#general-assembly

General Assembly Weeks 2 and 3

Weeks 2 and 3 were spent going over Javascript, and it’s relation to the DOM. At the start of week 3, we began our first front-end project.

Going into JavaScript, we started with OOP concepts. Which is a good first thing to learn in the context of how we will be using JS with full stack applications. The whole course is taught with the latest technologies so everything we will be writing is with the ES 6 syntax, again something I was already familiar with but going over the basics never hurts.

JavaScript:

We started with the simple data-types, the values JS can remember. Javascript has the following data types. the six primitive data types :

Boolean Null Undefined Number — integers, decimals, positive and negatives. String — a collection of characters Array — a collection of different datatypes in an order. And the Object data type. (For more information on these read the MDN docs here.)

After going over the datatypes, the next step is to learn how to declare and initialize them. In JavaScript, this is done one step. A string, for example, is initialized and declared this way:

let myString = ‘this is a string’;

in the first step, the string is initialized by ‘let’ and then declared to equal ‘this is a string’. You also write this another by declaring and initializing on different lines. let myString; myString = ‘this is a string’;

Flow Logic

Flow is the core of programming. What does what, and when. All programming can be broken down into simples steps of testing the ‘state’ of something and performing an action based on the test. It is a simple series of steps that code follows to output a desired(or undesired) result. If this is true then do this, If this is false do this and look something like this. In JavaScript this is handled with if else statement and looks like this. Let thisStatementIsFalse = false if (thisStatementISFalse === true){ >>console.log(true) }else { console.log(false)}; output: false

JS Loops

Then went through the different loops in javascript. For Loops, and while loops (I’ve written an article on the simplicity of the single line iterary statement for loops). Then came in the ‘switch’ statements which handle what would be long lists of if-else statements. You can write them in such a way that runs until the first condition is met or runs all the conditions that are met. like bellow switch(expression) { >>case n: >>>>code block >>>>break; >>case n: >>>>code block >>>>break; >>default: >>>>code block } After learning the JavaScripts basic we headed into Jquery. jQuery is a large library of code that gives the users special methods to manipulate the DOM with. It makes code read more like English and makes things that are very difficult in javascript to write less painful.

Finally, We prep for our first project. GA runs on agile and Scrum concepts. (Danny the instructor is actually a scrum master).

For the prep for our First Project, we learned to think out building a simple application. Starting with Users stories. I am familiar with users Stories from FCC(FreeCodeCamp)[https://www.freecodecamp.org/challenges/build-a-tribute-page]. We think about a user’s experience with our app. How they would interact with each aspect of the app.

Weeks 2 and 3 were spent going over Javascript and its relation to the DOM and starting our first Front in Project.

We went over the ES 6 syntax, again something I was already familiar with but going over the basics never hurts.

We started with OOP concepts. Which is a good technique to learn in the context of how we will be using JS.

Simple stuff like the primitive six data types :

Boolean

Null

Undefined

Number

String

and then we went over the Object data type again. (For more information on these read the MDN docs here.) After going over what these are, then went through the ways to declare and initialize them.

Then went through the different loops in javascript. For Loops, and while loops (I've written an article on the simplicity of the single line iterary statement for loops).

Then came in the ‘switch’ statements which handle what would be long lists of if-else statements. You can write them in such a way that runs until the first condition is met or runs all the conditions that are met. like bellow

switch(expression) { >>case n: >>>>code block >>>>break; >>case n: >>>>code block >>>>break; >>default: >>>>code block }

Finally, We prep for our first project. GA runs on agile and Scrum concepts. (Danny the instructor is actually a scrum master).

GA ATLANTA WDI FIRST WEEK

FORWARD The Bootcamp kicked off quickly and I intended to write a weekend review of that week, every Week. Even with my previous experience, it is a lot to take in. My recommendation for those who have previous experience is to use the first two weeks to find which style library you are most comfortable with and master it, this will add a lot of polish to your later projects. Addendum: I was also working for the first two weeks in the afternoons during the Bootcamp which completely exhausted me. I do not recommend doing this if you can avoid it The first week of the boot camp went smoothly. The class is taught by Professional Senior Developers. One of our instructors, Danny, actually transitioned to GA because he liked hiring GA grads at his previous employer. The class is very conveniently laid out. It's almost the same routine every day which makes things manageable with few surprises. They also push class collaboration and Pair Programming. Day schedule Standups Questions from last days homework Learning session Noon Break Class code along Lab Homework Overview Class End After class homework meet/ scheduling with tutoring by TA The week schedule went something like this. Monday: SETUP Tuesday: GIT and THINGS Wednesday: HTML and DOM Thursday: CSS/ Flexbox Friday: Bootstrap and JS