Unity with Ryan Henson Creighton: 57%

OK, the code in this chapter did not work.

And I fixed it.

Even though I do not know much about the Unity engine, or UnityScript, I apparently do know how to debug, slowly, methodically: is this part working? Yes? How about this part? No? Debug.Log(), Debug.Log()... And I do know how to muck slowly through incomprehensible script reference manuals describing objects and classes and variables I know nothing about, until I find what I need.

I still don't know why his code didn't work. He said to "tag" something using Unity, and I did, and the Unity interface says it is successfully "tagged", but the script does not see the "tag". Some kind of Unity bug I guess.

I'm sure there are multiple fixes/workarounds. But I found one of them :)

Re-inspired

Got the idea of looking for a UCBerkeley equivalent of MIT Open Courseware. Found EdX Berkeley. Then... found a course with a list of prerequisites that I actually understood! Maybe there's a "Level Two" for me in the world! Plus it even seems to cover something like the "web stack" topic I was planning to try next.

EdX UC-BerkeleyX Engineering Software as a Service CS169.1x
CS169.1x teaches the fundamentals for engineering long-lasting software using highly-productive Agile techniques to develop Software as a Service (SaaS) using Ruby on Rails. Students will understand the new challenges and opportunities of SaaS versus shrink-wrapped software. They will understand and apply fundamental programming techniques to the design, development, testing, and public cloud deployment of a simple SaaS application. Students will use best-of-breed tools that support modern development techniques including behavior-driven design, user stories, test-driven development, velocity, and pair programming. Students will learn how modern programming language features like metaprogramming and reflection can improve productivity and code maintainability. Prerequisites: Programming proficiency in an object-oriented programming language such as Java, C#, C++, Python, or Ruby is required. We will teach the basics of Ruby at a very accelerated pace that assumes thorough familiarity with OOP inheritance, static/class vs. instance methods and attributes, recursion, hash tables/hash maps, list comprehensions, higher-order functions, lambda expressions. This course is NOT a good first course in programming. Basic Unix command-line skills are helpful. Familiarity with Git, GitHub and Heroku will also be helpful. 6-12 hours/week, Oct 21-Dec 9, 2014. (CS169.2x: Engineering Software as a Service, Part 2, begins Jan 6, 2015.) 

"Profiiciency" is too strong a word, but at least I understand most of what the "prerequisite" words refer to. (I do NOT (yet!) understand what most of the course description words refer to. :P)

Alas the timing is wrong: the course started a few weeks ago (Oct 21), and I haven't finished my Unity course yet. (Currently at 42%)

While looking at the course webpage, I saw a student review that recommended "Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial" before starting the course. I looked it up, found out it is a book available online, read the first few sections, and loved it. So I can do a virtual (by which I mean offline, LOL) version of the course using this book, and now I have something to read over lunch again.

I Googled "Python Django vs Ruby Rails" and decided I am probably more of a Python type. But, no harm in learning a bit of Ruby syntax at this stage.

Frustrated by slowness

Unity book: now 40% done. 

Goaded by WWWCode Newsletter link to Bloc bootcamp website, feeling frustrated by my slow pace of learning. So hard to steal quiet, concentrated time at the computer...

From the WWWCode Newsletter/ Bloc website:

• Bloc Course Directors Share Their Favorite 10 Pre-Bootcamp Tutorials. The page is still frustratingly hard to read, full of references to things I have not only not mastered, but am not even familiar with. :P
• Bloc's Programming Bootcamp Comparison - "Navigating the Coding Ecosystem: Compare Price, Length, and Workload of Learn-to-Code Courses." Includes a description of coding student types, by category:

  • THE HOBBYIST
    “I’m new to coding. I want to learn how to build my own app, on my own time.”
    
    • holding an irregular schedule
    • unsure if coding is the right fit for you
    • learning to code just as a hobby
    TRY A SELF PACED, OR LOW INTENSITY COURSE, like Codecademy. Maybe 5-10 hours/week, or less.
  
  
  • THE PROFESSIONAL
    “I work in a tech industry. I want to learn how to code like a professional.”
    
    • have a full time job
    • a busy life, with not too much free time (kids, family)
    • or a familiarity with coding, but no experience
    TRY A PART TIME, MID INTENSITY COURSE, like Udacity. 20 hours/week, or less.
  
  
  • THE JOB SEEKER
    “I’m making a complete career change. I want to be a professional developer.”
    
    • looking to make a complete career change
    • ready to make learning to code your full-time job
    • frustrated that past efforts learning to code failed
    TRY A FULL TIME, INTENSIVE COURSE. A bootcamp, like Bloc. 40-90 hours/week, over 12 weeks or so.
    
  
  
  • [We at Bloc]... calculated how much time it would take to reach a minimum of 500 hours of experience — a decent chunk of the 10,000 hours required to master a skill...

I guess I should be glad to see "my type" on the list at all. But I feel frustrated that it's under "hobbyist"... even though that is entirely accurate.

Mozilla Webmaker

Mozilla Webmaker Web Literacy Map
https://webmaker.org/en-US/literacy

Got an email today from "MozFest." Am chagrined to realize I don't understand the vocabulary well enough to read it and understand what they are talking about. But after poking around on the links for a while, I think I may add Mozilla Webmaker to my list of possible next steps on my curriculum of exploration. (Next steps meaning after I finish my current "unit" on game design, embodied by the Unity textbook.) They have a Web Literacy Map that includes topics like "Understanding the Internet Stack" -- seems like some of the same areas of knowledge that "coder boot camps" (Hackbright, etc) cover, and which I am still missing.

Unity with Ryan: 26%

Unity 4.x Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide, by Ryan Henson Creighton.

One hour work session today. Did pages "23%" through "26%" (Does it make sense to note page numbers in Kindle? p 137 of 533, ch 4 of  14...). Built a bouncy ball thing. Giggled.

(I'll admit it: I bought this book because of the shoot-y noise on the cover.)

Saturday, Nov 8: 
Worked to 31%. Still fun. And still good for the other reason I chose Unity for my current "class" -- provides practice on object-oriented proramming and Javascript, in context of a larger project or system.