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.

Example-driven learning

Wouldn't it be great to have a Javascript site that gives examples and explanations for real-world problems? "How do I make a text box that responds this way?" "How do I do such and such?" It would be about simple things that can get a new programmer going.