This is good advice, I think. My interest in programming goes way back to Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). From there I jumped into Eight Step Pascal (ESP). Then I became interested in learning Microsoft Basic for developing quick applications in Excel and MSAccess. Many of the basic elements of programming remain the same across many languages. I’ve dabbled in Java, PHP, and Python.
I think JavaScript is about as good a path to program learning as you can choose, though. It’s used almost everywhere!
1 Like
I agree. I can’t tell you how useful learning to use the dev tools while programming can be.
1 Like
I was exactly the same way. I made a Wordpress site a while back and Frankenstein’ed some JS codes other people wrote and broke them over and over until something would finally work. Recently, I decided to give it another try but start with the basics. Start with a foundation and build on that…it’s much more sturdy. I am so glad I did.
To be honest, I don’t really have a suggestion other than to keep banging your head against the wall. Suffer through it. I had to look up every single exercise solution to even know where to begin. I would just stare blankly at the screen and think “They probably told me what to do but I have no idea”. After about a month it sort of just clicked. After that, solving the problems became more and more fun as I became more confident. Getting exponentially better with less effort…at least until you open another can of worms like Node and NPM, D3, React, or simply getting lost in how many JS libraries there are.
FreeCodeCamp in my opinion is one of the best resources out there, but they skip a little so it helps to watch random YouTube videos of people explaining the same concepts in different ways. Sometimes it just needs to be worded a little differently for your brain to get it. I really like this guys videos. He has a ton, and they get super advanced, but he has a lot of like 15 video long tutorials where he starts with total basics. I also found it helpful(ish?) and really interesting to watch quality CS videos like this lecture from Harvard and this CS Crash Course.
If you really want to torture yourself start reading The Eloquent Javascript Book though fair warning, though it’s really good, it’s also really dense and can make some things more confusing rather than less.
Anywho, those are my two cents. Just wanting to be helpful since I was in your position literally like 1-2 months ago.
2 Likes
You are asking excellent questions and of course you need to understand.
You don’t just do it. That is exactly what you need to stop doing. Not to just do things, It is a great challenge. By the way, the connection between js and html/css is called the DOM. The Document Object Model. You need js to manipulate the DOM. The DOM is like an interface with functions and rules that lets you manipulate html elements. You can create f.ex. divs or table elements, you can delete them and do all sorts of things. The catch is that you need to do it in order to understand it.
Unfortunately, the js exercises are very abstract, they do not show at all how js is used in the creation of a website, They are nevertheless extremely useful. One of the reasons I love FCC is because it contains some wonderful exercises. Ever seen the Karate Kid? He has to clean the windows a lot and at some point he asks his teacher why he has to clean all those bloody windows! Well with those exercises you are cleaning the windows.
Maybe you need to do a small project to get a feel of how the pieces fit together. Try the tribute page, Just do it (yes I am contradicting myself). Begin. Try.
It is like reading a book about cooking. You have read a volume on ingredients, another on utensils and then a book with recipes. But you have never stood in a kitchen or even broken an egg. Well, those books you’ve read won’t make much sense, will they? There is only one thing to do, go into that kitchen, break a few eggs, mop the floor, and ASK FOR HELP.
But first, try. Do something, anything try, When you ask for help, show what you have tried, however little it is. Tell people where you are and where you think you should go. At some point you will begin to see it, but there is just no way of learning this outside the kitchen,
1 Like