Dancer to Dev - Journey of a self taught developer

Focus this week: This week has been a slight detour from my current learning journey after being asked by a few friends and family about creating a website for them. So, I have been looking into WordPress, an open-source content management system that is used by many to create websites. Now you don't have to write any code for it which is great for those not interested in learning to code. However, there are developers who use PHP to create custom plugins and themes, so it caters for everyone dependent on how deeply you want to delve into it. I spent the week looking into the basics as I didn't have any prior knowledge other than knowing WordPress built websites. So far, it seems pretty self explanatory when creating content and there are also advanced settings where knowledge of HTML and CSS comes into play. Coding knowledge is also useful if something isn't perhaps working how you may expect it to as you can just jump into the code editor and debug the issues there.   I h

                                         Focus this week: This week after spending time on practice questions I decided to place my focus on recursion. Recursion is something that has come up a few times when pair programming with my boyfriend. He is a senior software developer and is a big fan of it, I on the other hand was not as convinced. A function calling itself? now that's confusing, however, it did get my attention. So I decided to delve deeper, reading and watching various software engineers' blogs and explanations to try and help me get a better grasp on the concept. My boyfriend and I have also been putting recursion into practice, having a go at some common problems that lend themselves to a recursive solution and working through them. One of these was inverting a binary tree, which after looking at data structures last week at least meant I knew what this would visually look like. As we worked through the problem before I knew it my function was calling itself, usi

                                Focus this week: This week was a bit of a tough one as I found it hard motivating myself to study. Lack of motivation is a common problem for so many, especially with the current situation. More people have found themselves in an unfamiliar state, whether it be working or studying from home, the lack of routine and numerous distractions, can make getting things done rather challenging.  As I mentioned last week making something a habit is key and I'm still finding the balance. In fact this blog has really helped with my own motivation, as it creates a goal to achieve each week and focuses my study. So with that being said, I have tried drawing out a more detailed plan this week, mixing a continuation of algorithms and data structures, practicing technical questions and building websites. As I had a few areas to focus on I split them into what I wanted to achieve in the morning of a given day and what to focus on in the afternoon. The benefit of this

                               Focus this week: This week the focus was on data structures and algorithms, a phrase I know can create a sense of panic for many . To be honest, I think I have subconsciously been putting off covering this topic because it sounded complicated and confusing. However, after practicing questions on Leet Code and seeing their assessment of the performance of my code, I realised it was a topic I really needed to cover. I have only really scratched the surface but have already been able to see the benefits of studying this subject.  Learning Big O notation has helped me to assess the difference between different solutions to the same problem.  For example, performance will differ when calculating the sum of numbers from 1 to n  using a for-loop, compared to a simple mathematical equation. Answering lots of technical questions every once in a while, may help you become familiar with specific solutions, but in the long term isn't the best way to develop the

                           Focus this week: This week I wanted to give myself time; time to absorb topics I have covered and time to review the place I'm at with my learning. To help me achieve this, at the beginning of the week I decided to create a portfolio website, with links to all my current projects. The site works a bit like an online CV for potential employers and makes it quicker and easier to look through my work. This also gave me a chance to see how much I have progressed and an opportunity to look back and review my code. Check it out here:  https://daneika.github.io/ In life, its very easy to get caught up in the " what' s next " mindset rather than focusing on the right now, I have found this can cause me to rush through the learning process, always pursuing the next new topic. With that in mind,  in an effort to  solidify my grasp of the fundamentals,  I decided to continue to focus on React  this week . In my applications I have used functional compo

                             Focus this week: This week took a different turn to what I expected and forced me to change up my learning plan.  For those who self study we are taught to be disciplined with our time, plan out our weeks and days to ensure maximum efficiency but what if that plan unexpectedly changes? Do we accept we may not achieve what we have mapped out for the week and feel a sense of failure; or do we see the change as a chance to achieve even more. That being said, on Monday afternoon I received my first technical test...due the next day.  Now I hadn't spoken to the company so thought it would be worth having a quick chat with them first to find out more about the role.  I didn't feel the role was the right fit for me because it required a more experienced developer. However, this also represented an opportunity to get some practice at following a brief and committing to a deadline, and the developer on the phone agreed. So, there I was with a brief and it wa

Focus this week: This week I have been continuing my journey with React. I find the best way to learn is by doing, so I have created a couple of small apps that allowed me to explore the core ideas within React such as components and state management. The first project I built was the Dog Face Mash app I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and the second is a recipe box (an app to search for recipes using Spoonacular's API ). Check it out here  https://daneika-recipe-box.herokuapp.com/ For both projects I used Create React App, something I would recommend when starting out creating single page applications in React. This is because it allows you to focus on your application code rather than the build tools. CRA also comes with some builtin linters and other tools that help keep your code neat and inline with code standards set out by Facebook. One less thing to worry about which always helps when trying to absorb a lot of new material! My opinion of React so far is that it gives a gre

Focus this week: This week has been about maths and how it relates to software engineering. After trying out JavaScript challenges I realised I needed to brush up on my basic maths knowledge. For a lot of people (including me) when you hear the word “algebra” or “equations” it can cause a feeling of panic and dread, especially if it is something that you don’t use regularly. However, actually looking back at these maths topics as an adult has made me realise they are perhaps not as daunting as I once thought. In fact, I would even say I have quite enjoyed the process of relearning topics I hadn’t covered since school.  I think this comes down to a mixture of the great resources out there (especially apps such as khan academy and brilliant that give you the ability to access and complete short lessons daily wherever you may be), as well as coming to it from a new perspective, as a tool that will aid me rather than another subject on the timetable. So for those of you who still

  Focus this week: This week I have been exploring CSS animations. I briefly came across these when creating my Dog Face Mash app (an app to compare pictures of cute dogs 😊). Check it out here https://dog-face-mash.herokuapp.com/ Since then, I had mainly been focusing on JavaScript and React when I came across Scrimba’s 7-day CSS challenge. Each day you receive a new challenge to complete and this featured a few animation challenges which sparked my interest on delving into this topic further. Animations are a great way to help with the user experience of your apps and direct attention to particular areas. They are also pretty fun to create, even when it's just a simple fade in! So my week has been looking into keyframes, transitions and transforms….hoping to become more animated in future projects!   Things to check out: https://scrimba.com/course/gcssanimations  - covers how to start using animations, using challenges to help you practice. https://thoughtbot.co