Galen's Adventures in Programming

Launch Academy has had a couple of assignments that use {props.children} in a Header component to render a page of other components below it.  What I discovered today (with full credit going to Jason Arnold's A quick intro to React's props.children  ) was that it can be used in other in instances, too. React components are usually represented by self-closing JSX tags.  What Jason Arnold helped me discover is that they don't have to be!  You can have a React component use a regular closing tag, and put other components/tags within them. const Wrapper = props => {     return (         <BabyComponent>             <h3>Welcome to the Baby Component!</h3>        </BabyComponent>     ) } Then, at any point in my BabyComponent's return/render I can put {props.children}.  Anything that I put between the BabyComponent's tags in Wrapper (in this case, my <h3> with "Welcome to the Baby Component!") will appear wherever I put {pr

I just learned this, and am really excited by it.  It is possible to add an event listener (JavaScript) to your entire document!  Okay, I might need to get out more, but I find this pretty darn exciting. Even better than that, though, is that you can include an event listener on the document that makes sure that all of your HTML has loaded before trying to run your JavaScript.  As an example: document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () =>{ //code to run only once the HTML has fully loaded })

My Launch Academy experience has been plagued with snowstorms!  We had 2 snow days in our first week, and in our second we're already slated for another crazy snowstorm hitting tonight.  It makes me wonder about the technology behind reporting storms.  There are so many weather apps to choose from, but I wonder where they're getting their data.  Wouldn't it be funny if everyone was using the same data, just presenting it in a slightly different way?  A huge part of whether your weather forecast will be accurate is whether or not your location services are accurate - and even if you have given the weather app your exact GPS positioning, if the nearest weather station that's taking measurements is blocks away, it won't matter at all. Before I started studying programming, I would get frustrated with apps and their lack of features or poor implementations of what looked like the same features that everyone else had.  I assumed that apps were doing their own research

Going through the beginning of Launch Academy again is an amazing opportunity to work on all of the things that I hadn't mastered last time.  Not only am I able to complete challenges, but I can shift the focus of the challenge from mere completion into full comprehension, or use a challenge intended to improve one skill to also improve another. The first challenge Launch Academy issues to its students is to build a game of blackjack played through the command line (using Ruby.) I'm taking this second opportunity to write my code using Test-Driven Development, which is something that I had learned but never mastered to the level I wished.  If you'd like to see my Test-Driven Blackjack, it's up on Github:  https://github.com/msgalenwhite/Blackjack

Yesterday was my first day at Launch Academy (for the second time.) As we were going around and telling our stories of what brought us to Launch, I realized that I no longer think of myself as a "former chocolatier and pastry cook who is changing careers," and instead have become a "Junior Developer training and gaining knowledge before applying for her first role in tech."   While I was at culinary school, I often felt like a fraud because I didn't have the same depth of passion as those around me. I think that's because this is where I was meant to be. I still have a ways to go, and so much more to learn, but I am really, really excited about all of it!

I mentioned in my last post that I had realized I didn't need to have all of my RSVP functionality in place in order to deploy my app - I just needed a "dummy page" that would act as a placeholder, while still giving enough information to be worth distributing the website.  Today I took that one step further, and created a minimal version of my final site (basically a list of links that take you to static pages with information.) Once I have the full RSVP site up and running, I can either re-direct from my domain to the new app (rather than the minimal app) or even put the RSVP portion as a completely separate, contained app! The Main Page's link to "RSVP" can show my static page until July 1st (the deadline I've given myself to have the site completed) and then I can have it redirect to the new app (complete with databases via ActiveRecord!) I'm feeling pretty good about this choice.  The funniest thing about it is that it shows how much more co

I've been getting nervous about sending out Invitations that include my rsvp website because I haven't completed all of the functionality that I want to be included.  It occurred to me a few days ago that I should set a date for the RSVP portion of the site to go "live", and until then have the site give general information like location and date.  Today, I put that into motion.  I set up React Router within my App.js file, so that I could lead the user to a "WhereTo" component with a list of links.  I set my RSVP link to check today's date and compare the month to the date I wanted for release (July 1st.)  If it's after July 1st, the user will be sent to the RSVP site I have been designing.  Otherwise, they will be sent to a page that will tell them to "Check back on July 1st!" Such a simple solution. This weekend I am meeting with a recent graduate of Launch Academy who is going to explain the basics of using databases, and if it ma