Things Remembered/Know The Rules

Well, howdy! Or, rather, hello netizens. Sorry, I got a little Southern there. For those that don't know, netizen: a person who actively uses the internet especially in a proper and responsible way. The more you know. So, today I'm going to talk about some things that have made me stumble for stupid/crazy simple reasons. There are two main issues that I've come across. But first! I'm going to make coffee. Good thing this isn't a live stream. Now that ten minutes have passed for me and about a second for you, I'm back with coffee and sustenance. Le Music De Goog(read Google Play Music) is going and I'm ready. Time to plug in and plug away!

The biggest thing that gets my metaphorical goat is when your code looks like it's correct, there aren't any errors or anything like that, and it still doesn't return the result that you want. for instance: nested if statements. If you don't do them the right way, they will ignore entire sections of the code. For example:

<script type = "text/javascript">

var artist = "Foo Fighters"

var song = "Walk"

if(artist != "Foo Fighters"){

    alert("You don't like 'em, eh?");

      if(song == "Walk"){

        alert("nice choice");

      }else{

        alert("Too slow for you?");

      }

  }else{

    alert("Nice!");

  }

</script>

While this looks like it is correct, notice that the first if statement has a != that means does not equal. But the variable artist does equal "Foo Fighters" so it has to go to the end of the script to use alert("Nice!"); which means that the second if statement gets completely ignored. However, if the artist variable didn't equal "Foo Fighters" you'd be fine. So, it just calls for a little preexisting knowledge about your variables. Because if you don't know what's going on, your code will soon get really messed up and you won't know why because it all looks fine. Makes for debugging very annoying when you find out that you just had things in the wrong order, or something. The worst is when you spend hours trying to fix your code and it turns out that you're missing a period, or something like that. And if you haven't had this happen, it will. Don't worry.

Another thing that will mess you up is not knowing the rules. And the rule that doesn't get talked about too much, is that you can't name a variable with a number. So, var 1 ="hi" wouldn't register. It just sits there and does nothing. I'm not saying I've done this(totally have),but if I had(which I did) then I would tell you that it's annoying to look up the problem and it just makes you realize what a newb you are. 

So, there we have it, some things to watch out for in any language. 

1. Know the order in which things are read and run.

2. Know the rules.

3. Know that you'll mess up and don't be afraid of it.

And with that, I'll go and finish listening to +Jupiter Broadcasting because those guys are awesome.

See y'all on Wednesday!

 --Martin 

Chippy Animation/New Method For You In There.

     Rejoice! There is HTML/CSS today! Olé!  I am here at the house up at way too early an hour for my liking, but I'm up and done with the necessities of the day, so let's get this going. You'll be happy to know that I'm listening to something else besides GrooveShark. I found some free ChipTunes albums thanks to MakeUseOf. They proved themselves worthy of my followingness. Followingness is now a word by the way. I didn't have any coffee today. Yet. So, if you see any grammar errors, blame it on that. I'll probably get a water later. 

     

HTML/CSS

     Animations! That's what we're working on today. It's a simple animation, really. We're just going to do model of the solar system. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a cool scientific name that goes with that. Anyhoo, to start out with, it's just the sun and earth. I'll see if I can get more in there afterwards.

     The first new thing is this:

#earth {
     /* Style your earth */
     position: absolute;
     top: 25%;
     left: 25%;
 }

The %'s make the image in the earth tag adhere to a grid. It's much easier to use the % when you just need something in a general area. You can still use the <px> method if you need more accuracy.
The next new thing is:

box-shadow: 0 0 64px 10px white;

That's a line of CSS. Box-shadow does pretty much what you would expect. It gives a shadow to any element that you want. Here's what Mozilla tells us about the box-shadow's parameters:

"1st <length>
Specifies the horizontal offset of the shadow. A positive value draws a shadow that is offset to the right of the box, a negative length to the left.
2nd <length>
Specifies the vertical offset of the shadow. A positive value offsets the shadow down, a negative one up.
3rd <length>
Specifies the blur radius. Negative values are not allowed. If the blur value is zero, the shadow’s edge is sharp. Otherwise, the larger the value, the more the shadow’s edge is blurred.
4th <length>
Specifies the spread distance. Positive values cause the shadow to expand in all directions by the specified radius. Negative values cause the shadow to contract."
The 4<length> also is the part that deals with brightness.

