Learning Front End + Coding as Art

I may already 'made it' as a Ruby on Rails developer, but that doesn't mean that I don't have weaknesses in my developer abilities.  I know that doing creative stuff in the front-end is not my strongest area.  Sure, I'm able to work on the haml/slim/html views and coffeescript/jquery in the front-facing portion of the Rails app I work on, but coming up with cool designs and integrating/writing interesting javascript are not things I consider myself good at.   I've also been trying to level up my javascript and learn more ReactJS, but felt that some gaps in my understanding of the fundamentals of javascript have been making it really challenging for me.  I think my approach of reading random bits and pieces about JS from online articles, tutorials, videos has only left me feeling... fragmented.

I feel like I needed more of a path for learning with little challenges and project along the way, so.... I have started the FreeCodeCamp front-end curriculum to push me along/keep me on track.  It might be silly for someone with some experience as a dev to do this curriculum, but I don't think so.  I have been able to fly through the HTML/CSS/Bootstrap parts and started on the first individual project for FCC on Saturday -- a tribute page.

It's kinda silly, but I'm really love + proud of the page I made.  It's so silly, really, but I actually keep going to look at it again, to see the responsive design as I change the size of the browser window from big to small, and think about the quotes I included from Andy Warhol as I swipe through the 5 simple sections.  It makes me smile.  I love it because I feel like I finally made something with my coding skills solely for art's sake, I didn't make it for anyone else and made it in the exactly the way I wanted.  I made something for no reason other than to exist and be beautiful.

I hosted a RailsGirls meetup and give my first coding workshop!

So excited to write about this.  One year after building my first Rails app, I organized and presented my first coding workshop.  It's a pretty amazing thing to be able to do.

I have been kinda consumed lately with worrying and preparing for giving my first coding workshop.  I hosted ~18 coders at our local RailsGirls event for all day workshop.  I introduced the concepts of MVC and styling with CSS and the Bootstrap gem as we worked on adding functionality to a Tamagotchi - virtual pet app.  It was fun, but stressful for me.  And it was only stressful because I'm not used to being the center of attention or speaking for ~5 hours straight!

That's me! Presenting to ~18 bright (mainly women) coders.

Everyone was supportive of one another, and I really felt like we created a safe, friendly, open environment for learning about coding with Ruby on Rails.  I'm really proud of that.   I would love to do another workshop in a few months.  It's just kind of exhausting and intense to plan for 5 hours of coding content + activity.  I really had no idea how long my presentation would actually take or if folks would be bored out of their minds.

I was thinking it would be great to offer another, more low-key meetup option like a "Coffee & Code" type event where a small study group could get together for a couple hours and get help on working on their own projects or online tutorials/courses from a coach or 2.  It would take the pressure off of one person to present and host an all-day event.

Overall it was a great experience and empowering to be a room filled with bright women all interested and focused on coding!  I am, of course, thankful to work for a company that supports activities like this too!

Of course I have been neglecting blogging lately, but I have still been trying to learn new stuff- I've learned some more Angular & I've been playing around with Rails API with a Angular client-side app, but this experience really trumps anything else I've been doing otherwise!

Monday's progress -updated my github pages site!

Worked the past few days on Learn Ruby the Hard Way.  Finished through exercise 31.

I mostly worked this weekend on a site to show my progress/portfolio in a better, concise way than just the blog.  I worked on my github pages site and built it into this over the weekend using HTML5, CSS3 and customized Bootstrap.

The part that took the most time was the design of the navigation at the top.  I first went with a navbar, but didn't like the look 100%.  So I switched over to the nav pills style and customized it.  So figuring out the design by building different things took the majority of my time.  I'm sure I'll keep nitpicking at it, but I like it for now.

Thursday Progress

• Started working on an awesome site for my web portfolio.  very simple so far but bootstrap'd.  It's up on github pages.  Will continue to work on it.  Feels like an accomplishment to easily do a task like this.  Woot!  Means I've learned stuff!

• Worked through most of the Firehose Project pre-course work.  Still deciding about the online bootcamps!
• Working through Learn Ruby the Hard Way (part of the firehose project pre-course work).  On lesson 14 or so.

My One Month Rails "Pinteresting" App is finished! Woot!

Over the weekend, I didn't do much coding.  I did make it to the Railsgirl meetup and learned some stuff on JS (specifically Coffeescript) and Associations.

So far this current week, I've been busy working away at my Pinteresting app in One Month Rails.  I've done a ton in the past two days to get it finished!

• Utilized the jQuery Masonry gem so that images move around (with transitions) to fit the page width.  Oh... did I mention that since I built it with bootstrap, it will look great on tablets and mobile devices? ;-)
• Updated styling for displaying single pins on a page.
• Added Edit, Delete, and Back icon using bootstrap's Glyphicons.
• Changed up the root route so that all pins are displayed on homepage.
• Updated pins controller to change how the pins are ordered.
• Added pagination using will_paginate gem and limited number of pins displayed on a page to 8.
• Added user names and subsequent validations.
• Yay!

