API time.

As we begin our third section for the Austin Coding Academy web dev course, I find myself relieved that the intro to Javascript is over, but uncertain about what I truly learned. A review is definitely in order, but we are about to begin our journey into building our own APIs so that we can start to work on our “Capstone” application project.

How do you organize your code? What are some suggestions you find on the web?

I try and use code indentation whenever possible, I find it very easy to look at code that I didn’t write when it has indentation. The web suggests a ton of ways to organize, but what stood out was by component and by toolbox. “Organization by component minimizes complexity by emphasizing external and internal cohesion of code units, e.g. packages.”

Can you describe your workflow when you create a web page or web app?

My workflow starts after I’ve read and re-read the problem I am trying to solve. I start my workflow first writing down the problem and then the way I hope to solve the problem in plain english. Then I attempt to pseudo code the program from beginning to end, writing out mostly in english what I am trying to do but including for loops and if/then statements when necessary. Then I use repl.it or VSCode to transfer my pseudo-code and begin to convert it to actual code. Lastly I transfer it all to the final project and test away.

You can’t work out how to solve a coding problem, where do you find the answer? Why? How do you know?

I search online, Stackoverflow is usually the best advice i’ve found thus far. Why do I use Stackoverflow? It benefits from a system where verified users can vote on the answers that best solve the presented problem, and usually provide use cases for why they did what they did.

What problems have you solved that didn’t involve you coding?

I think learning code has helped me to approach complex problems from a different place. Learning how a computer program works and how you must tell the computer every single thing it must do helps to break down problems to the most minute details, and this has been a helpful way to approach problems in daily basis as well. Just generally online we now have to tools to understand what is happening on the browsers we use daily, and I’ve been able to remove snippets of code that prevent you from entering without your email by inspecting a webpage. Simple but useful.

Talk about your preferred development environment. (What IDE or text editor you enjoy, and why?)

I enjoy Repl.it when I’m trying to write a smaller function or piece of code, but overall I enjoy VSCode the best. It is clean and easy to use, it helps with spelling and autofilling out common code to speed up your writing (which I feel may be a negative thing as we learn….), and it has a whole suite of downloadable content that helps to customize it to however I feel.

How are you keeping up with the latest developments in web development?

Honestly through Medium mostly, the articles are really great small snippets and insight into what people currently in the industry are talking about. The rocket.chat section about tech news is good as well. I do find myself browsing Medium more often and reading about the web dev world that way.