     You know things are about to get fun when the lesson starts off with this:

"The next couple of steps are going to be a little tricky, so hang in there."

Let's see what they're about to throw at us.
     
     The first thing we had to do was to surround the <img> tag with a div with the id "earth-orbit" I guess that means we're about to get some movement here! I was right! We have movement! Earth is spinning away because of webkit stuff. I won't really get into that right now, but it's pretty much what moves things around. To see the finished code/product plus a few planets, go here.  I'm pretty sure that they're going the wrong way, and I know that the scale for size and distance is off. I just did it for fun. 

JavaScript

Today, we get to deal with a new method called <hasOwnProperty> it gives back a boolean response as to what is in an element. Search for what you think is there, and it'll tell you. Example:

var myObj = {
    // finish myObj
    name:"john"
};

console.log( myObj.hasOwnProperty('name') ); // should print true
console.log( myObj.hasOwnProperty('nickname') ); // should print false

This might seem stupid now, but when you're dealing with thousands of lines of code, where the object is more complex, or it's not easy to be sure, this is what you want. It'll tell you straight up!

And here we have a use-case in an <if/else> statement:

var suitcase = {
    shirt: "Hawaiian"
};

if(suitcase.hasOwnProperty("shorts")){
    console.log("You remembered to pack!");
}else{
    suitcase.shorts="blue";
    console.log(suitcase.shorts);
}

So, as you can see, it's got quite a lot of good uses!
I've already gone over the <for> loop and I might have talked about the <for-in> loop? Not sure. Let me recapitulate: the <for-in> loop is like the <for> loop, but it's more simple. Here's a comparison:

The <for> loop that would print out the contents of an array:

var array = ["hey", 2, true,"dude"];

for (var i = 0; i<array.length; i++){
             console.log(array[i]);
}

It's cycling through each element of the array, and printing it out to the console.

And here's a <for-in> loop doing the same thing:

var array = ["hey", 2, true,"dude"];

for (var i in array){
             console.log(array[i]);
}
notice how less verbose it is.

Now, you might be thinking that having these two loops that are practically the same is just stupid. Why not just have one? Actually, if you look at the first loop, you'll notice that it has a specific end-point. It's only going to go as far as the end of the array, and when you're using it to do something else that needs a specific end-point, like creating a long list of numbers that doesn't crash, that would be the <for> loop. The <for-in> loop works better for these types of use-cases. Something where you're worried about the properties in an element and you need them printed out, numbered, or anything else you can think of.


     That'll about do for me today, folks! I had a lot of fun with this one! There was a lot of new stuff going on. I like new stuff. See y'all on Friday!

--Martin

Links/Do You Even Do Age, Bro?

  Today, as I'm sure the job-weary are aware, is Friday! And that means I'm at the coffee shop! I had a big frappé, and it was delicious! Now to capitalize on this energy! As I said in the last post, I finished the HTML course(olé!) and this has a good side and a bad side. The good side is that I am happy with what I learned, the bad news is that in the next course HTML course that I'm taking starts with the basics. While I appreciate going over the fundamentals, it means that I really don't have anything HTML/CSS related to report today. Bear with me while I slog through and get to a place that I don't know about. I should have something by Monday unless they really want to explain elements, or something along those lines. The new course is on Udacity (<<--link)for those of you looking for a place to learn HTML. They don't cover CSS, sadly. I'll have to look for somewhere that does. Now that the frappé has been imbibed, and Grooveshark is going(again). It's time to plug in and plug away!

