Somewhere within my twenty years of life and three years as a college student, I fell in love with C++. It was a lot more fun than C, our introductory language as computer engineers, and had a wider range of use. Of all the free time I dedicate to coding, most of this time is spent checking out others’ public programs, such as Battleship and Conway’s Game of Life. Everything about the language made sense, though I still avoid pointers unless they are absolutely necessary. Compared to my previous languages, this particular one executed more with less writing, and I did not believe there could be anything better. Now, however, there seems to be a contender.
Other than a few differences with syntax, JavaScript seems to be much easier than C++ so far, I haven’t experienced a language this simple since Python. The past practice modules have shown that JavaScript is more flexible than any language I’ve practiced before, with declarers such as “let” and “const” instead of having to specifically declare the type of variables. I also appreciate that I don’t have to declare the type of a function, and have ways of distinguishing types through “==” and “===” comparisons. I believe this flexibility makes JavaScript a reliable and useful language for software engineers, and useful for me as a student.
I just learned about the Fibonacci sequence last semester, yet I needed the second Project Euler problem to remind me about it. Other than emphasizing past lessons, the method of athletic software engineering is helping me develop a useful mindset as a professional. By constantly demanding my time and practice, I am confident that following this process will make coding more manageable for me in general.
Numerous practice modules, and other material dedicated to the learning of JavaScript have taken a lot of time from me. However, the most stressful part about things like the practice WODs are the time constraints and time limits. I tend to obsess over solving the problem quickly rather than solving it correctly, but this risk will be mitigated through practice and repetition. Other than that, athletic software engineering is worth the demanding workload and is as enjoyable as it is time-consuming, and I look forward to going through this process to continue developing as a programmer.