New to javascript- Need Advice:

Beginning javascript

[lindavh]

javascript with no coding background - just starting out.

I use codecademy, I bought a book called Eloquent Javascript and read through the first two chapters. I have been to W3 schools. Also I paid the membership for premium at lynda.com.

I guess my main question is. Where can I go online to find and easy starting course or tutorial free that really address the novice.

My problem is I have put a great deal of time into javascript. Some days I can be at for between 8 -12 hours learning javascript. Is it unusual to not be able to write a simple program like this on request after 2 weeks.

for(var line = "#";line.length < 8; line +="#")
console.log(line);

It's output is this:
#
##
###
####
#####
######
#######

[lucy24]

Where do you want the output to go? console.log is a slightly wonky* method at the best of times.

Is your code really missing {braces} or did you just leave them out when posting?

8-12 hours a day?! Why don't you just learn one thing, write a program to do that one thing, then learn a second thing and so on? Javascript (like php) has a very shallow learning curve. You don't have to be perfectly fluent before you can do anything at all. Easiest approach is to run up a dummy html page and shove your script experiments into that. Use a text editor with HTML preview if you've got one. (This won't work for all javascript commands, but it will get you a long way.)


* Longtime readers will instantly recognize this as a euphemism for "I've never used it in my life and had to go look it up".

[brotherhood of LAN]

Is it unusual to not be able to write a simple program like this on request after 2 weeks.

I think it depends on your background experience with computers/maths/programming in the first place.

I guess my main question is. Where can I go online to find and easy starting course or tutorial free that really address the novice.

Feel free to ask here, a lot of us learnt the basics on these forums from others who knew better.

Generally I'd say learn about the DOM, read other people's code and see how much you understand, or take github-like projects and reverse engineer what they do. The nice thing about most client-side (HTML/CSS/Javascript) is you can see other people's code and mess around with it.

[Fotiman]

Actually, console.log can be extremely useful. :)

As for where to go... this forum can be helpful for getting help, so as you're learning stop in often to ask questions.

Here's a resource that might be helpful:
[developer.mozilla.org...]

Once you grasp the concepts of variables and functions, and you're familiar with the basic conditional structures and looping structures, it should start to come easier. With that said, if you don't have any programming background, there may be some concepts that are harder to grasp.

[lucy24]

Actually, console.log can be extremely useful.

Actually, I was this close to adding one more line to my earlier post. It would have said something like:

"If Fotiman takes issue with anything I said, he is right and I am wrong."

Really :)