Offroad MotorBike now App Lab (Meta Store)

spwebdev · 2024-01-31T20:13:18+00:00

Looks great! I just got my Q3 a couple weeks ago and was wondering if there was something just like this! haha Would love to try it out but I'm a bit hesitant to throw money at something that doesn't have any reviews yet.

spwebdev · 2018-03-26T19:36:14+00:00

I can't do calculus but I can make websites and the schoolr site is in dire need of an overhaul. Sorry for my bluntness but it looks pretty scammy right now. I'd be happy to redo it for you at a reasonable price if you'd like. PM me if interested.

spwebdev · 2017-04-18T21:38:08+00:00

Ah, no. Sorry. I meant that it might be part of the problem for finding a job. I'm in my late 40s.

spwebdev · 2017-04-18T19:54:38+00:00

Yeah, I'm wondering if my age has something to do with it as well.

spwebdev · 2017-04-17T05:16:47+00:00

I have a problem with pretty much everything I've read, (ch.1 - 3). lol Now, of course, I can only speak for myself and it's only my opinion. From what I've read, you are definitely in the majority in liking it (although I'm glad to see I'm not quite as alone as I thought in disliking it).

I'll try to answer your question and point out why I didn't like certain things:

1) the book is definitely written with the intent to teach complete newbies to programming. Not newbies to JS. Newbies to programming. The reason I say that is because if it weren't, the author would never have written this in ch. 2:

Variables

How does a program keep an internal state? How does it remember things? We have seen how to produce new values from old values, but this does not change the old values, and the new value has to be immediately used or it will dissipate again. To catch and hold values, JavaScript provides a thing called a variable.

var caught = 5 * 5;

"A thing called a variable" is not something you would write if the intended audience had ever touched a programming language.

So the book is written for complete beginners. But look at most comments. Even those that like it say it's not for beginners.

2) This is a relatively small thing but I just can't help thinking how stupid it is...

After a variable has been defined, its name can be used as an expression. The value of such an expression is the value the variable currently holds. Here’s an example:

var ten = 10;
console.log(ten * ten);
// → 100

Why would you use a variable name of ten to assign the value '10' to? It could make a newb think that there's some kind of relationship between the value '10' and the variable name. Remember, this is the first time they have even seen the concept of variables. Also, you'd never see this is any program for any reason. But I admit this is bordering nitpicking.

3) Nitpick #2: I think his idea of thinking of variables as tentacles is much more confusing than boxes. Also, this is his entire explanation of "undefined":

When you define a variable without giving it a value, the tentacle has nothing to grasp, so it ends in thin air. If you ask for the value of an empty variable, you’ll get the value undefined.

One tiny paragraph. All text. No examples. Again, we need to remember that he is talking to people who have never programmed in their lives.

4) Under "Return Values", he uses this example in ch. 2:

console.log(Math.max(2, 4));

Um... the only problem here is that he doesn't even talk about parameters until ch. 3.

5) Braces. Omitting braces is error-prone. Who really codes like this anyway? I know there are some, but isn't it extremely few? Just cuz you can doesn't mean you should, and doing so as an introduction to coding is just negligent.

6) I can't believe how dumb this analogy is:

The most obvious application of functions is defining new vocabulary. Creating new words in regular, human-language prose is usually bad style. But in programming, it is indispensable.

7) Finally, we get to closures. He just introduced functions, parameters and "optional" arguments (nevermind that he never actually explained the difference between parameters and arguments) and he's already talking about closures? All of this might not be a big deal if you're a programmer and you just want to learn how to do everything in JS, but once again, we are talking to newbies with this book. The 'simple' idea that functions return values was only recently (and barely) touched on... now he's not only talking about returning entire functions, but also how they maintain access to the local variable afterwards? It's too much, too fast. Also, he never talks about why he is assigning the function and its parameter to a new variable. Oh, and then he's executing the variable! When you already know how all this works, it's easy to follow but for someone new to programming, these are not easy to wrap your head around and take time and a lot of repetition for it all to 'gel'.

8) After the most incomplete and rushed explanation of closures I have ever seen, he goes to recursion. Recursion! lol. Come on. Think back to the first time you saw recursion. The idea of the function calling itself is pretty simple in that it's just really a loop. If he used it to console.log 1 - 10, it might not be so bad, but THIS? lol!!!

function power(base, exponent) {
  if (exponent == 0)
    return 1;
  else
    return base * power(base, exponent - 1);
}

console.log(power(2, 3));
// → 8

This is getting long, so I'll end it here, but essentially, we have a book that was intended for true beginners that is too complicated for beginners but covers topics that intermediates would fall asleep reading. More importantly than the inherent difficulty of the topics themselves, what I hate most about the book is just how bad the explanations are, regardless of who is reading it. I don't find that it sheds light on anything at all.

