Things I Learned
These are some programming related things that I learned from different courses.
Hour of Code - code.org
The first programming related thing I learned was at school. In my school, once or twice every year we did a things called hour of code on code.org. This was when I was in 5k. In code.org, I did things like moving an object up, down, left, and right to get out of a maze. Code.org has drag and drop blocks that you can adjust. Code.org has small coding tutorials that are for teaching little kids some simple coding.
What I learned
I learned how to make a sequence of tasks that get run. In the maze course, they were blocks called forward, backward, and turn (for turning left and right).
I also learned that tasks can be repeated multiple times. There was a loop block, which you can choose how many times it gets run. I learned that things inside the loop block get run multiple times, while things outside the loop block get run a single time. I also learned about conditionally doing things, such as turning left or right based on whether there is a wall ahead or not.
Projects
When learning coding on code.org, I did many puzzles where you have to move a character through obstacles, going from a starting point to a destination point.
Intro to JS: Drawing & Animation - Khan Academy
When I was in 2nd grade, my friend talked about a thing called javascript, which he was learning on Khan Academy. I got interested, and I also started doing a course called Intro to JS: Drawing & Animation. The course was a set of videos, challenges, quizzes, and projects. The course was based on drawing and animating shapes with javascript.
What I learned
I learned what javascript is. I learned the syntax, such as declaring and using variables, and calling functions. At first, the course taught how to call some functions that Khan Academy provided. Example:
rect(0, 0, 400, 400);
This drew a rectangle on the screen, which had a total size of 400 by 400 pixels. The course also taught how to use different types of data, like numbers, strings, objects, and arrays. I learned how to declare variables and change them. An animation looked like this.
var x = 100;
var draw = function(){
ellipse(x, 200, 50, 50);
x += 1;
};
Any function named draw was called automatically by Khan Academy, which made a circle go from left to right on the screen. I also learned how you can make a game by detecting mouse clicks and key presses.
Projects
Intro to HTML/CSS: Making webpages - Khan Academy
After I did the javascript course on Khan Academy, I started doing an html course. The course was similar to the javascript course.
What I learned
I learned what html is, and how to set up a simple html page. I learned how the syntax for elements is, and how at the top of the file there is
<!DOCTYPE html>
. The first part explained how there is a <html> tag, and the <head> and <body> tags are inside the <html> tag. The course then taught about <h1>, and <h2> tags, and how there are header tags up to <h6>, which are used for headers. I also learned about <p> and <img> tags, and how some tags, such as <br> don’t get closed. I also learned about css, and how you can change the colors and sizes of html tags. I didn’t learn that much css, mainly about the selectors, such as all elements, based on id, and based on class names.
Projects
I didn’t start any projects when I learned html, but I made some things later using what I learned.
HTML/JS: Making webpages interactive - Khan Academy
I continued exploring programming courses in Khan Academy, and I started a course called HTML/JS: Making webpages interactive.
What I learned
I learned that javascript can be put in an html <script> tag, and it can be used to change html elements. I learned how to use document.getElementById() and document.getElementsByClassName(). I learned about changing an elements innerHTML, adding event listeners, and using console.log(). At first I got a little confused, because I was used to javascript drawing shapes in the other course that I did.
Projects
I didn’t do any projects specifically while I learned this course, but I used what I learned in this course in my future projects
Node.js Game Tutorial
After making some games with html, I wanted to make a multiplayer game. I had no idea how to do this, but I found a video series online about making multiplayer games. This is when I learned about Node.js, and how it’s backend javascript.
What I learned
I learned how to use express to set up a server and send html files. I also learned how to use socket.io to send messages between the server and client.
Projects
I didn’t make any projects from what I learned in this course.
Node.js Master Class
I took this course about Node.js. This course was mainly about how to do things without using npm packages.
What I learned
I learned how to create a server with Node.js and handle requests. The first part of the course was about making a RESTful API, and then it also taught how to serve html files. When learning this course I understood more about what Node.js is, and how it works. One thing that was new to me was doing things asynchronously. Things like handling request and reading files are asynchronous, and I learned how Node.js manages asynchronous tasks while being single threaded. Another thing that I learned about is sending requests to other APIs, such as sending https requests to mailgun to send emails.
Projects
Css Animations
When I was looking something up, I learned about position: fixed; and position: absolute; in css. I made a lot of animated html pages with this. I also made animated SVG images.
What I learned
I learned how to use the css position attribute, and make <div>s larger. I also knew how to make CSS animations. Another similar thing I learned about was animating SVG.