Prior to taking this course, I had essentially zero experience with JavaScript. The most I knew about the language was probably the name and that it was used for web development. So when we were tasked to complete some JavaScript lessons on CodeAcademy, I was quite excited. Excited because learning JavaScript will allow me to broaden my skill set and introduce me to new fields. That same excitement was quickly washed away with fear. Signing onto FreeCodeCamp and seeing over a hundred lessons that are due in a couple of days made me reconsider my excitement. However, as I started doing the lessons, my fear slowly faded as they turned out to be quite simple thanks to my prior experiences with C, C++, and Python from my previous coursework. I managed to complete the entire introduction and ES6 courses in only a couple hours and I think it was a great introduction to all the things you can do with the language. However, I don’t think I am competent enough yet to develop complete projects using what limited knowledge and experience I have. Hopefully, as this course proceeds, I will be able to hone and develop my skills to become a JavaScript master.
Learning JavaScript is like learning any other language. As mentioned previously, I have learned C, C++, and Python from my engineering courses so learning JavaScript was a process I am familiar with. While doing the JavaScript course, I noticed a lot of syntax similarities to C and C++. More specifically, for-loops, while-loops, if-else statements, and functions are written in a very similar fashion. I also noticed some pretty big differences in the languages. The most significant for me was a variable declaration. In C and C++, you need to declare the variable type as an ‘int’, ‘char’, ‘bool’, etc. However, in JavaScript, you can declare any variable with the ‘var’ or ‘let’ and it will just work like magic. Unfortunately, not everything can be perfect. ES6 and function destructuring is something completely new to me so learning it took longer than expected. Personally, I am not a fan of all the parenthesis, brackets, and arrows used because it doesn’t feel intuitive enough for what should go where. However, this is probably just because I am not used to the syntax yet and I am sure I will eventually come to appreciate the time I will save through using those techniques throughout the course.
I find it quite ironic that we call this ‘Athletic’ Software Engineering while doing everything sitting down but that is beside the point. I haven’t done an actual in-class WOD yet so I can’t really say my experience with it but I am kind of nervous. I have done the practice WODs and they seemed quite simple and straightforward but I am expecting much more of a challenge for the real WODs. I think the more WODs I do, the more comfortable I will be in that type of environment and be able to learn to write code much more efficiently. Personally, I think this style of learning is quite good. It introduces some stress to your work which can be viewed as preparation for technical interviews or real-life work conditions. Additionally, I think the satisfaction of being able to complete the WODs within the RX time is worth all the stress as it proves I am somewhat capable.