Back from the dead...
Published: 2024-07-07 19:46:59

For various reasons, I have not managed to make weekly reports since my last post. I had to take an impromptu break for my studies, but have managed to get myself back on track now...

In this post, I just want to focus on some of the main things I have done/learnt since my last blog post (a whopping five weeks back) and to give the posts a bit more structure, I am going to divide them into the following sections:

**Things I've worked on/completed since my last post...**

**Things that went well...**

**Things didn't go quite so well...**

**Things I've learnt/things I need to improve on...**



## Things I've worked on/completed since my last post...

- Debugging
- Rock, Paper, Scissors project (console-based)
- Rock, Paper, Scissors revisited (updated to include UI)
- Etch-a-sketch project


## Things that went well...
I think that my **general approach to both projects was okay**, in that I was not completely stumped in terms of how to approach each of them, though I did of course run into problems with both along the way. I also enjoyed getting to grips with and getting some real experience of DOM-manipulation.


## Things didn't go quite so well...
I ran into **scoping issues** on both projects. Although I think I understood the problems themselves, I think that my **haphazard approach (no prior planning)** caused me to run into the same problem more than once. I started both projects directly in VS and realised that I was focusing more on just getting the project done, rather than on how to plan in such a way as to potentially avoid certain problems along the way (such as scope errors).

When I did run into problems, I was trying to **use the debugger to help me solve** the issues I was having. I **struggled with this**, in spite of having covered the study material in the Odin Project. Often, I did not know where to look or how to see what was actually happening when I had breakpoints set up etc.

I watched a few short You Tube tutorials, but I did not feel that my understanding had increased that much. **What did help was sending the issue I was having to someone on the Discord who was able to direct me to what I should be looking at and for in the debugger**, although I really need a lot more practice with this.

I also completely forgot to make regular git commits as I was more focused on just getting my code to work.

## Things I've learnt/things I need to improve on...
My **DOM-manipulation skills have definitely improved** as I had very little experience with this before.

In addition, I learnt to be careful to not confuse referencing functions with function calls (**myFunction v myFunction()** ), I made this mistake more than once, which caused issues.

I also realised that I need to be more **mindful of how I can use functions efficiently to avoid repeating code** (this is partially due to not planning the code to some degree in advance also though). Due to the issues I faced due to a lack of planning (thinking I would finish the project faster just putting code into the editor), I **plan to write pseudocode** for my next project, before starting to code it.

Finally, I really need to **address my debugging skills**, as I think I could solve more of my own problems more easily if my debugging skills were better. I may watch a few more tutorials on this topic and will try to understand more of what is going on in the debugger in future projects.

## The week ahead
I just started the 'Objects' section in the Odin Project today and then I will be moving onto the Calculator project, which is the last project in the Foundations section and I am looking forward to doing that project, which I will pseudocode first.

I will try to **update my blog on a weekly basis on Sundays** going forward.