My Progress in JavaScript and How It Ties into My Journey into the World of Technology
31 Aug 2022Why am I Learning JavaScript?
My software engineering class has just begun a week ago, and with it comes learning a new coding language: JavaScript. In this class, we will be doing intense every-day practice problems (called WODs) to prepare for future tech interviews and other technology-related jobs and internships any of us hope to pursue. I have very little experience in JavaScript at the moment, but I am excited to learn more and more about what the language has to offer and all the interesting and creative ways one can use the language for. JavaScript in particular, moreso than perhaps most of the languages I have learned in previous classes, is particulary important to my future aspirations; I am heavily considering working as a front-end web developer after I graduate. Learning JavaScript, alongside HTML and CSS, is one of the most basic skills required for front-end web development, and I am grateful to have an opportunity to learn it in a required class alongside so many other passionate students.
My Previous JavaScript Experience
"What a minute, didn't you just say you had very little experience with JavaScript?" You may be thinking. While it is true that I do not have that much experience, I did do a little dabbling in JavaScript prior to this class to learn some basic web development. In fact, I even joined the student organization at my university, ICSpark, that specifically focuses on web development. ICSpark consists of college students who volunteer to mentor middle and high schoolers on basic web development. We teach them the very basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and help them through weekly web development projects. Through both the mentor training and self-taught studying, I learned a little basic JavaScript at least to the extent to where I could adequetly help younger students. I mostly only knew how to write the most basic of functions, objects, and use variables and functions to change the inner HTML of a document or assign elements with certain ids to variables. After doing several practice WODs and grinding through the long but incredibly informative and helpful freeCodeCamp JavaScript tutorial, I already feel much more comfortable in the language than I did even a mere week ago.
Current Thoughts
I already feel more comfortable with JavaScript than most of the languages I have learned prior (namely, Swift, Java, C, and C++), and one of the biggest reasons why is simply how flexible the language feels. Unlike with other languages, Javascript does not require one to state the type of variable or constant when declaring it, one can have different types of variables within arrays, and-get this- one can have arrays within arrays. To top it all off, even functions are much more lax; one can even go as far as to assign a function to a variable. In addition, objects can also be used in a similar manner to pointers in other languages where they can even be used to keep track of things. For example, as one of my most recent WODs have taught me, one can create an object to hold all the letters of a string in it to quickly keep track and check for duplicates. I find this much easier than keeping track of pointers (sorry C. You're an easy key to play music in, but I am still getting used to using your pointers). Overall, I'm loving this language so far and am excited to learn more and more about it this semester and even after this semester as I continue my journey to become a front-end web developer someday.