Stroll on the Beach
30 Aug 2023
Déjà vu
As I walked on the warm, soft sand and dipped my toes in the water, it was not too cold or too hot but it felt rather comforting. I had experienced this before in another timeframe, it was another moment of deja vu. With only experience using Java and C/C++ - Javascript was nothing too short from home. At first, the thought of learning another programming language was rather nerve-racking. Still, as I progressed through the tutorial, I found myself in a rather calm state, feeling that I found myself back in a familiar place.
Learning Experience
The beginning stages of learning Javascript itched my brain a little as I was not used to certain syntax rules such as var, let, and const since I was more accustomed to int, char, floats, and void. Another concept that was new to me when I first learned Javascript was first-class functions. First-class functions are super useful when you want your program to have different return types and because of that, it became such a huge life upgrade as now I get to have some flexibility within my programs.
What I also learned was while Java is a very uptight language where missing variable types can completely halt your program, Javascript syntax rules are more loosey-goosey where variable typing does not matter at all! Having no variable typing quickly became my favorite part of Javascript as the only thing I needed to worry about was accessibility with var, let, and const and the kind of data being used for a variable is what I intended to be. However, I also noticed having these relaxed rules allows for more mistakes to be born. Thankfully, working with a language like C/C++ has taught me to work in sections and test code in those sections so debugging becomes a lot more manageable than trying to find the problem in a larger block of code.
Upcoming Waves
As I continue to learn more and more about Javascript each day, I can envision using Javascript as my front-end language more often than ever for the present and the future of my academic/personal career. I enjoy having creative control over how graphics and design choices appear, sketching a design idea, and bringing it to life with Javascript. These design elements have only been visions, now with Javascript added to my toolbox of languages, I can create those visions to life!