My SCA Mentorship Journey: Learning JavaScript

My SCA Mentorship Journey: Learning JavaScript

She Code Africa has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Before joining the She Code Mentorship Program as a mentee, I was a lone developer who was just starting in tech. I had been learning JavaScript playfully. I never really understood the syntax and the concepts used. I had used it to create carousels and slides a few times when I started learning HTML and CSS, but I merely knew how the codes work.

As a developer enthusiast, I've always wanted to learn Javascript and be good at it, and because of this, I sought to be part of a community where I could grow, meet tech enthusiasts, and people who could help me understand it better. Most importantly, I needed someone who could guide me in my journey as a developer. Gratefully, I have gained all these in She Code Africa (SCA).

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You can achieve a lot of amazing and interesting stuff with JavaScript. Javascript is a scripting or programming language that enables you to create dynamic features on the webpage. Most times when you see a webpage in action: display timely and interactive content, animated graphics, multimedia, a pop-up, etc, that's Javascript in action.

Coming after HTML and CSS which gives structure (content) and styling to a webpage, Javascript is the third layer in standard web development. It gives a web page or app the ability to create events: show different things in different situations, make updates, and generate new contents when required on the browser and server.

<script>
   // your code goes here
</script>

To use JavaScript, you need to have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS and this is because, for Javascript to work in your webpage, it needs to be applied to the structure which is the HTML page. The HTML script tag is used to add JavaScript to your webpage.

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Javascript is used in two ways: Client-side JavaScript, and Server-side JavaScript.

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The client-side JavaScript is run on the user's computer. When a webpage is loaded, the code is run, and displayed by the browser while the server-side JavaScript is run on the server. When a user makes a request, the request is run in code and the results gotten are downloaded and displayed in the browser. These two approaches are related and they work together.

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JavaScript is used as a server-side language in the popular Node.js environment — you can find out about node.js later. Examples of other popular server-side languages include PHP, Python, C#, and Ruby.

In the past three months of being a participant in the mentorship program in She Code Africa, I have gained a better understanding of JavaScript and become proficient in using it. I have also been introduced to node.js, modules, APIs, Async programming, etc.

At first, Javascript seemed daunting to me, but with the guidance I have gotten through the mentorship Program these past months, everything is now relatable and easy to understand.