel like I'm actually getting better at some of this stuff, and Sublime is pretty neat as well.
Finished up the minimalist blog in under an hour. Got stuck a couple of times but was able to do almost everything without any sort of help. Did things slightly differently than the "solution", but still got it all accomplished and it looks the same. Super cool. Looks like tomorrow starts Javascript stuff - that's when I'm definitely going to be more than a little bit underwater (maybe). We'll see!
The tic-tac-toe board wasn't too bad. I guess I figured it would be made of <div> and <span>, but instead it was just a relatively simple table with selective borders turned on. I was able to get it done without any help, and I don't know if I would have been able to do that quite so easily a month (or more) ago.
Been a few days since I've updated here, but I haven't (yet) missed a day of going through something. 39-day streak so far!
Today was a trip through lots of font and text CSS, which I'm already familiar with. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be going over the box model, so I hope that I'm able to carve out a bnch of time, since that's still a bit confusing to me. The exercise/project that goes along with the box model, the tic-tac-toe board, looks pretty interesting, though, and so hopefully that will help me get my head around it!
Finished the Udemy form exercise, and I think that some of the <form> confusion finally clicked just now.
The <label for=""> tag is to link the text label with the <input id="">. The name attribute in the <input> tag is what is shown in the database or URL bar (or whereever the form's data goes). The value attribute is on the other side of the form data field. So in the database (or wherever) it is name = value. For whatever reason I assumed the HTML id attribute would be used in the database, but it looks like the id is only used to link up two HTML elements on the page (and also for CSS purposes).
Phew!
Doing the forms exam (at least the first one).
Got pretty far without needing to look up stuff. The big confusing part at this point is the difference in <for>, <id>,and <name>.
Need to try and keep those straigh. Also, right now some of the data is not showing up in the address bar when submitted. Pretty much out of time to work on it today, but I'll try and do some debugging of it tomorrow.
Starting on Udemy forms.
This definitely makes a bit more sense. It's hard to tell if it's the subtely different explanation, the slower introduction, or the fact that they separated the front end (what you see) from the backend (which actually does the work) in the form.
It was very interesting to see them submit a form to a URL (wikipedia.org) that they had no relationship with. That makes the design of it (and the code that goes into the design) totally separate from the backend stuff. This is, of course, the case, but I don't think I had realized quite the extent that they were separate.
Going through tables in the Udemy course. Pretty easy. Looking forward(?) to Forms: Part Deux tomorrow. I wonder if it will be easier to follow along when it's a lecture/teacher instead of just trying to read and comprehend it myself.
I knew that there was a good reason to go over even the introductory videos for this Udemy course. Not only have I learned quite a bit about some of the shortcuts in Sublime (and they are pretty sweet!) but I finally get the difference betweent a <div> and a <span> element. Basic, but now I know!
Also, finished the two Intro to HTML quizzes pretty easily. I know that they were quite basic, but I did feel even more ahead of the curve thanks to some of the prior FreeCodeCamp work and studying I've done. On to Intermediate HTML next!
Been doing this for a whole month and while I have been doing quite a bit of reviewing (since most of these courses assume no-to-very-little prior knowledge), I do feel like I've gotten a bit more comfortable with typing in raw HTML/CSS and having a pretty decent idea of what will come out.
Today's Udemy course was still quite a bit of a review, but I got a first look at Sublime and some of it's shortcuts and they seem pretty nice. I'll need to do some research with syncing things up (in case I need to do this learning on multiple computers), but so far I like Sublime a bit more that Atom.
Also, today I found about the Mozilla Developer Network web docs and resources. Those will likely be a much better resource than the W3C pages that have been a bit of a pain to load and browse.
More watching of the entry Udemy videos. Don't have a lot of time today, since I'm teaching mostly straight through from 9am to 7pm today. Glad that I got a litle bit in!
Going on a bit more with Udemy. Since this is a 0-to-expert course, these first few lessons/videos are pretty basic and a little bit boring. Don't want to skip them and then need to backtrack, though, so doing them anyway!
Finished the FreeCodeCamp Responsive Web Design course! It says it's a 300 hour course, and while I'm not sure how long it actually took, I am proud of what I did. I may end up going back into the projects and updating them a bit, since they are somewhat messy, but looking at what I started with and ended up with is a pretty noticeable difference (at least to me) and the ease at which I was able to make that improvement is also nice.
Started a bit on the Javascript course, but I think I should switch gears and still keep pushing the HTML/CSS stuff, so I've moved over to the Udemy course that I bought last month.
Still on project #5. Getting most stuff done a bit easier. Things like setting width/height and the flexbox are getting just a tiny bit more natural.
I'm still looking up quite a bit of info, but at least now it takes me a lot less time to both look up and implement the things I don't know off the top of my head. Small progress for sure, but moving forward (however slowly) is still moving forward.
Finished projet number 4! Getting a bit better, but still feels like there is a long way to go before I am comfortable or know how to do some sort of layout before I try a few different commands and figure out how it works through trial and error.
Progress!
Gradually seem to be getting better at getting my eye in as far as thinking about both how I want a layout to look and how to achieve that layout. Still have to consult the CSS and HTML references quite a bit (which will likely be the case for awhile until I get more used to the incredibly wide array of commands and how they are all subtley different, but for now, I'm seeing real progress with how much I understand and how much I can do by hand.
