Description

If you've never coded before... if you're a self-taught coder who wants to fill in the gaps in your foundation... or if you want to learn JavaScript from the ground up... then this track is for you. We start with the very basics -- what is a computer? what is a terminal? what is a variable? -- and work up to command-line input/output, basic data structures like stacks and hashes, and intermediate computer science concepts like closures and recursion. On the first day we make a small (but functional) web application and send it forth into the world.

Goals

The student will learn...

  • how to edit and execute code on their own computer using a text editor and a terminal (command line)
  • fundamental coding concepts, including variables, types, functions, loops, I/O, logic, recursion
  • how to recognize and use certain abstract data structures (arrays, stacks, hashes)
  • Creating and modifying source code using a text editor
  • Using the Chrome Developer Tools console to write and debug Javascript code
  • Combining HTML and JavaScript in a single file
  • Importing a JavaScript (.js) file into an HTML file using the SCRIPT SRC tag
  • Using JavaScript to access and manipulate values inside an HTML web page
  • Declaring variables and assigning primitive values (strings, numbers, booleans)
  • Declaring, passing parameters to, and returning values from functions
  • Basic mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.)
  • String manipulation (literal declarations, concatenation, length, substring extraction)
  • Usage of simple data structures (arrays, dictionaries (aka “JavaScript Objects”), stacks
  • Boolean logic and comparisons (equality, less than / greater than, and / or / not)
  • Conditional control flow (if / then / else)
  • Loops and iterators (while loops, for loops, map and each)

Projects

Links