I started it less than 2 weeks ago and I can't believe that I've finished it.  I've learned a lot and can't wait to start the next RoR project (Hartl's Rails Tutorial)! Edit:  I've decided to do Daniel Kehoe's Learn Ruby on Rails first.  In that I will make a web app suitable for a small business, which will be great, since I want to do this for my dad's biz!  I want to redo my dad's business's website.  It's in terrible shape and needs help, and then I can also add it to my portfolio.

Of course, the Pinteresting app didn't always go smoothly and I used google and stack overflow to troubleshoot and fix problems.  My last issue was relating to a precompiling issue in my production environment.  After I finished the build today, I went back and jazzed up the css styling.  I added a background image to the jumbotron on the main page.  It was looking fine in development on my local host, but in production on heroku, it wasn't showing up and was giving a 404 not found error for the image.  I looked on stack overflow and found that others have had this issue too!  I followed some advice and it works now!

So freaking proud of myself!

Snazzy.

Sunday's Progress

We went to my first RailsGirls meetup in a nearby town.  It was a presentation over MVC and HTML/CSS.  I'm slowing wrapping my brain around the idea of MVC.  I'm glad Josh could go with me.  Glad coding processes/design overlap so that he can explain things to me even though RoR is foreign to him as a C#/.NET programmer.

Looked at Learn to Program a little when I got home.  I got through another exercise in the book.  Tired.

I just found out that there is a group planning a Dev Bootcamp in Amsterdam.  Very excited and interested in this!  I hope it is (a) coming up soon and (b) that the tuition will be affordable.  It would be an amazing opportunity.

Looking forward to starting fresh this week.

Ping Pong Test (aka FizzBuzz Test)

I figured out the ping pong test!  Feeling good with my progress.  Oddly, I got the loops and if/else if statements figured out pretty quick, but what tripped me up the most was figuring out how to get my integers listed properly into my bulleted list.  The solution was so easy once I got that bit finally fixed in my head!

My final solution. 

Here's more info on the Ping Pong test (aka Fizz Buzz), apparently it's a popular interview question:  Why Can't Programmers.. Program?  Really...199 out of 200 programmers can't figure it out?  Maybe my odds are better than I thought then? :-)

I also did a couple lessons on BDD/TDD process.  Happy with today's progress.

Weekend Progress.

Finished up lessons on looping w/ forEach and for loops.  Got a little stuck on one of the looping exercises:

• Go back to your page where it would pop up an alert every time you clicked an element and say what kind of tag it was. Refactor your JavaScript for this page to use a loop.

But I slept on it last night and figured out the solution in only a couple minutes this morning!  Whee!  Then finished up the section on debugging, luckily already practicing some of these techniques in my practice exercises.

Tomorrow I will do the next exercise, the Ping-Pong challenge, and then dive into behavior driven development (BDD)!  Yay!

Thursday, 11/20

Another day, more time spent learning/practicing on jQuery.

Learning about branching, if/else criteria, truthy/falsey... Watching epicodus lessons and working through the coding exercises.

Monday's Progress!

Today's progress:

• Finished up the HTML/CSS section on Epicodus.
• Played around with Bootstrap some more.  I like it.  
• I think I'm going to surprise my folks and redesign their company's (poorly done) website using a nice bootstrap theme.
• Learned basics of javascript (variables, strings, methods, functions).
• Started the section on jQuery.
• Downloaded jQuery 1.11.1
• Setup a virtual Ruby on Rails environment on nitrous.io and invited my husband/mentor to join me.  So now I have it on my Macbook and a virtual option.
• Skipped ahead in the Epicodus course to the start of Ruby on Rails section.  Tried the IRB command and although I could input, but I initially got a error about Headline file missing.  So... I went into crafty IT troubleshoot mode and successfully figured that out and reinstalled RVM and got that error GONE!   (It only took 2 different attempts before success! :-] )
• I also emailed the nearest RailsGirls meetup group to see if I could join the next beginner class in their series or if I would be totally lost.  I'm going to try to make it over there to that meetup later this month!

Sunday.

Went through the Epicodus video course some more, almost done with first section on HTML/CSS.  

I learned about applying Bootstrap styles and specificity of CSS classes.

Next section is on javascript.  Looking forward to it!

I'm feeling good about my first week of this adventure.

My goals for my second week are:

• Continue through the Epicodus course, getting through at least the next section on javascript.
• Starting playing around on the Ruby4kids website.
• Review command line terminology again.

Saturday's Progress

I played around with making changes to my blog.

I added the navbar, title image, and formatting. I like the style better now, but want to learn to do more, and will be continuing to make changes improvements.

Google search is definitely my friend in making the changes!  Getting more comfortable playing around with the HTML and CSS.

Friday's progress.

I worked through a couple more CSC python course problems, and I'm on exercise set 8.  I feel like I will work on these as I need a break with other things I'm working on.  There isn't an answer sheet, so when I get stuck, I do best if I do something else and come back fresh to a problem.

I'm doing some more of the Epicodus course.  I want to get through the first section on HTML/CSS in the next day or so.

I also started and finished reading "learning the command line the hard way" today.  After the frustrations of figuring out the RVM/RoR install yesterday, this is important to get more comfortable with.  I'm going to work on memorizing the most useful commands that the author recommends to learn.  The crash course was great and easy to understand!  Recommended.