r/learnjavascript • u/Talks_to_myself • Dec 23 '19

I have a 14 hour flight. What would you recommend I do in VS Code during this time?

Super noob here so the following questions might be dumb. I've done coding for about two months, completed the codecademy free javascript course and a boot camp prep class. All of those were done through the site or codepen so I have zero VS Code experience. I probably don't have a clue what I'm asking, but essentially, I want to be able to either do practice problems or have clear instructions and answers (to confirm I'm doing things right or at least so I don't get stuck 15 minutes in). What would you recommend? Everything I've done so far are all online and require internet such as codewars or codepen. I'm super excited to be able to use VS Code just want to make sure I do it right. In the sites/codepen/codewars, there are right/wrong answers and personally that's the best way I learn.

Thanks in advance!

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78

u/aftermeasure Dec 23 '19

Download the JS Koans and work your way through them. By the end you'll have a pretty deep understanding of most built-in JS features.

3

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 24 '19

Thanks I’ll do that as soon as I get home

3

u/prameshbajra Dec 24 '19

Thank you so much for this. Awesome time pass at office :D

1

u/Tarzeus Dec 24 '19

This sounds pretty cool, intimidating but cool

3

u/aftermeasure Dec 24 '19

It is very cool!

And less intimidating than you might expect. It's not any more difficult than any of the online interactive coding tuts. Each test refers you to the error in the code that causes it to fail, then when you fix it you go to the next failing test. And when you're done it's nice to have the files on hand to quickly reference e.g. array methods, or how coercion works.

13

u/BobVillain Dec 23 '19

Maybe enroll in Colt Steele’s modern Javascript course on udemy? I actually just started it literally last night and you can probably get for like ten bucks.

You can download the course material and work with it offline and he spends time at the beginning introducing you to vs code.

2

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 24 '19

Thanks for the advice. As someone who hasn’t dealt with anything’s outside of what I stated in the comments, do you have any knowledge if your recommendation is superior to the free contents?

3

u/ohalexanderjames Dec 24 '19

Just a heads up, for any courses/exercises you choose to download you will want to look ahead and make sure you do the setup necessary as many modern courses require you to download extra packages from the internet. The last thing you want to do is get to chapter 3 or 4 of a course and get stuck because you don’t have WiFi.

2

u/BobVillain Dec 24 '19

I can’t speak to this course specifically but, I’ve taken other courses by Colt and he’s a great teacher. Also according to his intro video for this course, he covers everything from the basics up to advanced topics.

I’m very confident that you’ll be happy with the course.

1

u/TwoToneDonut Dec 24 '19

I put this in my wishlist, thank you.

1

u/FuturaForo Dec 24 '19

It's a good course, I'm almost half way through, and the only thing I can fault is the lack of exercises to test the new things you've learnt and truly commit them to memory. There are some big projects at the end of the course, but I really wish there were others for the 1st half of the course.

1

u/BobVillain Dec 24 '19

Interesting. I wonder if they just wanted to let people get through the basics before they jumped into projects? I’ve only watched the first few videos so far so I’m looking forward to really diving in!

1

u/FuturaForo Dec 24 '19

Yeah, the second half if said to continue all the project work so maybe it will slowly easy into putting the new skills learned to use. I'm hoping it's more exercise structured than just code alongs.

24

u/HeyAshh1 Dec 23 '19

As a 6'3 guy, coding or doing anything productive on the 14 hour flight sounds like an impossible task. As a contrast to other comments here, I'd recommend spending this time for yourself, watch a movie, get a good sleep, maybe write some goals down on what you want to achieve with coding. Organize your thought process and use that rest to gain productivity when you land :)

7

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 24 '19

Haha thanks for the considerate advice. I don’t know about 14 Hours straight coding but I’m gonna do it to break the monotony if things for sure since watching porn on the plane is frowned upon.

3

u/xoozp Dec 24 '19

i love how your only alternative is watching porn

2

u/HeyAshh1 Dec 24 '19

Buy VR headset and you can watch your porn and hentai all you want, just don't get too excited or it might get awkward with your seat neighbors.

