Learning the Ropes of JavaScript
18 Jan 2023
Not So Unfamiliar After All
These days, it can seem like there are as many programming languages as there are spoken languages in the world—quite the daunting challenge for anyone wanting to get into programming. However, while the prospect of learning all these different languages might have scared me a few years ago, further inspection reveals more similarities than differences. Oftentimes programming languages share common histories and syntax, much like how English derived much of its vocabulary and grammar from things like French or German. This is how I felt about learning JavaScript, a high-level language that I had previously no experience with.
JavaScript proved to be less difficult than I had anticipated. Definitely not easy, per se, just that I was more familiar with its syntax than I thought I would be. Everything from its loops to its declaration of arrays seemed similar to their implementations in C or Java. Its most apparent difference was the use of keywords “let” or “const” to declare variables, which I found helpful to reduce accidental overwriting of already-declared variables. However, as I started to ease into learning ES6, I began having difficulty understanding what exactly I was doing. Suddenly, I was bombarded with all these arrows and brackets and shortcuts, and I wasn’t sure what some of these things were supposed to achieve. Perhaps it will become more clear to me over time, but right now I’m a little confused.
Getting the Hang of JavaScript
To help us learn software engineering with JavaScript, my class has implemented the use of “WODs,” short for “workout of the day.” It’s a form of athletic software engineering that requires us to solve problems and create algorithms under a certain time limit. Anything timed is innately stressful to me; I code rather slowly compared to others, so I worry about finishing on time. Its effectiveness is yet to be seen, but I’m hoping that it will at least motivate me to study the material more in order to do well.
All in all, JavaScript has some useful functionalities that have not been present in programming languages I’ve tried before. I believe I’ll grow to like it more as I become accustomed to it, and perhaps as I get more familiar with JavaScript I’ll feel more comfortable with the WODs as well.