JavaScript

      Today we're going to be writing a validation script. It's going to check if a person(under the premise that they're being honest) is old enough to enter a website. It's about 8 lines of code, but it really shows how much you can do with just 8 lines of code in .js. We start off with this:

var userAge = parseInt(prompt());
Notice the new word: parseInt; it's a fairly obvious term. The variable <userAge> returns a string, so rather than setting userAge equal to the prompt, you put a function around the prompt that will return the value that prompt() gets from the user into a number, and that means you parse an integer with <parseInt>! pretty nifty, eh? I thought so.

Next up we have this:

if(isNaN(userAge)){
    console.log("Not a number,bro.");
}

It's checking to see if the response wasn't a number. ParseInt can only turn a string into a number if it is a number, obviously. So, you make an <if/else> that makes sure that the person entered what was wanted. This is a good practice for pretty much anything ever when it comes to this kind of thing.
You should also notice the use of <isNaN>. isNaN stands for is not a number. Like many things in .js there are tons of these little words that are so useful, and this is definitely one of them. So, next time you need to have something that checks if something is returning a number, it's <isNaN> to the rescue! You just stick your parameter in there, userAge in this case, and it's good to go.

The next step is a simple < else if/else> setup:

else if(userAge<18){
    console.log("You're not allowed in here, young whippersnapper!");
}else{
    console.log("Come on in!");
}

That pretty much explains itself, so here's the whole script:

var userAge = parseInt(prompt("Do you even do age, bro?"));
if(isNaN(userAge)){
    console.log("Not a number,bro.");
}else if(userAge<18){
    console.log("You're not allowed in here, young whippersnapper!");
}else{
    console.log("Come on in!");
}

That should be enough info to take in for now. I hope y'all have an amazing weekend, I'll see you on Monday! It might be a late post, it's possible I'll have a million things to do. See y'all!

--Martin

Beautiful Weather/ Not A Walk In The Park

     It's a beautiful day here in Texas. I had to take a break from my studies and go for a walk to enjoy this gorgeous weather. One of my friends told me that Katie Herzig was giving all of her music away for free today. So, that's what I was listening to. It was pretty good. I actually got my studies on a roll today. So, this is actually going to go out on time! No coffee today. I'm awake enough from all the amazing weather. So, time to plug in and plug away!

HTML/CSS

      I've been doing HTML just long enough for that picture to make my eye twitch just a little. Ever since I started learning HTML I've been writing these posts in HTML and I'll get little error messages if a tag isn't closed, or something. So, I'm more perceptive to tags lately. Mainly because I don't like the error messages. I'm pretty sure that I don't really care for the <nth-child> tag when it comes to calling a specific element. I mean, what's wrong with class or id? Although, I suppose that maybe some tags can't have those in there. So, maybe that's when they're useful. Hopefully.

I earned a badge! Olé!

JavaScript

      JavaScript. So useful, and yet so daunting. I seriously need to start doing some real world applications to have some real knowledge under ye olde metaphorical belt. I have the most basic ideas of .js, but some of the more esoteric practices can be overtly foreign on such a frequent basis that the only way to retain knowledge is to do the lessons over and over and over and over... As long as it actually helps me attain something in the end, I suppose it's worth it. The code that I'm starting with today is pretty much just simple math. Which should be easy, except that it isn't always easier said than done











 If you want to do cool code snapshots like this, go here.  It's called Marmoset.
      Anyhoo, the age bit was OK. I just had to do an <if/else> statement. Although, I'm sure I could do a ternary operator and have it all done better. I'll try that next time I need an <if/else> statement.

Seriously, remembering the names to these things can be hard! I tried three different ways before I got this. Like I said. remembering things in .js is hard sometimes! Remembering all the operators and objects and whatnot. I'm going to eventually remember them all, but it isn't exactly a walk in the park. Not that anyone said it would be. OK. That's the end for today.

See y'all on Wednesday!

--Martin

Capitalizing On Skills With A Side Of Stupid

(sorry for the late post. As you'll see there was a loooot of stupid...)

     Well, I made it back for yet another week! Today's post is brought to us by some Blind Melon and a latté whipped up by the friendly barista. I was going to just work with no music, but then the place got swamped and everyone was talking and noise happened, but now I can plug in and plug away!

