Tag: JavaScript

Baguhan Biyernes: Bakit ang daming terminology na binabato sa iyo pag nag-aaral ka ng programming?

(Susubukan kong gumawa ng isang “weekly column” tungkol sa pag-aaral ng programming at software development. Bukod sa extra advertising para sa Pangkaraniwang Developer, mahahasa ko rin ang aking pagsusulat sa Tagalog.)

May isang magandang thread ngayong linggo sa r/learnprogramming kung saan nagrereklamo ang isang nag-aaral ng programming hinggil sa rami ng terminology na nakikita niya sa isang tutorial. To paraphrase/translate:

Isa akong baguhan na sinusubukang matuto ng jQuery, pero noong ini-introduce ako sa kanya ng kakilala ko, maraming lumabas na mga terminology na hindi ko alam sa 5 minutong usapan na iyon:

  • bind
  • delegation
  • node
  • handler
  • listener
  • event
  • bubbling

Ganito ba talaga kahirap matuto ng programming?!?

Pag binasa ninyo yung thread, madaling mahalata yung problema nung nagtatanong: hindi pang-baguhan ang jQuery, pero gusto parin niya itong matutunan kahit hindi pa siya bihasa sa JavaScript.

Gaya nga ng sabi ng ibang commenter, parang pumasok siya sa isang Calculus class kahit hindi pa siya dumaan sa Algebra at Trigonometry, at ngayon umaangal siya na hindi pinapaliwanag ng propesor ang sine at logarithm. Kaya nga may mga terminology tayo — hindi lang para hindi tayo magsayang ng oras sa pagpapaliwanag kung ano iyon, sa paggamit ng terminology, ipinapalagay na ng kung sinumang gumamit noon na maiintindihan na ng nakikinig/nagbabasa kung ano ang gusto niyang ipahiwatig kahit hindi siya simple.

Halimbawa, maraming pwedeng ibig-sabihin ang “node” kahit sa computer science, pero pag lumabas siya sa usapan tungkol sa jQuery, dapat naiintidihan ng lahat ng nasa usapan kung aling “node” iyon.

Sang-ayon ako sa huling payo ng mga commenter: dapat unti-untiin niya ang pag-aaral ng programming. Sa web development, medyo marami kang dapat matutunan bago ka mag-jQuery: HTML, CSS, at intermediate JavaScript. Hindi magandang sumabak sa isang tool o framework na ginawa para sa mga experienced developers kung ikaw mismo ay hindi experienced developer.

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Pero kung tutuusin may punto rin naman siya. Hindi mo maiiwasan na dumiretso sa mga intermediate topics ang mga baguhan kaya mabuti kung mayroon kang mga paraan para mas mapadali yung buhay nila.

Kaya nga sa simula palang ginawa ko yung PD na may mga “Previous Lesson” links para malaman ng mga student kung ano yung mga kailangan nilang malaman bago nila pag-aralan yung current lesson. Balang araw, magkakaroon rin ng glossary of terms bawat lesson para hindi mahirapan ang mga student sa paghanap ng kanilang kahulugan. (Pero saka na iyon, tinatamad pa ako ;P)

Project Я: A Ruby/HTML5 Visual Novel

first scene

As promised, here’s the game I made for the Global Game Jam.

Seeing that I couldn’t think of a quick web-based game matching the theme “Ouroboros”, I just went ahead with a joke I made sometime after the Ruby Rumble:

Sa susunod na Rumble, gagawa ako ng hentai game sa Ruby!
(For the next Rumble, I’ll make a hentai game in Ruby!)

So yeah, that’s how I ended up with a Visual Novel. Unfortunately for the people expecting sexually explicit scenes (which was about a third of the people who saw the game), the “game” I made was more ATLUS/Capcom than Key/Type-Moon.

Anyway, it’s more of a tech demo than a game, with me trying to implement a Cloud-based multi-platform visual novel with psychological themes and non-standard tactical RPG gameplay. Or in non-buzzword speak, an HTML5 adventure game playable over the internet.

Play it here.

Please use fake email addresses so you could view the changes when you change the answers to the initial questions.

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Some boring technical details:

I didn’t release the code because of how ridiculously horrible it is. I mean, using GET to update state, WTF?!?

Web Developer Interview Questions

Earlier this week, I had to interview a bunch of applicants for a web developer role. The idea is to filter out those who aren’t really experienced as the job asks for people with at least 6 months of experience.

Anyway, below is the test I gave them. I don’t feel like giving something like it again in the future (it’s pretty crappy IMHO) so I think it would be a good idea to share it instead of just throwing it away.

Determine whether the statements below are true or false. Be prepared to explain your answer.

  1. A primary key can be composed of multiple columns.
  2. When you have two tables in a parent-child relationship (i.e. one table has a foreign key referring to the other table) deleting a parent record will delete all child records of that record.
  3. Escaping special characters is the best way to avoid SQL injection.
  4. You can undo UPDATE and DELETE changes to the database.
  5. The VARCHAR data type can be used to save space when used over CHAR.
  6. When using an RDBMS, normalization must be done for all tables.
  7. Indexes speed up database actions.
  8. Foreign keys are usually indexed.
  9. Many-to-many relationships are implemented via junction/join tables.
  10. Some HTML elements have been deprecated in favor of CSS.
  11. The <strong> element can be used interchangeably with the <b> element.
  12. Under strict XHTML rules, <br> is not a valid usage of the line break element.
  13. The href attribute of the anchor element only accepts relative and absolute links.
  14. The image tag is a block element.
  15. When a form is submitted, the submitted data is derived from only the input elements inside the form.
  16. Multiple elements can have the same id attribute.
  17. Web servers serve content at port 443.
  18. A web server can identify if a client has visited the website before.
  19. POST is idempotent.
  20. A browser redirect can be initiated by a response with an empty body.
  21. In JavaScript, the var keyword is optional when declaring variables so it can be omitted in all cases.
  22. You must specify a function name when declaring JavaScript functions.
  23. Ajax will prevent you from performing other actions until the Ajax action is completed.
  24. You are limited to using XML in Ajax.
  25. You cannot change the values of a class variable.
  26. Constructors are instance methods.
  27. Polymorphism refers to the ability to define functions to have different behaviors depending on the passed arguments.
  28. High cohesion and loose coupling can improve coding speed.
  29. You can combine the features of two classes via inheritance.
  30. Encapsulation is primarily used for security reasons.

Answers below the cut.

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