Change:
We recommend to keep the terminal open while working at these challenges. By reading the output in the terminal, you can see any errors that may occur. <ins> The server must be restarted after making changes to its files. You can stop the server from the terminal using `Ctrl + C` and start it using Node directly (`node mainEntryFile.js`) or using a run script in the `package.json` file with `npm run`. For example, the `"start": "node server.js"` script would be run from the terminal using `npm run start`. To implement server auto restarting on file save Node provides the `--watch` flag you can add to your start script `"start": "node --watch server.js"` or you can install an npm package like `nodemon`. We will leave this to you as an exercise. </ins> # --instructions-- Modify the `myApp.js` file to log "Hello World" to the console.

Discussion:
We see far too many campers on the forum who do not understand that the server has to be restarted between changes. I didn't look through all of the curricula but it should be made clear early on. Personally, I would also suggest we teach the options of using or . It doesn't have to be more than a comment in the early backend challenges. Not to have to mention this every time someone has an issue with a backend challenge. No response Device: [e.g. iPhone 6, Laptop] OS: [e.g. iOS 14, Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04] Browser: [e.g. Chrome, Safari] Version: [e.g. 22] No response
I have always liked using . It might be nice to have that already in the starter repo and gitpod. That way it will be taken care of for them. Adding a note could be nice though too. thoughts ?
It was intentionally removed from all repos. See the last 3 comments in this issue. I don't understand why we are making it more difficult for the camper than it has to be or expect beginners to not trip up on this. We haven't even taught (afaik) that a server has to be restarted before the changes take effect. We should make that clear and teach the solutions to server auto restarting. Even if the camper has to add it manually. I think this is a case of developers forgetting what it was like to be a beginner.
ohh that's interesting that the flag was removed from the repos. I am pretty out of the loop with the changes being made to the backend certs. In this case, I don't see any harm with adding a note about how to auto restart the server using .
Just to clarify, I don't think we were using in the start scripts but we did use in a few of the repos and that was removed. I'd like to response to this from that issue: This I do not agree with. For beginners, it is difficult. A lot of campers do not even know they need to restart the server between changes. Most do likely not know about arrow-up in the terminal to get to previous commands, meaning they have to write after every change they make to the server file.

Which when learning or debugging challenge projects can add up to tons of restarts. Secondly, saying they can just implement their own watcher and it is easy to do completely misses the point. Yes, if you know about it it is easy, if you don't know about it, and we do not even teach it, then it isn't easy. That would be my suggestion as well. Preferable as early as possible.
Looking at the challenges, we could place a note in the first section for working with the . But the note might work better in the section set of challenges for node and express since they will be writing more code and probably benefit more from the automatic restart of the server. we could add a note at the end of that first set of instructions. something along these lines `
What I have is longer but I think it might be worth going into it a bit more. I can shorten it a bit by removing some of the information.
We are hoping to move off of the first few projects soon, and do have a decent lesson outline with a lot of the previous curricula's "missed bits": So, for the current curricula, I would go with short, simple, and quick changes. That is, without deliberating on pedagogy.
How soon is soon? I don't see an issue with adding some more information to the current challenge. As I said, I can shorten it a bit but it is already written and is easy and quick to add.
I am terrible at estimations . 2nd quarter.