Just checking in to share that I finished the garsh-darn JavaScript tutorial (kicking and screaming the last 3 miles) and attended my first Code Fellows class yesterday!

The instructor successfully articulated a point I was trying to make in my last post, the difference between paths and sandboxes (or, as I prefer to pluralize it, sandboxen). Learning paths include things like online tutorials: they are consumptive, they lead you down a specific path to completion. Sandboxes (eff it) sandboxen are more autonomous, exploratory learning experiences, driven by learner interest, that generally lead to greater understanding. The majority of our class time will be spent playing with sandboxen.

sandboxen
Oxen on the beach in Colva Beach | Goa, Colva (Trip Advisor photo by raumati1: Mar 2010)

Adorable!

I was trying to complete the first assignment, a simple guessing game, by converting one of my working python games to JavaScript. I wasn’t able to make that work (v. frustrating), but I was able to build on the instructor’s demo to make a game I’m proud of. The original game asked a player to guess a number between 1 and 10, with 2 options: 1. you win! and 2. you lose. I expanded the range, added a way to keep track of the high and low guesses, and built-in exclusions for guesses that are NaN (not a number) or out of range. Try it!

A warning: this game, built-in JavaScript and saved as an html file, operates entirely through pop-up windows. I promise you it does not reset your browser’s search engine to Yahoo! (when I find the program that is doing that there will be many strongly worded tweets), but otherwise the interface is a bit annoying and I hope it is not the only way that JavaScript knows how to talk to the world.

Click me, click meeeeeee!