Author Archives: Breon Perry

¿Por(J)Que(ry)?

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Coming into the lessons on Codecademy it was interesting to know that Javascript was the most popular programming language. HTML and CSS felt easier than Javascript. I started to think maybe this is just the hard part and it will get a bit easier. However, jQuery came along and has made it a bit more tough. It is a bit tough because it is like equations that I’m not use too. Learning different elements of the equation piece by piece has been a struggle. I have not given up though, relying on consistent practice and going back to the different Codecademy assignments has helped. jQuery isn’t necessarily easy, but understanding what I’m actually doing to the website does help. It not easy to exactly remember what signs and syntax to use to execute, but I at least have a basic understanding of jQuery. The most difficult part that has come with coding is remembering most of the functions. It’s not necessarily knowing where the comment goes and nuances like that, but rather, what was it I was trying to add. I understand that cheat sheets are made and that is what most people use, however I still want to be able to actually point out the change I’m trying to make and accurately implement that into my website. Just more practice and perhaps outside reading will aid my learning.

The “Script” is Off

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This week obviously was very different seeing how we don’t have a formal class. JavaScript has probably been one of the most interesting lessons thus far. From what I’ve understood just from Codecademy and our brief Google Hangout, the program seems to be what makes a website move. The “script” is the what the website follows which causes things such as but not limited to: drop menus, highlighting hyperlinks, and pop ups on the page. Which makes it the most interactive lesson that we’ve had up to this point. Interactive in how we interact with the websites mechanics. The lesson was a bit difficult trying to remember the terms, and then applying that when moving on to the next lessons. I think it will be helpful to see this lesson again in person to fully grasp what it is I’m learning. Overall though it was enjoyable to learn a new step in my coding development and look forward for what is to come next.

Putting it all Together

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This week was fun since it was the first time I felt like I was “coding.” We took everything we had recently learned and put it all together in an effort to make a homepage. The beginning of this process started with the Codecademy assignments that helped refresh some of the concepts we had learned while also adding new things to help improve our first page. The concepts tied in with the readings that also made it easier to complete the assignment. Sometimes for me it is hard to fully comprehend the readings without seeing the active visuals, so I attempted to code my assignment while simultaneously reading. This proved to be somewhat effective, but still a bit challenging. Another issue I had was trying to fight images that looked right based on things I had read right here. I realized it was more about the presentation on different devices, but it still helped with my attempt to throw images in there.

The final issue I had was trying to put my safe code from Sublime into my repository on GitHub. Even looking at the reading on GitHub I still had issues and ultimately just had to continue clicking around saving and re-saving the different documents that I finally was able to include it. Even then I felt like it was still placed in wrong, I still felt good about finding a solution to my issues. I look forward to what next week will bring to my already growing knowledge.

Coding for Dummies(me)

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The introduction to HTML this week has shown me that it is the most complicated simple thing I’ve encountered. Even lesson 1 which started off very simple then became into almost a new language (which it is). Although it was a bit tough, I found myself actually enjoying the work I was doing.

After the coding lessons it is quite interesting to see how websites are broken down into a couple of <p>’s, <h>’s and a few backslashes. While it is obvious that if you write some certain letters and numbers together a website will be produced, it is crazy how truly simple this process is and that it can also be learned on a basic level even for free. Although it is said that memorizing these tags tags, can lead to being fairly fluent in this type of coding, it is shocking that there is a belief that something such complex could be easily understood through a basic series.

After seeing the first lessons of coding, I can’t help but think that I was born too late. I feel like if I had expressed an interest in coding while being born 10/15 years before, I could be the creator of Facebook or any other popular social media. The act of just adding more numbers and letters right under previous ones in such a fine tuned manner seems like it only took a matter of time. I do know it is obviously a lot more than the way I’m explaining it, but I appreciated that these lessons even gave me the confidence to feel this way about websites.

 

The Internet

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The first thing that struck me when first diving into the readings was how much more complex the internet is. As the video mentioned I was one of those people who viewed the Internet as a “cloud,” with all the information circling around up there. It also came as surprise to me how many different so called versions of the internet there are, dating back many years. I will admit some of the readings were almost like a foreign language to me. It took a couple re-reads to fully grasp the concept of computational thinking, and how that actually applies to my life. Simply trying to answer my little questions with abstract or even specific Google searches that relate back to the topic I was originally trying to figure out. Something else that caught my attention was how many different versions of coding there are. As someone who is new to the whole concept of web development, I of course heard of Java and C++ but seeing how many there actually are and where they date back too is pretty incredible to me. The readings definitely peaked my interest for the class and I look forward to the information that will be learned!