  

     I've been doing these classes for about a year, but this is my first REAL attempt at actually taking time every day to do at LEAST an hour's worth of studying in and I'm starting to see some of the skills that get picked up along the way. For instance, today I was working on some classwork and I got a syntax error. It used to be that I would be at a loss as to what the reason was, but now I'm starting to learn what to check before giving up hope when I get a syntax error, and today I took the time to check that all of my variables and such were in the correct place and that I had the correct capitalization. Turns out one of them needed to be moved AND capitalized. Good thing I'm a student and not a pro, because; that would have been embarrassing. I've also noticed I'm better at algebra too. Turns out I was right in thinking that there was a lot in common between the two. 

     Right now I'm working on a section that (once again) is using math involving a startup. Such as paying employees, rent and such. I'm also dealing with multiple parameters which are easy, it's just difficult to always get the correct ones in the correct places, but copy pasta!

I really don't like it when I don't pass the lesson and they won't tell we why. They're just like: fail. Try again. At least tell me what's wrong. The weirdest is when I get NaN, but they say I passed the lesson. No. I'm not going to NaN my way through this. Whoever wrote this lesson definitely didn't think of everything. 

Switch statements are awesome, but I had forgotten that you have to add a return at the end after the <}> and now I feel stupid. Duh, of course there should be a return. 

I just finished the function which tells you the total costs for a startup based on salary, number of workers and city. Kinda sounds cool when I write it out. 

Speaking of not thinking of everything, look at this:

var calculateTotalCosts = function(salary,numWorkers,city)

{

fixedCosts = 5000;

variableCosts = salary*numWorkers;

switch(city)

{

case "BEJ":

rent = 25000;

break;

case "NYC":

rent = 30000;

break;

default:

rent = 10000;

break;

}

return rent + variableCosts + fixedCosts;

};

  

console.log(calculateTotalCosts(50000,9,"BEJ"));

console.log(calculateTotalCosts(50000,9,"NYC"));

console.log(calculateTotalCosts(50000,9,"MUM"));

That is a perfectly working code and exactly how they TELL you it should be. They actually give you the code with everything except the console.log parts. 

Turns out they want you to change it to an if/else situation. WHAT?? why... omgosh this si so stupid.... gr... just going to peddle through this crap and hope they don't do something so mind boggingly stupid again....

Aaaaand they signed me out. None of my work from today is saved. Wow... Well, at least I know how to get through this crap.

Jeeze that was annoying. Ah well. All part of the experience, I hope. 

See y'all Wednesday!

--Martin

Plug In And Plug Away

    Conditionals!
Apparently I need to brush up on my terminology, because; I've been using these for a while, but I didn't know their name. Oops.
Once again, I'm at my favorite coffee shop trying to get some classwork done. I'm a little early because my boss said no work today. So, I headed over here after a decent sleep. Now to get an hour or to in. I try not to work for too long. I start going crazy. So, a walk or something will probably happen in the middle of this.
I finished the taxiFare section and am now in an overview of everything I've done up to this point. Mainly they just want me to check out their blog. So, I'm going to plug in my headphones, get some of Them Crooked Vultures going, drink my iced tea because I'm too broke to buy coffee, plug in and plug away!
Coding notes:
Seriously, <else if> rocks, but I know how it works. I think that they think I wasn't paying attention to anything they said.
I've been waiting for <&&> to make a show. And now, TADA! <&&> everywhere!

var checkNameGender = function (yourName,gender) {
//All the code below was used in exercise 1.6

    if (gender.length > 0 && yourName.length > 0) {
      if (gender === 'male' || gender === 'female') {
            return true;
      } else {
            return false;
      }
    } else {
      return false;
    }
};
checkNameGender("Mookie","male");

And there's my last lesson. I actually went through that really easily. Finish on success, right?
I've always liked the idea of having Mookie for a nickname. Now I can amuse  myself by telling the code to call me Mookie. =-)