Dateline 6-19-2016

Yesterday I spent all day working on an assignment that I could have gotten done in a little over an hour and a half (at least that's how long the solution video was.)  Notice I said could have and not should have, that's because I really enjoy what I am doing when I make these apps and as much as I want to burn through the classes to get to some real life projects, I can't help but liven up the boring layouts of these sample projects.

When I first started this course I didn't stray far from what the teacher was teaching but now I'm starting to see how things work and am starting to play, in hopes that my fun twist will make a more impressive portfolio since I have nothing professional under my belt.

There are a couple real boring samples from the first sections that show how tight I stuck to the sample. I'm going to skip those and share a couple fun examples of what I am talking about. Once they teach me how to share the actual app I may make them available but for now, I'm going to have to stick to screenshots.

This is an example of an earlier Egg Timer assignment where I pretty much did the same exact thing as the teacher only I chose different images and tweaked the layout just a touch.

Egg Timer Sample.

What I came up with.

Next, we created a Connect Four App only it was Connect Three (AKA Tic Tac Toe). Again I stuck to the sample but added a title and a line to let you know whose turn it is.  

Teacher's App.

My App.

Here's where I started to go overboard. This was supposed to be a six-minute sample just to show how you can make text disappear when you click a button and then reappear when you click another button. This was supposed to be a quick lesson to use what we learned in a later/larger app. 

Teacher's Before.

My Before.

Teacher's After.

My After.

As you can see, I added an image but also made the color of the buttons swap when pushed. This six-minute sample took me close to an hour, but now that I know how to do it, I could probably make this is ten... maybe twenty... probably thirty because I'd end up adding and changing a lot.

Finally, this is a piece that I am pretty proud of. This is an app that would have taken a little over an hour and a half if I just followed the video, but we are encouraged to try on our own first, then watch the video if we get stuck or just want to see how we stack up. 

I ended up spending all day on this and am pretty happy with the results. Not only did I add images and tweak the layout, I added sounds and all kinds of other features that you can't see in the image alone but here it is.

Teacher's Example. 

What I cam up with.

The fact that I can't resist going overboard even in these simple assignments reassures to me that I'm on the right track. I just have this class and one more web development class. Despite what I said yesterday about planning, my new, new plan is to finish both classes then finally build my portfolio page. Once I'm done with that I will switch my focus to the real-world app I have in my as I write the second draft of my novel in the late night when I'm inspired to write.

My confidence that I'm on the right track is starting to grow.

Talk to you tomorrow,

- The Wicker Breaker