Programming should be productive
I won't go as far as Rasmus Lerdorf who stated: "I actually hate programming, but I love solving problems".
Over the years I have worked with several different programming languages in several different environments. I started with VHDL which is, well, something very special to say the least. Over the last decade however I have become very experienced in several flavors of 'C'-name languages. I have been doing embedded C, microcontrollers and the like. I have been doing higher level C++, again embedded hard real time. And last but not least C#. As I have evolved I must say that the programming as such becomes less of a challenge and solving problems and designing the solution becomes the most fun part. As a senior you're not facing the junior problems and things challenge you differently.
Anyway, I'm used to typesafe compiled languages and working with javascript on the @steemmakers website feels kind of weird. It makes me feel like I'm a junior going like:
I hate programming.
I hate programming.
I hate programming.
It works? No clue why.
No clue why but it works!
I love programming.
It's such a strange thing. The mentality seems to be: as long as it works, who cares... It allows for all kind of nonlogic behavior about which you only find out when it's already too late.
Richard Kenneth wrote a "JavaScript is a Dysfunctional Programming Language" about it but there are many others. To me a programming language is a tool to solve a problem. The moment the language is creating problems instead of helping you solve them I lose trust in the tool. The thing is, there is no alternative and it is immensely popular also in blockchain circles. So I guess I need to keep learning how to handle this strange tool so I stop hammering on my own fingers...
I'm honestly really struggling with javascript at the moment... some things just don't work and I have no idea why.
Does anyone have any good tutorials or online lesson plans that I can play with? I'd love to put aside 30 minutes a day for some learnings.
That's highly dependant on your experience level and end goal. What do you intend to use the language for? I generally prefer books or ebooks.
Me too.... video tutorials are super annoying to me.
I basically want to build more sophisticated gaming bots for Steem... the Gobbo bot was super fun in LordNigel's Steem game... and we want to create similar Wizards and Archers and whatnot.. but I'm struggling with the javascript coding. Things that should make sense, just aren't.
This might be my frustration speaking but I would choose another language for that ;-)
Hahaha, that's fair.
Python seems like the other language that connects to Steem nicely... but I have zero experience in that guy. Do you have any opinions on him?
Python is popular for testing and data crunching. I like it better but I'm biased because I'm experienced in OOP. Javascript is only good for front end website stuff imho, and only because there seems to be no alternative which makes it kind of an easy choice.
By programming language I think you extend it to the whole ecosystem: libraries, dev. tools, documentation, community.
I agree it is painful sometime: you missed this, you forgot that and you scratch your head.
The language and libs can help to express things in a faster, cleaner and simple way, after they have the same power, of course details matter.
What I found a bit scary with JavaScript is the volatility of packages/libs.
It's so much more less productive to use a language like javascript. Only knowing about missing braces at runtime and then silently swallowing exceptions, it's madness to debug. I don't want to debug the language quirks, I want to solve a problem.
These are just some fun examples: http://www.devsanon.com/rants/stupid-javascript/
But really, it's not fun, it ruins productivity.