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Greetings & Salutations! Thank you for taking the time to read this post. My name is Jesse Gonzalez and I am an up and coming Software Developer at the amazing Flatiron School.
This post is in relation to the curriculum’s Sinatra project. Despite not fully realizing my intended vision for the program due to time constraints, I had a blast!
There’s something alluring about starting a project a new, where every line of code is fresh. The previous project although fun, lacked visual interaction. But now thanks to the power of the awesome Sinatra frameworks, I could finally see how every line of code was being displayed onto a web browser. So much was learned & appreciated from this particular module in curriculum. For one I now have a much better understanding on how the internet works! I was even surprised to know that some methods behind the functioning of the internet are not as complex as I had previously assumed… for example there’s literally cables underwater crossing entire oceans in order to connect servers! Truly fascinating.
With Sinatra I was able to upload my web program and see it take shape. I decided to base it on travel, after all it’s a huge passion of mine… next to coding of course!
The web program essentially allows users to create their own account and create their travel plans! All this information is stored onto databases and retrieved upon request. Information like destination, dates, etc flights are all available for updates.
Where I Struggled
Being Full-time at a bootcamp, is no joke. Every minute is an overload of rich information. During this module aside from learning how the Sinatra frame works, we also were optionally tasked with learning, not one but TWO new computer programming languages; HTML5 and CSS. Both were very interesting although HTML was my personal favorite due to how it’s structured, the overall simplicity in its syntax and the abundance of resources to help aide in it’s design.
That being said, it took some additional time to have a solid understanding on these two NEW languages aside from the everyday Sinatra frameworks module.
Writing CSS was where I struggled the most. CSS has such a vast variety of options when it comes to visuals that it may feel overwhelming at times. Also being that it was a new language, I experienced a difficult time having CSS code interact with the intended HTML5. These two languages go seemingly side by side. HTML layout the structure while CSS making the program more appealing to the eyes.
How I Succeeded
Although the concept of CSS was fresh out of the oven for me, there’s no lack of resources available on the internet. And even more encouraging was the awesome support that is provided by the even more incredible Developer community. I met individuals this past week who were ready to help and give advice.
The aspiring Software Developer Journey is not for the faint of heart, but it’s one with SPECTACULAR companionship opportunities!
Sinatra
Sinatra: It’ awesome. Huge fan despite being newly introduced. Especially when it’s paired with ActiveRecord! The ActiveRecord gem really cuts down on lines of code, having pre-written dynamic methods that can be applied to any models created. There’s no shortage of available methods that can be invoked on Objects, making it extremely easy to retrieve data from the database.
Overall writing Ruby, CSS, HTML5 to create a web program was a pleasure. More Updates are underway, as I plan to improve the app and add more features.