Learning Javascript I

This is the first of a series of posts on my goal to learn Javascript this year. I think it’ll be a good experience because it accommodates Object Orientated and Functional programming in a single language.

It’s ubiquitous at the minute and can be used for development across the entire stack.

Functional programming is a relatively new concept to me and it’s not going to go away anytime soon. It’s bleeding into every major active OO language.

First up were the free browser based tutorials on CodeAcademy. These are good for anyone looking to have the basics of the language spelt out.

Second was understanding Closures – this is a great article on that from the excellently titled JavascriptIsSexy.com. Closures are a new concept to me and one that’s got it’s foundations in FP.

Third is reading Expert Javascipt – the opening paragraph sums it up perfectly.

My assertion is this: just as a person can speak a language without the ability to read or write it, so too can developers use the fundamental features of JavaScript and yet be blissfully unaware of their complexities.

How I Learned To Git (And You Can Too)

I’m a Software Engineer. About a year ago I moved job and the new role required me to learn to use Git for source control.

It was a bit of a culture shock moving from projects based mostly on Visual Source Safe to Git. I thought it’d be cool to list some of the resources I used to get up to speed.

Git is a distributed VCS (Version Control System) created by Linux founder Linus Torvalds. It’s free and becoming commonplace in industry. It’s also the tool of choice for Open Source developers. It might be quite hard to avoid in the next few years if you haven’t already been exposed to it.

I’d definitely recommend using the command line (Git Bash where Windows is concerned) as the best way to learn Git. That might be a bit of a culture shock for less technical users, but I found it was the best way to visualise what’s happening in the background.

The first tutorial below can be completed online, so you don’t have to install if that’s intimidating. You can also use a GUI client to carry out changes – Atlassian SourceTree is what I currently use.

• Got 15 Minutes And Want To Learn Git? – Interactive online exercises to teach you Git
• Learn Git Branching – Great tutorial for understanding the branching model and diagrams representing Git repos
• Git Immersion –  Guided tour of the fundamentals of Git
• Atlassian Git Tutorials – Atlassian’s own Git tutorials
• Git Documentation – Online Documentation. Useful when you need to know how to do something in particular. Git can do pretty much anything – it’s super flexible
• Exhaustive Stack Overflow Post On How To Install And Use Git