The cycle of coding

It looks like I'm coding in cycles of large achievement and then time off. The latest is that I was able to use PHP to load JSON info into my database. It's only afterwards that I was told by the Stack Overflow chat room that I could have done it using AJAX.

The amount of information I have to learn is very daunting. On the flip side my classes feel boring and slow. I wonder how long it would take a school to teach me the things I already know? Three semesters? I have no idea. I'm sure they'd fill in a lot of the holes of simple things I haven't learned yet.

The next step of the project is to connect the database to a user interface. The first steps seem simple enough: a text box for user input and a separate box that gives possible matches the user can select from. The suggestion box will start working on the second letter of the user input after a short period of time (one or two seconds). I'm not sure how many suggestions should appear in the box. I'll probably have to adjust that portion as I go.

I skipped one Javascript class last week and I'm very behind in the E-Commerce class. It doesn't help that I'm bored with the JS class and I absolutely hate the commerce class. I need to get my shit together if I'm going to succeed in either one.

Phase one

Planning stage of phase one of the web site. There's going to be a lot more going on, but this is what I'm going to start with.

(The picture is small but hopefully readable.)

Put in a bit more effort

I just realized that anyone who looks at the web projects on my site might wonder what the point is. The thing is I'm one of those guys who says things like "learning can only be done one step at a time". Yeah, that's me. Every piece of seemingly pointless code I've been writing is just a learning experience. Wow, I can take text typed in a box and put it somewhere else on the screen. I can number things, I can sort things, I can even ignore numbers when I sort. That's what I learned these past two days.

The point is I'm building up to a project that takes advantage of the things computers can do that people cannot. For example, I can't track hundreds of different things in my head and compare them to each other in different combinations. I couldn't write all that out.

What does this have to do with sorting numbered text strings? Like I said before, coding is hard. I've tried to jump into the proverbial deep end and all I got was confused. I've been spoiled by always being able to catch on to just about everything I wanted to do. Javascript is going to take a bit more effort. I can't just read a few pages on a web site and know how to use Ajax with a MySQL database.

I guess that's why people get paid to do these things.

To analog

I took a break from recreational programming for a week or two and it showed in my last class. I had to do an assignment before class started and I stumbled quite a bit. After an hour or so my brain got it back somewhat.

Why did I take a break? The short answer is programming is hard. Especially for the things I want to do. Even though I haven't been typing up code I have been thinking about my web projects constantly. The stuff I've been thinking about is going to make my site super complicated to build. If I think about it as a whole I also think about giving up on it. I just have to think in small pieces.

Off topic comment: I don't like writing notes down electronically. If I have an idea or if I'm writing down an inspiration, I'd rather use pen and paper. Every time I'm sitting at the computer trying to code and I have a vague idea, I keep looking for the analog way of making scribbles with bad penmanship. Where the hell is that pad of paper?

Gonna go for a walk

Learning is coming slowly but I am progressing nonetheless. My newest project is 50 lines total including HTML. Not a lot, but some of the lines took forever to figure out. Simplicity is key to good design anyway. Thankfully I am able to ask questions on the Stack Overflow website.

It would be good to post actual code and walk through my process.

Moping in code

I hope I'm not a "that guy" in class. Yeah, I've read a few books. Who cares.

I feel like the next few classes will be good.

The next thing

Newest project:

Button: add blank text box
Click text line: change to text box
Escape in text box:
- If nothing stored, remove
- If info stored, remove changes, restore info
Enter in text box: change to text line with info
X button by text box/text line: remove
Text format: number of item, item name
+ and - button by text line: increase/decrease #
Hide + button at 4
Hide - button at 1

User will enter a number and a string. The code will separate the number from the string to manipulate it, then add it back to the string when finished. If the user doesn't enter a number, the number will automatically be 1. Any number over four will be reduced to four.