Journal

After completing the Front End Certificate on Free Code Camp, it was on to the back end, which has proven to be an interesting challenge. I have been working on using NodeJS and Express to build out routing and basic APIs. I worked through the learning courses on Free Code Camp which were a bit harder to grasp and less informative than their other lessons, but I was able to work through them. I created the first couple API microservices: a Timestamp microservice and a request header parser microservice. I started working through my url shortener project and have about half of it completed. It can receive a new url, tests that it is a valid url, and then creates a short ID which is saved to the database with the original url. I still need to build out retrieving the original url with the short url ID as well as build out the front end description. Entertainingly enough, I had a lot of fun building out the front end instructions for both API services and making them presentable and responsive. Front end continues to be my first love, but I am growing to appreciate the back end as well. ...

The importance of community and helping other developers cannot be emphasized enough. There is so much to be gained by spending time with other developers, sharing each other’s challenges, and assisting where applicable and requested. It has been an exciting couple of weeks since my last 100 Days of Code checkin. During that time I completed the last two projects in my front-end certification: a Tic Tac Toe game and a Simon Game. I wrote about some of my process in those posts and don’t want to repeat myself too much, but what I wanted to capture here was my reflections on the process of approaching 100 days of coding. I find myself sticking with it easier than I expected, and I think the two greatest factors have been community and habit forming. ...

On Saturday night, the 150th day since I started my coding journey on Free Code Camp, I completed the Simon Game project and claimed my front end development certificate. It’s been an amazing start to my journey as a developer, and I’m amazed at how much I have learned in such a relatively short period of time. The Simon Game project was definitely the most challenging of the advanced front end projects. Most of the HTML and CSS for the project I was able to create within a couple days. The circular divs comprising the colored buttons were relatively straightforward to create and position. Setting up an SVG circle inside the container housing the game buttons was also simple. I used the SVG to provide visual feedback if the player successfully completed a step in the game. I used React for this project as well and fully embraced the concept of components. The game board buttons, start button, and strictMode toggle are all their own components. Using components for this made sense as it keeps the logic more separate and avoids having a huge render method. ...

It is so easy to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problem, that it seems like it works by magic and is unattainable. Another project is in the books. I completed the Tic Tac Toe game using the React framework with 5 days and around 12 hours of active development. By far the most complex part of this project was creating the computer AI component. The idea of it had me in analysis paralysis for a day or two. This project really emphasized the need to break down the problems into bite sized, even seemingly insignificant pieces. For a while, I struggled with even starting on the logic for the computer player. It is so easy to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problem, that it seems like it works by magic and is unattainable. This is exactly what happened to me as I was struggling to assimilate concepts like minimax algorithms in search of the perfect implementation for the computer AI. ...

The concept and desire for instant or near-instant gratification has so permeated society that struggling with a problem can become more than arduous. I started the #100DaysOfCode challenge a little over a week ago. It has been going really well, and I have been coding for an average of 1-2 hours per day. I have been making great progress on the front-end projects with Free Code Camp, having completed the Pomodoro Timer and started the Tic Tac Toe game. At the current rate of completing projects I may finish the last two projects ahead of my October 1st mental deadline. What I would like to do on these check in posts is identify some of the accomplishments and challenges I faced as well as any moments of reflective inspiration. ...