Learning to code, week 2: Really programming

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This summer, Sarah is getting outside of her comfort zone by taking Dev/Iowa, a nine-week course in web development fundamentals. We'll be blogging along the way, highlighting the local tech community, and probably asking for help. 

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When we started Dev/Iowa, instructor Steve Davis told us the stuff we'd learn in the very beginning couldn't really be called programming. HTML and CSS – creating a document and then styling it – is akin to what you can do in Microsoft Word. But week two brought JavaScript, JQuery, and apparently, street cred?

So here's what I had made by the end of week two. Prepare to be amazed (not really):

The part I thought would be difficult – adding some basic interactivity using JavaScript and jQuery – actually went relatively quickly once I got the hang of it. Both of these tools were totally new to me, and it did take some time to figure out the syntax (you know how a sentence needs a noun and a verb? Similar idea), and read through the official list of jQuery commands to figure out which ones to use (a combination of “toggle” and “animate” here). But after that, I felt like I was writing functions with relative ease.

And the part that looks easy? Getting two columns to sit next to each other nicely? I probably adjusted the layout about 15 times. Trying to arrange everything on the page so text wouldn't overlap, photos wouldn't smush and margins would snap back into place after the animation was a process of trial and error. There are tools that can do this, but as I wrote in week one, to really understand the process we are learning using the very basics of just a text editor and a browser.

I also had to redo quite a bit of what I'd written in week one. When I added the

tag and the beginning of my page, indicating an HTML5 document, a lot of my content got garbled on the page. How was I writing outdated code when I'm totally new to this? It really does feel like learning a new language, with plenty of new grammatical quirks along the way.

Introducing the project

Remember the static page from week one? I've switched over to working on the project that will likely be my focus for the rest of the nine-week bootcamp.

I've written quite a bit before about my interest in mapping or visualizing the entrepreneurial community in Eastern Iowa and beyond. I think this project will be a take on that idea – part data visualization, part tool to get connected to new people.

(Sidebar: I know the “find a mentor” idea isn't a new one – it gets pitched often at Startup Weekends and similar events. But the focus of Dev/Iowa isn't to find a viable business, but to learn by working on a project that interests you. So.)

I knew I needed to focus, since trying to wrap my arms around the whole community's worth of data has gotten overwhelming in the past. So, I'm starting with the network of Iowa Startup Accelerator mentors (which I've also written about before). This gives me a defined set of “nodes” and the ISA already has their mentors nicely sorted into categories by skill set.

But, if all goes well, the project could grow bigger. I know the Kirkwood SBDC is working on setting up mentor office hours in Vault, something similar is happening at the University of Iowa Research Park, and Iowa BIG is constantly growing their pool of projects and mentors for entrepreneurial high schoolers.

So, I'll ask you, readers: What would you like to see in this project - A wide variety of cool people, or a tailored set? What information would you want to know about each mentor? Do you want a way to book meetings with mentors? Let me hear it: sarah.binder@sourcemedia.net

Math?

Our introduction to JavaScript, functions and the power of interactivity was, I think, a classic one: we wrote a program that could solve the same simple equation over and over and over again indefinitely.

I can see why we learned this way. The goal was to learn the concepts (how to write a script that could solve a problem), not the content (actually solving the problem), and the delightfully finite quality of basic arithmetic makes for some unobtrusive content.

But, how many times in my working life have I needed to subtract a from b, divide by the remainder, swap that number in for a, and repeat indefinitely? Not a single one. And while some people are intrinsically motivated by solving math problems, that abstraction from day to day life can be frustrating. Especially when learning tech skills isn't a full-time gig or if you've been told before that STEM isn't your thing - which happens disproportionately to women and girls, in case you forgot.

When I was trying to learn on my own, working through online courses after dinner, that lesson would have been about the moment when I closed Codecademy and didn't look at it again for about six months.

And I think that's the main benefit of learning in a more structured setting, at least for me: you have to keep showing up. More on this in week three.