Getting the hang of some of this stuff, but all the formatting and alignment commands and syntax is more than a little bit confusing for me. Hopefully plugging away at it will help, but I'm trying to not just fall back on the easiest "words on a page" look to force myself to improve.
Whew. flexbox plus the @media query is a tiny bit of a head trip. It's really interesting to me how I can think vertically fairly easily, but trying to pre-plan how I want stuff to be spaced horizontally (especially on different sized screens) is not one of my natural strengths. It probably doesn't help that I'm trying to learn the syntax and the different commands all at the same time, but what's wrong with drinking from the firehose every now and then?
Finished up the form page yesterday, but spent about an hour afterwards playing around with the CSS to see (more) of how it worked. The forms aren't quite as confusing now (although I'm still not 100% sure on them), but some of the different CSS functions are getting mixed up in my head. Glad that they have these projects, though, since actually starting from a blank slate is a great way to be pushed into the deep end.
Starting now on the product landing page. Trying to see if I can make this one look at little bit more 2000's and less 1990's Geocities.
Oh man. These <form> tags and the formatting CSS is just a bit more confusing than I thought it would be. I'm making progress, (I think), but it is a bit confusing at this point. One thing I need to be more proactive about is a much more liberal use of <div> tags to make sure that formatting is easier to do via CSS.
Started working on FreeCodeCamp project 2 - a form. Yay. some of these different fields and the syntax for them is confusing.
For example, having <input type="text"> for a single-line text field, but <textarea> for a multi-line text field is one of those things I'll just have to do more to commit to memory (or just always look it up). Not the biggest deal, but I definitely need to review the <id> and <name> attributes and how they are used differently.
Got the first project out of the way. Needed to have a bit of help by looking at the framework of an already-completed one, but I got it done and was playing around with some of the layout and CSS at the end. It's certainly not great, but I think it's a good start, and starting from scratch is quite different than modifying already-existing code.
You can see it over at CodePen.com.
Got done with the first section(s) of the FreeCodeCamp front-end learning! Now on to a few projects. I went ahead and made a CodePen.io account, but I'm not sure if I want to use that or dive into using Atom or another standard text editor. Torn between wanting some live-preview feedback and not trying to think things through before putting them down. So I don't learn bad habits anymore than necessary.
More CSS fun!
Finished up the relatively easy color/accessability work, and then moved on to some responsive design and flexbox CSS voodoo. A lot of this stuff is making quite a bit of sense (although there are still a few weird things), but I really need to go back and review some of the more basic layout fundamentals. I think I'm getting some of the moderate to advanced stuff, I think there's a bit of a gap in my understanding of the layout on a more fundamental level that is keeping me from really internalizing how some of this stuff is put together.
Got in about 15 minutes at 6:30 this AM before working all day. Super glad that I made the time.
Also, <forms> are still crazy to me for some reason. I'll need to do some more brushing up on them sometime soon.
Getting into colorblindess accessability guidelines. Right in my wheelhouse!
Moved on from the CSS crazy stuff to some accessability. Relatively easy to remember this stuff, since lots of this has SEO functionality or carryover (<alt> attributes are important for search engines to recognize pictures and context), so not to bad. Stopped right before the combination of accessability and <form> combination, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow!
Finished the CSS portion of the Freecodecamp and like normal, there seems to be a progression in the middle that I am not understanding as fast as they go through it. That's almost certainly since I'm doing this on my own (without lots of homework on constant immersion, but the idea of creating shapes out of divs with the .Something::after and .something::before sub-classes messes with my head.
The animation stuff was pretty neat, but also I feel like I just have to constantly stare at the code to figure out how it's all put together. Overall, though, I feel like I know more now, and I'm not totally underwater! Hooray!
More CSS fun. Skewing, hsl() for color, hue, and shading, complimentary and tertiary colors. Fun times!
Lots more CSS today. This stuff is both logical and slightly confusing. I feel better and more secure about what's going on after spending even 15 minutes with it, but I'll be glad to get through more of this stuff and into the slightly more complex stuff that is going to be newer and (probably) harder to grok. Trying to make sure that I go slow enought to really comprehend what I'm doing now, though.
The fixed, relative, and absolute CSS position indicators are starting to make sense now, too.
More and more CSS. Going over things like variables, the specific heirerarchy of how the CSS works is pretty neat. I was working on a project last year that would have been quite a bit easier if I was a bit more familiar with the specifics of how these sheets worked at a deeper level, instead of trying to do research while solving problems!
Been a couple of days since I last commented here, but I have been doing a bit of learning every day, although not quite as much as I want to d. So far most things are a review. The <form> HTML was a bit weird, and I need to make sure that I check up on the differences between the .class selector and the #id attribute, but so far most stuff has been a review.
After reading the great blog article by Syk Houdeib, it inspired me to (once again) resume learning (in a structured way) basic and advanced web languages.
I've gotten by for awhile on bits and pieces (and Google-fu), but I think a more thorough understanding of the basics will help me a lot in getting more freelance web devel work.
Started going through some of the great resources over at freeCodeCamp.org and while the HTML stuff was pretty easy, I didn't realize how confusing some of the <form> code could be, since I've always done it via plugins. Phew.
On to the CSS stuff tomorrow!