& — The Safe Operator

The “&” symbol is a great substitute for (:try) if you already know about that method. It basically translates to, “if this exists, then call the following method on it”. In code, this may look something like this:

chicken&.add_special_sauce

If the chicken object is not nil, it will call the add_special_sauce method on the chicken. If it is nil, this line will not error out.

Delegate

Delegate is a way to “delegate ” — or pass along methods from one model to another. In this example, we had the following relationships:

A Musician. Has the…

I just got through a very unique technical interview, where there was no live coding, no white-boarding. It was a technical interview — technically. Here’s some of the questions they asked.

How would you go about debugging a slow loading page?

What a great question to ask as it can really give some depth into how you would debug something.

I answered that I would start by inspecting the console as that usually gives good clues as to why your site might be experiencing issues. …

I went to coding bootcamp. There. I said it. And now — I’m job searching and realizing that there is so much I don’t know about code, about everything. I can not even begin to understand everything that is out there — and there is a ton I did not learn in school.

I found myself googling so many terms as I continued down the learning path, so I thought I would make myself a dictionary so I could try to solidify them all.

Git

First, not the same as GitHub! Git is a version control system. It tracks the…

You know how they say: “if you can teach it, then you really know what you’re talking about?”

Well, let’s just say that’s what I’m trying to do today. So — edits and comments very welcome!

Breadth First Search

If you have not run into it already — breadth first search is an algorithm that visits nodes in a specific order — first the root node, then it’s adjacent nodes. In other words, if I have two neighbors on each side, I’d start with my house, then visit my right-and-left neighbor simultaneously — then continue that trend with my neighbors’ neighbors. I need a visual for that, so I made one:

I know — crazy neighborhood right?! …

I was trying to pull this last piece together for my personal website, and I was trying to integrate all these new pieces of React that I had not quite tested or mastered yet. The information is definitely out there, but it exists in a lot of different places. So, with this blog, I’d like to compile the information here for those who are curious.

The Front End: React with Bootstrap

It has been awesome to learn React with Bootstrap. Documentation for that exists here.

The Form

First we need to import the pieces we need from React Bootstrap:

import…

When I was first introduced to linked lists, it seemed so incredibly abstract that I feel like my brain exploded. I also work with data structures differently than some other programmers. I’m an extremely visual and kinesthetic learner — I have to feel and touch something in order to work with it. I feel like I’m finally grasping linked lists in a visual way, and I wanted to share my experience to see if it will help any others out there.

Structure of Linked Lists

I wish someone would’ve said right away — “Linked lists can come in many data…

I learned so much completing this project, and realized there is so much left to learn. I wanted to document some of the technical things that I struggled with in the hopes that it would help others on their coding journey.

Things I Struggled With:
1. Setting up the application
2. Creating New Files
3. Adding/Deleting Columns, Resetting Objects
4. Understanding Relationships
5. Using Two Different Users to Login
6. Using Logic in the Views
7. Protecting your routes

Setting Up the Application
File structure really confused me upon the start of this project. …

A Rails Project Reflection

Trying to find one place for all of this information seemed really difficult. I tried blogs and google and Rails documentation, but none of them seemed to lay certain things out in a way that made it clear what all of these new things were doing in my Rails application.

I learned so much from completing this project. I feel lucky to have made some progress, and I hope this will help future programmers with their projects as well.

I think one of the most challenging things was trying to understand helpers and content tags within…