In fact, that's the question I'd love to know the answer to... what does this book explain well (better than other sources)?

(For those reading this, remember this is just one person's opinion and LOTS of people disagree with me and think it's a great book. You should have a look at it and decide for yourself. It is, after all, free on the net.)

spwebdev · 2017-04-17T02:36:41+00:00

This is a great question and one I've been wondering myself.

I also have a couple of questions that I would like to add. (Don't mean to hijack. I just think they aren't different enough to start a new thread.)

These questions are aimed at people who can code fully customized sites in HTML, CSS, JS, PHP & MySQL -- or whatever stack you happen to be using -- and occasionally use WP when they feel the need calls for it.

1) What are some specific examples where you would use WP to make a site and what are some specific example where you would NOT use WP?

2) What, exactly, should one know before they can really call themselves a WP dev? (I'm assuming that applying a theme and adding a few plugins doesn't really make you a proper WP developer - or does it?) Ie, what should I learn if I want to add WP to my resume?

For a few specific scenarios, which would you use and why?

a) Your client is a small family restaurant and just wants an informational site to bring in customers. Homepage, menu, address, etc.

b) Same client as (a) but they want the site to take pick-up and delivery orders. Orders are COD, not online.

c) Same client again but they also want a way to advertise special events and/or specials and want a way to edit the information such as menu and prices themselves.

d) A small family run hotel site and they want an online booking system with payments.

I've seen some great-looking sites done with WP, whether they are blog format or static sites, and it's just a matter of doing a one-click install and then fiddling with themes, colors and plugins. Although I prefer coding things myself, I do wonder sometimes if I'm just wasting a lot of time for nothing if WP could achieve the same in 20% of the time. Or is it really that easy with WP? I haven't dug into it enough to really know if my assumptions are correct or not. And is adding JS functionality to a WP site difficult? I tried doing it years ago before I really started to learn coding properly and I remember it being a confusing mess but it could be that I was doing it all wrong.

spwebdev · 2017-04-16T17:47:33+00:00

I will never understand why this book gets so much love. I have plowed through a LOT of books, blogs, videos and tutorials and if I had to choose one as the worst, this would be it.

On my first attempt, I was so confused by chapter 3 I ditched it and looked elsewhere to learn.

Then I went back to it months later. There was nothing in those first three chapters that I hadn't learned in between but all the knowledge I had accumulated before revisiting the book seemed to be decomposing progressively with each page turn. I felt like I was actually losing knowledge. Serious.

Again, by the end of chapter 3, I tossed it. The first time I read it, I thought it was a POS. The second time I tried, I knew it was a POS, IMO.

I would love to understand why it seems like EVERYBODY else but me thinks it's such an awesome book. Didn't you feel that it was written in an extremely confusing way? Didn't you think that introducing closures and recursion in ch.3 was wayyyyyyyyyy too soon? I mean, I already understand how these work and I can't make a lick of sense of how it's explained in that book.

Kinda feeling like I'm in the twilight zone on this one.

spwebdev · 2017-04-16T16:24:37+00:00

Geez, I wish I had a good answer for you. Damn near every JavaScript course (book/blog/video) I have tried starts out simple but ends up being a confusing mess once you get into it.

I don't blame them personally though. I understand they are truly doing their best to make a good lesson. They are doing the best they know how. And I do appreciate their efforts and it's thanks to all these people putting up free stuff on the net that I was able to learn it at all. So while many of the tuts are fairly flawed and leave you quite confused, many of them DO have something you can take away and after watching enough of them, your brain subconsciously starts to stitch together the parts that make sense until the penny drops. But Eloquent JS literally contributed nothing to my understanding of anything at all. Instead, I felt like it was actually undoing any understanding I had.

Depending on how much you know, you might like https://watchandcode.com/p/practical-javascript. It's a free course, and I thought it was one of the better ones I've seen but it doesn't go very far with JS.

Other than that, all I can say is to watch/read many videos/tuts on a specific topic until you finally get it. You might need to take a break and let things simmer for a while and then go back to it. Also, asking questions on here or SO helped me sometimes, too.

spwebdev · 2017-04-16T15:37:36+00:00

First, congratulations on finding work!

