In my day to day job we use JavaScript in anger (or at least have to deal with it) on a sporadic basis. We dive into T-SQL, C# (either for server side logic in web applications or for desktop applications) and other parts of web development (CSS and HTML) on a rapidly spinning merry-go-round of coding fun. The variation is great but getting some solid exposure time is also nice to have. JavaScript in particular, as a pillar of web development (alongside HTML and CSS), is something that I’ve wanted to spend more time on (even though I have a solid grounding now); so I’ve decided to slowly edge my way towards a Microsoft Certification. Namely, the MCSD: Web Applications Certification.

This ties in nicely to a personal goal of mine to test out codecademy.com; just to take it for a spin more than anything else. So, I’ve signed up in order to run through the beginner JavaScript course; just to give my impressions on it (and to see if anything can be gleaned – Start with the basics and work on up!).

Although the content is basic, I actually found it pretty well laid out; I can imagine somebody new to coding finding this fairly easy to follow which is fantastic. The interface is clean and simple.

The basics of throwing dialogs are covered early on (confirm and prompt – I haven’t seen alert yet however), along with a simple discussion on datatypes (numbers, strings and booleans as you’d expected). The classic debugging aid that is console.log is also discussed (always a bit of a go to I find!).

Beyond simple mathematical operations and string manipulation techniques I came across the first thing, that is always on the periphery of my mind and can easily catch you unawares (that differs slightly to the C# world so all the more easy to get it wrong); the equality operators. In order to compare that something is of equal value and equal type ‘!==’ and ‘===’ must be used, a subtlety worth remembering and easy to trip up on when the old noggin’ is not switched on.

The full w3schools documentation relating to this can be found here:

JavaScript Comparison Operators

Also, I tried to throw the site out a few times by leaving some humdinger code in place; all handled well in every instance:

I did, in some areas, go out of my way to code the examples slightly differently to how it was specified (looking to get the same result of course in all cases) and, for the most part, it seemed quite resilient to this (including the use of functions not specifically mentioned in the examples).

The little section regarding comments was a joy to behold. I’m well known for writing a tonne of comments; pretty sure everyone hates trawling through them (what can I say, it’s a habit!). This is certainly what comments often boil down to however:

You also get offered up the classic programming golden nugget; the piece of knowledge no one can do without – The origin of the term debugging! Always a classic!

Lastly, I actually quite like working with zero intellisense. It’s always useful to get that little nudge in the back; a prod to say ‘hey you, switch on and get your act in gear. I’m not going to auto-complete everything for you and let you tab your way to glory!’. I’ve actually sat down in the past and done rudimentary C# programming and very basic websites using notepad alone; well worth doing in my opinion.

It’s been an interesting side-line at any rate so I’ll continue on for now. I’ll plan to move on to the w3schools Certification as a middle ground, before MCSD Certification, so more to follow shortly.

Cheerio!