LJSTHW Big Improvements, Ex36 Up

Hello, this is Zed A. Shaw, author of Learn JavaScript The Hard Way. I’m sending you this email because I’ve pushed big improvements to the book and new exercises.

Part 2 Started

I have written the initial draft of the introduction to Part 2, and the first section on “quick hacks”:

https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/paid/js/part-2-projects.html
https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/paid/js/intro-hacks.html

New Exercises

For Part 2 I’m going to record the videos and then write the exercises based on what I actually did in the videos. That way I can describe what I really did to complete the exercises rather than what I think I would do. With that in mind, here’s the videos for the first section:

Videos Embedded

If you visit those links you’ll notice that the videos are now embedded right in the course exercises so they’re easier to watch and download. You can also see how exercises with multiple videos are shown:

https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/paid/js/ex00-gearing-up/

Keep in mind that this video display is new, and if you use an old terrible browser (that you should not use if you plan on being a JavaScript programmer) then they will most likely not display at all. Please email me if your video display does not work but also tell me your OS and Browser.

Linux Users Beware

If you’re running Linux and you hear sound but do not see video then you are running a distro that has crippled your video playback due to politics. You will need to install the correct codecs for your distribution, usually named something like “non-free codecs” or similar. Or, simply download the videos and play them with VLC. I won’t be attempting to double encode my videos to support Linux at this time due to the code associated with doing so.

New Features

You can now get the solutions to exercises at the end of the book:

https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/paid/js/solutions.html

The structure of this will change after I have all of the solutions completed, but for now they’ll be “dumped” into that page so you can cheat if you have to. However, I’m also going to push a new technique for learning programming concepts:

Introducing The Master Copy

I have been using the concept of a “master copy” from the art world to help students memorize core concepts they need to regurgitate on command in job interviews. The technique is described at https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/paid/js/mastercopy.html and the idea is to learn how to build a conceptual memory map of a piece of code so that you can recall it later. Doing this also helps you understand the code as the technique involves memorizing the abstract concept and then filling it in with code from memory. This description may move around and improve as I learn more about the technique, but if you are having problems in job interviews then this is the technique for you.

More To Come

I should be finishing up the edits for more videos during this week, and don’t forget we also have the JSBasics series under way:

https://shop.learncodethehardway.org/products/contents/11/?query=JSBasics

I will have a separate announcement about the JSBasics session today.

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@zedshaw will LJSTHW ultimately have the code quality through Data Structures and Algorithms component like LMPTHW?

Yes, but less heavy than the Python version. I’ll introduce automated testing with the data structures, then debugging after that, then add more as the book goes on. I won’t be including all of the parts of measuring your quality metrics, statistics, or similar things that require overly analyzing your progress.

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Thanks for the context @zedshaw! Look forward to the LJSTHW’s take on the subject.