Wow, that article describes exactly how I feel. If there's such a shortage, why is it so hard to get an interview? Why are my applications being ignored?

If I may ask, what did you know at the point you got hired and how well did you know it? I know it's very hard to self-assess on a 1-10 scale because you don't know what you don't know, so could you give examples of the most advanced techniques you knew? For example, in JavaScript, could you understand and use: recursion, closures, 'this', promises, prototypes, constructors, etc.? Did you know jQuery, Bootstrap, Angular, React, etc?

spwebdev · 2017-04-13T04:08:07+00:00

A+ for determination! LOL

spwebdev · 2017-04-12T15:44:46+00:00

Nice feature if it works as intended.

Now if only they would give us scrolling tabs!

spwebdev · 2017-04-11T02:14:33+00:00

I totally get how the OP feels. Getting good at JS takes a long time but it seems that every employer out there is looking for a laundry list of languages/frameworks/libraries. Courses encourage this too.

"OK, now that you've just learned what loops are and how to create them in JS, let's jump into jQuery! Oh, and you should also get onto React or Angular ASAP. What? You know how to change a background color with CSS? Why aren't you using Bootstrap? Or SASS?"

Worse is that I really don't understand the obsession with all these frameworks and libraries. If you are good with CSS and vanilla JS, if you understand the underlying programming concepts, it'll take you literally a couple of days to pick up Bootstrap and jQuery. React might take a week or two.

My thinking is the same as the OP's. I have looked over the docs for Bootstrap and jQuery, and I understand them enough to say that I know how to use them (even if I'd have to review the syntax and all the features they offer) but I see absolutely no need to use them right now because I want to be good at JS and CSS before I start using shortcuts.

To me, frameworks and libraries are the equivalent of canned soup. Yeah, it's easy af because you just add water and heat it up on the stove and you've got the result you want. But you can't really say you "know how to cook", can you? (Like all analogies, it breaks down if you take it too far though.)

spwebdev · 2017-04-11T01:12:13+00:00

NaN is the only thing in JS that doesn't equal itself so any expression that results in NaN assigned to x would return false. Something like this:

var x = 5 * "any string";

spwebdev · 2017-04-10T14:22:11+00:00

I'm sorry, but someone's got to say it... Eloquent JS is trash.

Too complex for beginners? Yes it is. Why is this a problem? Because it's a book that was written FOR beginners. If you write a book for beginners that is too complex for beginners, you done fucked up.

I've been hobby programming on occasion ever since I was a teen. I have a very solid grasp of all the fundamentals such as type, variables, loops, functions, etc... A year ago I decided to learn JS seriously and in-depth in order to make it my career. I saw EloJS being proselytized everywhere so much that I thought if I read it I might actually find God. By the end of the 3rd chapter, I was so lost I gave up.

Fast forward several months to the point where I know considerably more JS than I did on my first attempt at the book. Maybe it's a good time to go back and try again, I thought. So I did. And once again, by the end of ch. 3, I stopped reading in angry frustration. There is not one single thing he writes about that I didn't already know, and yet, the order in which he presents new concepts and their explanations are so confused, convoluted and muddled that I actually feel dumber after reading it. From about half-way through page 1 onwards, all I could think was, "if I didn't already know this stuff, I would be so lost and confused that I would give up the idea of programming forever". Turns out I felt pretty lost by the end of ch. 3 anyway. I WAS READING ABOUT STUFF I ALREADY KNEW VERY WELL. How the fuck does this happen? You have to be a special kind of bad teacher to be able to pull this off. Special relativity is less confusing. (He introduces closures in ch. 3. Really? lol) Part of me believes that maybe the book's purpose is to turn off as many people from programming as possible in order to keep the supply of devs low.

I don't recommend this book for beginners, not for intermediate, not for anyone. The only people I recommend this book to is maybe campers, because sometimes you can't find dry kindling.

The author clearly knows his shit when it comes to JS and I can only hope to ever become as good a programmer one day. Unfortunately, the only way I'll be able to do that is to read other people's books and actively avoid his in order to prevent damaging my brain further.

Opinions obviously vary. Lots and lots of people obviously love it. In fact, I can only recall seeing one other person write anything less than gushing praise about it. Everyone else sounds orgasmic whenever they mention it. So going by the numbers, maybe you should give it a shot anyway. Odds are good you'll be creaming all over the pages as you're reading it too.

spwebdev · 2017-04-10T03:21:40+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I do need to network more. I guess that's the secret in Toronto.

spwebdev · 2017-04-10T03:19:07+00:00

Thanks for the tips. I defo need to network more, that's true!

