Summary
In this essay, I will be detailing my experiences with the three WODs I have done since the last technical essay. In BrowserHistory6, the WOD covered creating buttons that were clickable and also had a reaction when moused over; this WOD built off of the webpage made in BrowserHistory3, a previous WOD. SmartPhoneProducts1 with Variables went over the usage of variables rather than hardcoding information, building off of SmartPhoneProducts1 that we did in a Lab earlier in the semester. Invoice1 had extensive usage of variables, using variables to store information about prices, quantities, tax rate and tax values, subtotals, and more. Invoice2 and SmartPhoneProducts2 expanded on these WODs, with the introduction of if else statements and for loops.
BrowserHistory6
1st attempt: ~36 minutes - Sd
I think I struggled the most with BrowserHistory6 out of the three WODs. What helped me with this WOD was that we had already somewhat explored onmouseover and onclick through our labs in class, so I could easily understand the code. The part I had the greatest difficulty with was finding out how to reference the pictures in the onmouseover event. I had originally set the img src to something like “firefox.png,” but even after refreshing multiple times, I couldn’t get the code to work and it was pretty frustrating. My workaround for this was simply to click on the link on the website that led to the individual Firefox webpage, copy the image’s link address, then reference that in my code. Another thing that I had an issue with was getting my icons to shift the text downward rather than pushing it to the side upon an onmouseover event. After I watched the professor’s video, I still couldn’t figure out how to fix my code or even find the source of the issue. Other than that, I think the WOD was pretty straightforward.
SmartPhoneProducts1 with Variables
1st attempt: ~11 minutes - Rx
Honestly, I found SmartPhoneProducts1 with Variables to be the easiest WOD out of the three. Most of the WOD was just assigning values to variables, which we had practiced extensively in our labs. I found that the suggestion in the instructions to use “ .* “ really helped with mass-replacing old code. I would say the most difficult part of this lab was simply catching mistakes. I had an issue where I forgot to change the code for one part, so my images weren’t loading in properly; however, that issue was easily resolved. My advice: go through the code with a fine-toothed comb, especially when it comes to edits that involve replacing old code.
Invoice1
1st attempt: ~30 minutes - Av
I felt as if I learned the most from this WOD out of the three. Invoice1 covered some concepts that we didn’t really go over in Labs, like making dynamic tables. I did make a lot of mistakes, and I ended up getting frustrated, especially when it came to keeping my code organized. I believe that the instructions that told us to comment on what each section was helped a lot, and I was able to focus and search through the code a lot better as a result. Overall, I encountered the greatest difficulty when it came to working on the table. Most of my issues were fixed through trial and error, but I think that I lacked efficency. If I did this WOD over again, I’m sure my time would improve significantly.
Invoice2
1st attempt: ~15 minutes - Av
I found this WOD to be quite easy, as it utilized skills that I felt I sufficiently understood after completing our Lab activities. In this WOD, we practiced making an invoice, where the value of the shipping would change depending on the dollar amount ordered. I found this to be a quite relaxing WOD in general. It built off of our previous WOD, but also covered using if statements. I was able to test that my code worked for a variety of values and was very satisfied with my results. I didn’t really run into any issues besides forgetting how to write else if (I wrote it as else), and I think if I did the WOD over again, I would probably be able to have an Rx time.
SmartPhoneProducts2
1st attempt: ~20 minutes - Sd
During this WOD, I initially had some difficulty with remembering how to do eval() and write a for loop. In addition, I kept running into many different small errors, for example i=1 instead of i=0 in the for loop, or having a ; where I wasn’t supposed to have one. I think for the semicolon issue in particular, I was trying to figure out what went wrong for over 6 minutes. I also couldn’t even tell whether my change in code actually helped resolve the error or not, because another error still existed. During this WOD, I heavily utilized the console to catch my errors. The final product was a SmartPhone Store that had “automated” listings by using a for loop.
Advice/Conclusion
Overall, I felt that this round of WODs were much easier compared to the first three. I feel as if my ability to process how to use coding language to produce a result has improved significantly since the start of this semester. My biggest learnings from this set of WODs is to pay attention to detail. I think that when your code doesn’t end up working, it can be frustrating, and when one is frustrated, it’s easy to miss the errors. I also learned how important it is to keep your code commented and organized – this is something I’m looking to implement in my future coding sesesions.