Learning to Code: A couple months in

by Andrew Cross on July 27, 2012 in Other with 1 Comment

It’s been a couple months now since I started learning how to code. By no means am I able to code up a prod-ready app, but I feel like I finally have a grasp of what’s going on, at least in Python & Django. Compared to where I was when I started and how little time I’ve been able to put into it, I’m happy with that.

Here’s what I’ve done recently.

Steps Taken

-Since I’m not making my email app a gmail plugin anymore, I’ve been able to focus on getting data to and from the database. It took me a while, but I’ve finally got it working properly for all my forms. It’s still not formatted & styled properly, but that will come later.

-To push myself more and start making a technical contribution to GooseChase, I started working on a couple pages we are redesigning. Just simple stuff first (register page), but I started working on more complicated stuff later (rankings page). I still need help from time to time, but I was able to handle it without too much guidance.

Learnings

  1. Working on something that will be used by thousands of people is awesome. I can completely see why producing code that millions of people will use is a highly attractive proposition.
  2. Learning syntax for a ton of different languages is just painful and confusing (python, django-formatting, javascript, html, etc.). I can see why there’s a lot of work going on to make javascript work for client and server side right now.
  3. The need for explicitness still blows my mind. I ran into an issue where I was trying to update data, but when I hit save it would just create new records in the database. I wasn’t explicitly searching for those records and updating, which is obvious in hindsight, but as a non-technical guy you don’t fully comprehend the need for explicitness until you get there.

Next Up

There’s still a few more pieces of the GooseChase rankings page that need to be finished. Since they involve ajax/javascript, which I’m still not comfortable with, I saved them for the end.

I also need to adjust the database models to track a few extra components. It’s not that hard, but I’m paranoid that I’m going to screw something up. Playing around on a local server is one thing, but changing the database that will be pushed live is something else.

Check out my other posts on learning to code:

-Learning to Code as a Startup CEO: Getting Started

-Learning to Code: 2 Weeks In

-Learning to Code: 6 Weeks In


Tagged:
←
→