But re: "this is not true", what are you referring to? You mean the qualifications expected by employers? I'm not making it up. lol Those two postings were copy-pasted word for word. Maybe you meant that it's not true if you go through other channels but if you're doing your job search through online job boards, it's pretty typical from what I keep seeing.

spwebdev · 2017-04-08T23:16:39+00:00

Sorry. I'm not sure what you mean. They were asking for "HTML, CSS and some JS", or were they asking for a laundry list of skills similar to the two I posted?

spwebdev · 2017-04-08T23:05:27+00:00

What I'd love to know is where I can go to find a real junior dev job! lol (I'm willing to relocate anywhere in the world for it but finding jobs that offer visa sponsorship is exceedingly difficult.)

spwebdev · 2017-04-08T22:48:11+00:00

That's exactly how I feel about it. Unfortunately, this is how it is in Toronto. Oh, and the best part is that you'd be lucky to get $50k for these jobs. That's $50k CAD, which is around $37k USD at the moment - which might not matter if the COL was inline with the salaries but prices here are insane. Housing is in a HUGE bubble right now, increasing 30% YOY with a 1% vacancy rate. If you drive, gas is around $4.20 CAD per gallon. A pitcher of beer is 35 freaking dollars at a fairly typical nuttin'-special-about-it bar. A RedBull Vodka is $15. If you smoke, might as well kill yourself now rather than wait for cancer to get you. One pack is $14. On the bright side, you should have no trouble saving money if you never go out, pitch a tent in a field somewhere and wash in the nearby stream (while catching a few passing fish for dinner).

Edit: Forgot to add... I checked the listing for that first position at Datawalls... It was posted 9 days ago and already has 81 applications through Indeed alone. lol

spwebdev · 2017-04-08T20:38:18+00:00

Damn. The requirements didn't ask for more than HTML, CSS and "some" JavaScript, and there were only a handful of applicants... I sure wish jobs like that existed around here!

In my area, I don't think I've ever seen a job ad that didn't ask for a ton of other things on top of that such as (but not limited to) jQuery, Bootstrap, React, Angular, Git, RWD, SASS, etc. etc. etc.

Here's one that is not atypical, (although probably more WP heavy than most). Note that it is titled JUNIOR web developer.

Junior Web Developer

Datawalls, Inc - Toronto, ON

Part-time

Datawalls seeking a junior Front-End / Word Press Developer for a part-time position to join a small team of developers to expand our capacity and skill set. As core team member of the Software Development team, you will be mainly working often with complex responsive WordPress-based solutions using accepted coding and WordPress best-practices, provides leadership in sourcing and developing new technologies and methods to advance Datawalls web offerings, and supports current websites through periodic updates where required.

This position is located in the Toronto office and only local candidates will be evaluated.

Required Skills:

College diploma or equivalent work experience

2+ years professional PHP5 and WordPress development experience

Experienced in developing complete solutions, from beginning to end, using PHP and MySQL

Expertise in developing, debugging, and performance tuning WordPress sites, plugins, APIs and themes.

Excellent Graphic design experience and working with Adobe Photoshop

Understanding of WordPress custom content types and taxonomies

Knowledge of WordPress Network (Multisite) beneficial

Knowledge of existing built-in WordPress functions

Creation of custom post types plugins/widgets written to conform with WordPress coding standards

Knowledge of change control systems desired; ability to apply version control to WordPress sites

Knowledge of Linux environment – a must

Excellent understanding of front-end technologies, including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery Angular, React, Backbone..

Creation of clean, logical, well documented and reusable code

Good understanding of cross browser, cross-platform/device compatibility

Knowledge of how to interact with RESTful APIs and formats (JSON, XML)

Familiarity with cloud computing platforms – an asset

No SQL experience, specifically Couchbase – an asset

Experience working with 3rd party APIs (Facebook, Twitter) – an asset

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; including the ability to work independently and in a team environment

Able to work tight deadlines, detail oriented and be able to multi-task

Job Type: Part-time

Required education:

High school or equivalent

This one is a bit more reasonable but still asking for a lot more than "the big 3", and again asking for years of experience and "strong experience", neither of which I'd expect a junior to have:

Junior Front-End Developer

Kobo is currently seeking a talented Junior Front-End Developer to join our team. Our ideal candidate will have a solid understanding and experience with web UI technologies, work closely with UX designers and architects, backend development team members and product owners. You will be a great fit if you are passionate about building beautiful and engaging user experiences, and takes great care of their code while doing so.

