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JavaScript

Posted by Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
3,091 Points

A bit concerned with my progress.

I just completed this section but for the Quiz Part 1 and 2 (with loops, arrays and objects) I had to basically see what was done. I got some of it setup, a fair amount but forgot many parts of it.

Yet when I see the code laid out, it makes 100% sense to me, and I am like oh right yea I knew that, I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Yet I couldn't complete it myself. Should I be worried? Should I move forward with these JavaScript courses, or spent more time trying programs like the Quiz one?

Marissa Richardson
Marissa Richardson
47,542 Points
Marissa Richardson
Marissa Richardson
47,542 Points

I don't think you should try memorize everything the first go-round. I like to take notes so that I can reread things both online and offline. It will help you remember better (in addition to rewatching the videos at a later time).

4 Answers

Gregory Katchmar
Gregory Katchmar
10,912 Points

1: Be sure to pursue the "Teachers Notes" links and the "Questions" links in the course that you are watching: you are not not the first one to have the same stumbling blocks.

2: Google the same line of code that you are having trouble with; many times, it will refer back to an earlier TreeHouse community answer that addresses your exact issue.

3: Generally Google Video the topic. For instance "javascript array video" results in a multitude of results: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=javascript+array+video&safe=off&tbm=vid

Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
3,091 Points

Thanks for that. Great stuff. Will start watching more videos and such.

Gregory Katchmar
Gregory Katchmar
10,912 Points
Gregory Katchmar
Gregory Katchmar
10,912 Points

You have to keep it up so the "grammar" of JavaScript makes sense. (Windows) ctrl-shift-J is invaluable to find out what line of code is crashing. It's almost always a wandering parenthesis, a stray bracket, etc. It's not that you don't know what you are doing, but rather, you typed a "{" instead of an "(".

Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
3,091 Points
Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
3,091 Points

Any suggestions are places to go to do more tests? Like the projects in Treehouse? I think I just have to keep trying over and over again. Though trying the same project isn't going to work.

Marissa Richardson
Marissa Richardson
47,542 Points
Marissa Richardson
Marissa Richardson
47,542 Points

I don't know of any sites that have tests like Treehouse, but Gregory has some great suggestions.

Rachelle Wood
Rachelle Wood
15,362 Points
Rachelle Wood
Rachelle Wood
15,362 Points

I am probably going to get pelted with tomatoes on this JavaScript forum but...

Is this your first computer language? If so, maybe try out one that clicks more with you i.e. one that has easier syntax. It looks to me like both Python and Ruby have easier-to-memorize syntax than JavaScript. Some people have the opinion that JavaScript is a toy or easy language. That is simply not true, it is one of the harder languages to learn (just wait until you get into prototyping if you haven't already... that one did my head in).

I can't speak that much for Python since I have not tried it yet but I have read in numerous places that it is a great language to learn programming with and is becoming a go-to first-time language for CS courses at universities and such. I am not going to link to sites where I read this but it was on at least three different sites. You can find lots of information about this by googling it. Python registers as one of the most popular languages to learn right now.

And Ruby? If you choose to eventually learn Rails, you will also need to know JavaScript so if you wanted to pick up Ruby first and then go back to JavaScript you certainly would not be wasting your time.

If you have your heart absolutely set on JavaScript, the only thing I can suggest is to build some websites and make them interactive as much as you can. If you need to get your hands on a workspaces-like program that allows you to play around making websites and incorporates a good text editor, I recommend looking for an IDE. The one I like to use for Java, JavaScript, HTML and CSS is NetBeans because it is good and it is free.