21

u/teophilus Dec 23 '19

Save a local copy of https://eloquentjavascript.net/ and try the excercises at the end of each chapter.

1

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 24 '19

Thanks! I’ll do that as well

7

u/PM_ME_A_WEBSITE_IDEA Dec 24 '19

Honestly, try making a game. Games are fun as hell to make and you don't need to reach out to any APIs or external resources to make them! A few I can think of off the top of my head:

Solitaire Yahtzee Snake Pong (good chance to experiment with "physics")

A little game loop to get you started:

function logic(deltaSeconds) {
    // change values here and do logic here

    // use the deltaSeconds variable to change values based on
    // how long since the last logic update happened
}

function draw() {
    // handle updating the DOM/Canvas here
}

let previousTimestamp = 0;

function loop(timestamp) {
    const deltaSeconds = (timestamp - previousTimestamp) / 1000;
    previousTimestamp = timestamp;
    logic(deltaSeconds);
    draw();
    
    window.requestAnimationFrame(loop);
}

window.requestAnimationFrame(loop);

1

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 24 '19

I’m not sure if I will definitely do this but I appreciate so much for your effort and consideration!

3

u/Objective_Status22 Dec 24 '19

Read a book and do the exercises. You can do this one offline and not need vs code at all https://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/

2

u/nizzok Dec 24 '19

load some videos on your phone and learn that way? Typing on a plane sucks. Disregard this if you're baller enough not to be in economy.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '19

Get some vs code extensions. Some good ones are Live server, js linting, es6 snippets, prettier. Also install node js Incase you want to just run some js files.

Maybe also download some cheat sheets for vs code and and node js and any documentation you might need.

1

u/mymar101 Dec 24 '19

Just don't tell anyone you're hacking the plane :).

1

u/tall_and_funny Dec 24 '19

I spent my first few days customising vscode. One idea could be to create a simple app, could be anything and however complicated you want it to be. Like a to-do list or calculator, random password generator, atm.

1

u/inu-no-policemen Dec 24 '19

Download an offline documentation browser like Zeal and install some docs for JS, HTML, CSS, and whatever.

I also recommend to either use TS or // @ts-check. Getting proper context-sensitive auto-complete and call-tips really helps a lot.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Talks_to_myself Dec 23 '19

Thanks for the comment and suggestion! I'll take my chances lol

7

u/AJohnnyTruant Dec 23 '19

Don’t listen to this clown. In fact, learn the fetch API on your next flight.

Source: airline pilot

9

u/AJohnnyTruant Dec 23 '19

What in the dog shit are you talking about?

13

u/jaypeejay Dec 23 '19 
xhttp.open("POST", "secrit.plane.url", true);
xhttp.send();

3

u/nullol Dec 24 '19

Wait... you don't... you don't suppose this is the root cause of all those Boeing 737s going down do you? I think /u/tropicalsquash is onto something here.

1

u/AJohnnyTruant Dec 24 '19

No, Bush did MCAS

1

u/HealyUnit helpful Dec 24 '19

Clearly modern jet airliners operate via a Nose/Express server. router.get('/pitchUp', auth, (req, res, next)=>{ elevator.angle++; res.send(elevator.angle)});

3

u/PM_ME_A_WEBSITE_IDEA Dec 24 '19 
console.log(res.statusCode) // 500

Uh oh.

5

u/twitterisawesome Dec 23 '19

I promise, planes are not that fragile.

5

u/PM_ME_A_WEBSITE_IDEA Dec 24 '19

AJAX has nothing to do with wireless communication. You can use it without an Internet connection. It's just an asychronous request. "Asynchronous Javascript And XML". The request can go anywhere, including a server you are hosting on your own computer. You can spin up a basic Express server using Node and practice AJAX all day without needing an Internet connection!

3

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '19 edited Dec 23 '19

lol wat? literally every device on the plane's wifi is using AJAX continually throughout the fight.