I had to pause my local library app work because I got caught up cleaning up some old projects. I am building a site to host my personal projects long term and so I am revisiting old projects to make sure they will run in the new environment. This process has been eye opening. I have improved a lot since I wrote the code for some of these. Most importantly in my practices for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).
In the past I knew that Git was important as a development tool but once you start working with larger teams you realize that version control and proper documentation is key for revisiting projects or jumping to different parts of a code base. Some of the projects I wanted to add to my portfolio were built more than two years ago so it is almost like I am a new developer reading my own project. I did not document things well or make git commits regularly. So some of my projects have a huge blob of changed files that have yet to be committed.
I do not know how I should handle them. Some projects are better than others but some are a complete mess with tens of dozens of files. I am going to look into this but for now I just have to deal with a mess. I hope I do not have to just shove them all in one one blob of a commit LOL.
TLDR;
Okay, so here are the highlights of what I did:
- Portfolio -> Continued updating my projects for the projects hosting site. I reviewed and updated my old Rainy Day animation! This was the first Pen on
Codepen.iothat got a good reception. Felt really proud about that. I can’t wait to have it finally live on my own dedicated site.
Goal For Round 8 of the #100DaysofCode Challenge
This is my eighth round of the “#100daysofcode” challenge. I will be continuing my work from round five, six, and seven into round eight. I was working through the book “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. My goal was to become more familiar with algorithms and data structures. This goal was derived from my goal to better understand operating systems and key programs that I use in the terminal regularly e.g. Git. This goal was in turn derived from my desire to better understand the fundamental tools used for coding outside of popular GUIs. This in turn was derived from my desire to be a better back-end developer.
I am currently putting a pause on the algorithm work to build some backend/full stack projects. I primarily want to improve my skills with the back-end from an implementation perspective. I have improved tremendously in terminal and CLI skills but I lost focus due to how abstract the algorithm concepts got. I wanted to work on things that were more tangible until I can get to a position where I could directly benefit from improving my algorithm skills and theoretical knowledge. So that’s the focus right now. Build my backend skills and prove my full stack capabilities by building some dope projects.
Again, I still have no idea if my path is correct but I am walking down this road anyways. Worst case scenario I learn a whole bunch of stuff that will help me out on my own personal projects. Best case scenario I actually become one of those unicorn developers that go on to start a billion dollar company… You never know LOL.