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JavaScript JavaScript Foundations Objects Call and Apply

Lush Sleutsky
Lush Sleutsky
14,044 Points
Posted by Lush Sleutsky
Lush Sleutsky
14,044 Points

Remade Treehouse courses

I see that there are lots of courses being remade by Treehouse. How come the worst one by far, the entire JavaScript Foundations course has not been redone? I'm hoping it's in the works??

This call and apply video is probably the worst one in the entire section. From the variables used that are nothing but confusing words at this point, to the piss-poor explanation, this definitely needs revamping. It's time, Treehouse... it's time!

The variable names Jim uses here, and how they get ridiculously twisted around and confused with method names, other variable names, function calls, etc. in NO WAY can be useful for teaching new programmers what call and apply are for. Jim could have and should have used different variable names when talking about the greet method for jim.greet and nick.greet, and should not have called the function / method jimGreet() by that specific name, to further confuse an already confusing video. Another name could have been used to make the explanation easier, and not sound like it is going in circles. If I for one had not found tutorials elsewhere explaining call and apply, I would literally not understand one iota of what call and apply are for, and that's not cool, considering I am a paying customer. This video is ludicrous...

Let's get this entire course redone and get it to actually teach JavaScript!! Get Dave MacFarland to redo it. I know it takes time and resources, but this should have been number one on the list of course remakes. This is utterly ridiculous...

6 Answers

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

I have it on good authority that Objects and Loops will be covered in a follow up course to JavaScript Basics by Dave McFarland! :-) Hang in there with Foundations while it's still up. It can be quite hard to pick up and I found Jim's teaching on Objects to be far more understandable than his call and apply lectures.

Ryan Duchene
PLUS
Ryan Duchene
Courses Plus Student 46,022 Points
Ryan Duchene
Ryan Duchene
Courses Plus Student 46,022 Points

Your wish is my command. Here you go!

I found JavaScript Foundations to be very insightful in a lot of the material it covered, particularly functions and objects, along with the prototypal inheritance chain. But to each his own.

EDIT: I do agree that it needed an overhaul, though; it was old and Treehouse's style and technique have improved significantly since that course's filming. Jim doesn't even teach anymore IIRC.

sakatagintoki
sakatagintoki
12,624 Points
sakatagintoki
sakatagintoki
12,624 Points

Though I wasn't a complete beginner to JavaScript when I started this course, in many ways I've found Jim's courses to be some of the clearest and easiest to follow since joining Treehouse. shrugs

RE: new JavaScript Basics course. Is there anything in Jim's course that's out of date? Should I do the new one at some point?

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

I'm not so sure "out of date" is the right word but I'd certainly recommend the Basics course and the follow up release when it comes out. It's a lot of fun and breaks down all the fundamentals very well.

I'm not saying Jim's course is a bad one by any means but it is information heavy which might be fine for some but I just think Dave's more recent course is more suitable and accessible everyone.

sakatagintoki
sakatagintoki
12,624 Points
sakatagintoki
sakatagintoki
12,624 Points

Ok, thanks. I'll finish some of the courses I still want to do on the Web Developer track and go back to that one. :D

Mike Peterson
Mike Peterson
2,495 Points
Mike Peterson
Mike Peterson
2,495 Points

I'd love to see some visual aids that describe the JavaScript object hierarchy. It's a bit abstract, so just seeing code snippets doesn't fully illustrate what's going on. I know from the last video that all the code we are writing executes within the window object, but is there a parent object to window? If all functions are objects, is it possible to see where the functions object and its methods are defined? That might help explain what 'this' means in various contexts.

I'm fortunate to have software engineering experience, so overall I understand this material, but it took some good old fashioned brain-thinking. I sympathize with students who are trying to learn to code for the first time here.

David Simel
David Simel
4,250 Points
David Simel
David Simel
4,250 Points

I was a big fan of Jim's up until these past 2 lectures, starting with "this" and now the call/apply methods. I was really moving along and learning a lot, but these videos did not engage me AT ALL, I found myself sitting here just waiting for them to be over. I will definitely take a look at JavaScript Basics, however I am a little disappointed because I am on the Ruby Track and really want to continue on that at the moment. Just my two-cents.