For me personally, I always been thrilled anytime I get to learn something new. It’s like adding a tool to your already awesome kit. It’s awesome when you’re truly passionate about something, that you would spend hours and hours committed to working on your craft. Learning Javascript for the first time I felt that it was simple enough to learn but you need a lot of repetitions to get comfortable. I definitely saw some similarities between Java and Javascript, but came to the conclusion that Javascript was simple and you had the freedom to do a lot more things. For example, data in Javascript can be in an array with data of different types (strings, etc) and that variables aren’t just limited to primitive types. This in itself seemed incredibly convenient to me, coming from the more restrictive background of Java. Compared to other languages such as C and C++, I feel that Javascript is something that I am very comfortable with. From my experiences taking ICS 212, I feel that it takes way more time to create things in C/C++. There are a few things here and there that you need to learn, but it’ll take a few minutes to get it down pat. One thing I learned from a previous class is that you should be able to trace you code. This skill has helped me when doing the practice problems because the code was not running, so I had to find out where the problem was. From the code we’ve been writing so far, I have been able to trace the code, and figure how the function is running as it relates to the output being printed on the console. I hope that I’ll be able to apply this skill in future assignments, cause it’s a real necessary skill to have Another thing that I noticed about Javascript is that you donʻt have to create a UI when working on a project, rather you have a full UI in your pocket.
The one thing that I will say is as I mentioned earlier, you need a lot of practice repetitions. In order to master athletic software engineering, you need to put in a decent amount of hours. In the class, we had something called the Workout of the Day (WOD). It was a good experience as you had to figure out a solution to a problem in a given amount of time. If you did not finish in time you did not get any points for that WOD. In order to do well on the practice WODs, I had to really practice. The class was given practice WODs on Tuesdays in order to prepare for the Thursday WOD. When I first experienced a WOD, I thought to myself “Wow, this is going to be tougher than I thought”. By not doing well on the first couple of WODs, I was put in a tough position. It made me question if my preparation and effort I put into this class was enough. As a result, I had to change some of my habits. When you’re put in a stressful situation such as a WOD, they key is your preparation and trying to find ways to be productive. There is something about being well-prepared that makes you feel good, it gives you this boost of confidence that you can do anything. As the semster went along and I got used to doing WODs, I began to feel comfortable being put in a tough situation. My high-school basketball coach told us after we lost a game, “It’s games like these where the wins feel much better”. That always resonated with me, and when I finished a WOD for the first time, it did feel awesome. I feel that daily WODs are a good way to help give you that practice. The practice WODs were quite simple to do, the problem was that I was overthinking the problem. I had not had much experience using Javascript because in previous classes I used other languages (Java, C, C++). Once I was able to figure out the steps I needed to take to solve the practice WOD, I began to become more comfortable.
I feel that Javascript is a language that everyone who wants to get into coding should learn. It is not as confusing as other languages. As with all things you get better with practice, and javascript is just another example of that. The style of learning in this class I’ll admit, can get really stressful. Athletic software engineering is going to take some time to get used to. I’m used to not being timed when it comes to coding. Actually this is my first time where I’ve had to time myself to finish the problem. Usually in past classes I was given a pretty fair deadline where I could work within a pace that I’m comfortable with. The first time doing the WOD, it made me realize that this is different, and that it’s just the stuff I was doing in previous classes just more intesified. We’re only through with 1 WOD and I didn’t even finish it. I hope as I progress forward in this semester I will become a better programmer and to do that takes some serious hours.
One of things that I struggled with was that it’s been a while since I coded Java, so I was a little rusty around the time of the first WOD. I feel that if I put the time I’ll be able to shake that rust off. Overall, I was not happy with my performance on the first WOD. I thought that I had prepared really well for it, in fact I went back and re-did some of the practice WODs to get prepared. When I first saw the problem I was overwhelmed, mainly because I was expecting to work on something with integers rather than strings. The string aspect really caught me off guard, but it taught me that next time don’t leave any stones unturned, but be prepared for anything.