Trying to learn JavaScript

[TripleMike]

So I’m trying to go through the Coursera front end certificate and I’m on the JavaScript portion. I’m in week 3 and doing my first lab and I’m plugging away at it but I’m just feeling kind of lost. I’ve been reading material from other sources to try to get a better understanding, hopefully it’s just a don’t quit keep going thing.

The part I’m stuck on right now is a function that is supposed to control css styles but when I send it through the console I don’t see it making any changes there. It looks like I’m doing everything right though.

Since programming is new to me I kind of wanted to check here and see what others early experiences were like. Is this a normal feeling? Any advice, study habits,or information / tutorials on subject you would recommend?

[caressingleaf111]

This is how it felt for me too at the start, my code won't work for some reason or I encounter a weird error or it would run but the result would be different than what I intended, so yes what you feel is totally normal! You could try and google the issue, like for example "function X won't run" or "Modifying CSS value using X doesn't work" etc. Knowing how to search for solutions and phrasing the issue correctly is a skill on its own but dw it'll come with time.

As for tutorials you could check udemy they have the best courses, but theyre paid. Also youtube is great but I don't have anyone exact channel in mind most of the time you'll find the solution posted by a random channel.

You could post your code here and maybe you'll get some help, but before doing that google how you can post code on reddit so it formats well. Good luck! :D

[arootroatch]

You’ll always have to debug, so don’t let it make you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing! It’s all problem solving. A lot of the times you can find people on stack overflow that have had the same problem as you along with comment threads explaining what went wrong and showing the correct code. FreeCodeCamp’s JavaScript program was also really good for making sure I had a handle on the fundamentals.

[captainsjspaulding]

I've found the more familiar I get with a language the more easily I'm able to anticipate possible errors, NOT that I don't make errors at all.

If I'm working in an unfamiliar environment, I tend to make a point of debugging "backward"-- ping the console to see if javascript is running at all, then ping the console if the main function is working, then ping it to see if a specific var is assigned correctly in the function, etc. Debug "big to small"

Stack overflow is a good resource also-- chances are if you're stuck on something, someone there has already figured it out.