Tag / udacity

by DarkWave

Udacity React Nanodegree: Project Three

Look to this day, graduate. The third and final project was building a mobile flashcard app using React Native. This is not a technical blog entry, by the way. It’s very high level and mainly serves to finish out the blog trilogy. You can pretend it doesn’t exist like I do with the final Matrix movie.

https://github.com/mcstrings/mobile-flashcards

Here’s a pedagogical tidbit I picked up. The most helpful thing I heard/read throughout this online course was when someone said something to the effect of, “It’s not that hard. With a little effort you’ll get it. There are a lot of new concepts, and it may be confusing at first but it’s not difficult.”

Somehow, that put my brain in a very receptive, open mode. It put things into perspective, because it felt difficult at the time. But when I told my brain, “You know, Brain, you’re a lot bigger than state management and asynchronous side effects. It’s all going to click at any minute. It’s just a matter of time. Here. Have some caffeine.”

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by DarkWave

Udacity React Nanodegree: Project Two

The code is here. When I figure out how to serve it, I will. UPDATE: GitHub Pages!

I just submitted project two, the “Would You Rather” app.

This link to the deployed app almost works: https://mcstrings.github.io/would-you-rather/

Note: The first page you’ll see is a 404 error. Just click on one of the links to get things started. GitHub Pages doesn’t play well with React’s router, apparently, and at the moment I’ve got thangs to do other than putz around with it.

Code is here: https://github.com/mcstrings/would-you-rather

  • Login using Adorable Avatars
  • Leaderboard
  • Responsive layout
  • Using React Bootstrap 4

But first … Design

I’m not going to pretend that I planned this out well. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Having a global “single source of truth” state is different. When async calls attack.

I decided to use Bootstrap 4, which lead to React-Bootstrap. I chose it because, at the time, I had an upcoming interview and I needed to reacquaint myself with Bootstrap and newly acquaint myself with Bootstrap 4. All of the UI frameworks each have their own flavor, the same way sandwich shops each have their own aroma when you walk in the door.

They’re definitely useful and can make laying out the UI responsively so much easier, even if it requires a lot of googling. Note: React-Bootstrap now supports Bootstrap 4, but I can save you some time by directing you to their migration page.

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by DarkWave

Udacity React Nanodegree: Project One

TLDR

Read the directions.

It’s been about two week’s since I started Udacity’s React Nanodegree course. A large part of it is breaking my habitual ways of thinking. Embrace the new.

Is there a good tool that builds a diagram of component-based frameworks?

WHEN IT COMES TOGETHER

I love the feeling when you’re coding and it comes together. It’s the small victories that add up to satisfaction. These modern frameworks like React are good for a little instant gratification. Declarative programming and data binding equals pieces falling into place like Tetris.

The only thing that will consume more of your time than frustrated, banging your head against the table, learning curve, I’m never going to finish this in time coding, is the smooth sailing, getting a lot of stuff done, in a groove and don’t want to stop, time disappears, making magic coding.

WHEN IT DOESN’T

Of course, there are frustrations. When learning new frameworks you end up using whatever sources of info are available: YouTube, blogs, articles, code repos, and forums.

The project seemed straightforward at first. I wanted to be done early. I got the basics working. Then I read the requirements again a few days later. Oh. Right. The things I had questions about were intentionally designed that way. Mental note: RTFD.

There are two pain points that slow me down:

  1. Not thinking in components (declarative vs. imperative)
  2. Outdated information online

A New Way of Thinking

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by DarkWave

Udacity React Nanodegree

TL;DR

If you haven’t already, learn one of the popular JS frameworks: React, Angular, Vue, etc.

Read this instead: A Review of Udacity’s React Nano Degree

If you aren’t using one of these post-modern frameworks yet, take some time to dig into it a bit.  There are plenty of tutorials.

However you do it, do it.

From the job listings I’m seeing all up in my inbox, you need to know a framework and you need a design/developer portfolio. In other words, have side or exploratory projects or code samples of public-facing web sites, applications, or github repos.

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