Coding Journey

[Ges]

One year has passed so far while on the front end path, still not over the learning curve yet, still lacking enough foundational understanding of basic concepts, especially and most importantly of variables and functions.

People/Instructors say that practice is the way to get over the learning curve, but I don't think they're exactly right. I mean I have already been practicing for quite some time, but alas I don't see the effects that I want to see. I think their advice can make a developer, but not a good let alone a professional one. Obviously, if you repeat something enough times you will get through the wall. If you keep banging your head to the wall, eventually either of them will break, and in this case it's most likely the wall. But that doesn't bring deep understanding. It can't. At best it can bring a surface-level understanding, which is not enough for someone who wants to commit to this path until the end.

So that being said, I decided to go one step back and learn a little bit about the C language, which is a middle-level language and actually the origin of most high-level languages, such as JavaScript which is the essence of front end development. This shouldn't take a long time, given the fact that I'm already familiar with programming in JS, and somewhat-versed in it. At the same time, this should bring a lot of clarity and remove many obstacles because C is the father of JS. So overall, I expect quick improvements and finally getting past the learning curve.

We'll see how it goes.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Ges

[Faith]

I'm also on a coding journey, but mine is of an ICD-10 code type. 😂

 

No seriously. I did a little coding years ago with one of my jobs, but this time around I did remote schooling, then sat for the national certification test, but still sometimes I can't remember what code(s) to use, 🤪 but, I'm also using my nursing knowledge and got another certification in chart review, so I'm in QA now (quality assurance dept). Sometimes I feel like I'm an imposter and they will realize I don't know what I'm doing, because I often feel that way.  Lol.

 

My point though is that I basically totally revamped my career and I just started my new job 2 weeks ago. It's scary. "Will I fail" type of thoughts arise, but I don't give them tons of attention.

 

If you feel your foundation wasn't strong enough and that's why you're having problems, then I definitely encourage you to go back to that and then you can build upon that more quickly as you recognize perhaps certain things you missed the first time. 😉 

 

Pardon my interruption of your journal. 💙

[Ges]

@Faith Thank you for sharing your story, and best of luck for you on your journey. You can do it, and so can I.

[Faith]

@Ges Thank you! And, yes, you are correct!!!😊

 

[Ges]

A variable is a container that can store data and allocate it to a specific location in memory in order to retrieve it later. It stores the data according to types, and there are various Data Types in C. Variables are declared by using the data-type keyword right before the variable name (which should match the purpose of the variable, e.g. whole numbers are stored in integer type variables), and each variable is then called by using a unique data-type specifier whenever needed. On the other hand, JS doesn't require stating the data type explicitly, therefore it is called a dynamically-typed/weakly-typed language, as opposed to C and TypeScript, which are statically-typed/strongly-typed languages. There are pros and cons to each of these two ways of programming, so there's no point in trying to find the best way. As well, JS doesn't have specifiers.

 

A function is a piece of reusable code that can be called whenever needed in order to execute the code specified originally. Functions create their own scopes, and all the code inside them is basically only local and cannot be accessed from the outside scope, so that they don't interfere unintentionally with the rest of the code. By default, functions don't return anything as value, even though they can if they're told to. The not-returning of any value is called returning a void, so that's how a function is declared in C, by using the void keyword (or the appropriate data-type keyword) right before the function name. Whereas in JS, this happens silently and automatically behind the scenes without needing to explicitly state any returns. You just write your code, the return statement is optional, and you don't specify the expected data type for the returned value.

 

Other than that, I haven't seen many differences between C and JS yet. I'll probably share whatever more interesting findings I may collect.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Ges

[Faith]

I saw this earlier on FB and thought of this thread! 😁

[Ges]

@Faith Nice 🤪

[Ges]

One of the things I'm loving about C is that it deals with lower level (more hardware) concepts such as memory and pointers. This connection with hardware is taken away in higher level languages, which seems to create gaps in one's understanding. JS felt somewhat abstract before, but now things are starting to make more sense.

[Ges]

 

Highest score I've got so far. Other freaks can score above 150, which is a bit scary.