Javascript

The last couple of weeks were spent working on our first group project. It was quite the learning experience. The first obstacle was to figure out what exactly we should do for a project. I first suggested a music based food recommendation app. That really did not go anywhere. It’s not a terrible idea. We eventually landed on an app that would give you movie recommendations based on your facial expression.

This was probably my favorite week yet. Some of the concepts are starting to stick, my ability to think programmatically is improving. We went into Javascript and jQuery a little more in depth. The concept of scope was covered extensively. My prior experience helped out immensely.

And to get into my prior experience. My first formal introduction into programming while we had a Clinton in the White House. Things were rosy. There was a Dot Com boom. Geocities were a thing. In Ms. Futch’s class we learned Microsoft Visual Basic. I was always adept at following instructions and understanding what makes instructions clear, so inputting instructions into a computer felt natural to me. Our programming teacher had no programming experience, and as the course went on, I began helping my fellow students out with our work more and more. It all seemed so simple to me. Maybe it had something to do with the simple nature of Visual Basic. Dragging and Dropping UI elements around and assigning simple logic.

This week was spent getting acquainted with Javascript. Which is a scripting language that adds functionality to websites. It can be used to manipulate the page itself, such as adding elements, text, images. It can also be used to to do nitty-gritty things, like math. I do have a good amount of experience with programming languages, but it has been a while since I have had to think programmatically. Everyone programming language as its own quirks. How they handle variable scoping, how they treat variables, numbers, and so on.