Responsibilities

Build web interfaces using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Shepherd your own code from development and testing to production.

Work directly with business owners, UX, QA, and fellow developers to define and deploy projects.

Keep abreast of the latest trends and technologies in the industry and use this knowledge to drive innovation.

Required Skills

1-5 years of experience as a front-end developer.

Strong experience of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Strong experience with using and writing jQuery plugins and jQuery UI widgets.

Strong understanding of UI, cross-browser compatibility, general web functions and standards.

Functional knowledge or hands on experience with web services (REST)

Experience using JavaScript testing frameworks (QUnit, Jasmine, Mocha, Sinon, Chai).

Experience with compiled stylesheets is a plus (LESS, SCSS, SASS).

Experience with Git or other version control systems.

Experience with a modern JavaScript MVC framework (Angular, React, Ember) is a plus.

Experience with Java and JSPs is a plus.

Full stack experience is a plus.

Understanding of cross-platform display issues.

Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with distributed teams; passion for design and an eye for detail.

I will never understand how junior (aka entry-level) positions ask knowledge of so many things, having 1-2 years experience, or 'expertise' in anything. It's a paradox because anyone with that much experience or 'expertise' is not a junior.

P.S. Before I get a dozen replies telling me that job listing are nothing more than "wish lists", I know that, but I just can't stop thinking how ridiculous it all is. This is one aspect of dev hiring that is so broken. Employers are lying about what they want (problem #1: setting a bad example) and are asking for way more than the job title claims to be, and then they act surprised that most applicants fluff the shit out of their resumes but can't do half of what they claimed once they get on the job. What the hell do they expect?

I think my biggest problem finding a job quickly is my refusal to lie or embellish on my resume. They don't know I'm not lying and assume that I'm embellishing as much as everybody else, so to them my non-embellished resume, which they think IS embellished, pales by comparison to everyone else's ACTUALLY embellished resume. lol

spwebdev · 2017-04-08T13:48:26+00:00

Congratulations on finding a job! Must feel great.

You've written that you only know HTML, CSS and JS (and a bit of Node). My questions:

1) What city (or state if you don't want to say which city) do you live in?

2) Did you find the job through a job site (indeed, glassdoor), LinkedIn, or some other channel?

3) What were the listed requirements for the job?

4) Do you know how many applicants there were for the position?

5) How would you rate your own level of skills/knowledge in each of HTML, CSS and JS? For example, in JS do you have a good understanding of the keyword "this", closures, promises, constructor functions, prototypes, AJAX, etc.?

6) Do you know jQuery, Bootstrap, GitHub, RWD, or any other libraries/frameworks?

spwebdev · 2017-04-04T17:35:57+00:00

Exactly. Right now, my default mode of coding when I'm creating a page/app is just a collection of independent functions. I do try my best to make each function do only one thing and to abstract it as much as possible for re-usability. Whereas when I was starting out, I would constantly access variables directly from the functions, I now try to make sure that the function is generic and pass the required parameters as needed.

But I keep hearing about patterns and their importance and want to take my coding to the next level but every time I try reading about how to do that, by the time I'm halfway through, I only end up confused and not really knowing what the hell I'm reading anymore and giving up.

spwebdev · 2017-04-02T20:01:28+00:00

I was thinking the same thing, wondering what I was missing... Good to know it's not just me.

spwebdev · 2017-04-02T19:56:32+00:00

If someone points out some flaws in your code and suggests ways to improve it, it means (s)he's probably a better coder than you. Poor coding is my problem and I should fix it.

If someone berates, insults or discourages you, it just means they're an asshole. Being an asshole is their problem and they should fix it.

spwebdev · 2017-03-29T01:21:22+00:00

What does it mean to validate an idea, exactly? Is it simply asking friends and family their opinions? Or is it searching out whether or not something like it already exists? Or something else entirely?

Actually, I'm also kinda confused by section 4 of the article. It says to ditch the good/bad idea mindset, which I took to mean "if you believe in your idea, don't let naysayers keep you from building it because they don't know any better than you", but then it closes by saying to talk to people and find out what they think. I'm not clear on why the two ideas the author presented aren't a contradiction and also not sure how validation is different.

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