Asynchronous pain

Asynchrony Argh

Okay, today's lesson (LearnYouNode #4, "My First Async I/O") hits a tight spot in my brain. But at least now it has a name: asynchronous programming. All this mad business with "callbacks," which everyone seems to munch as easily as so many potato chips. My poor little brain had to unlearn thinking in GOTO statements, for Pete's sake. Now the orderly sequential flow of computer action has gone completely haywire. Like playing 3D Chess. My brain rebels. Plus it smells suspiciously like recursion, which I have yet to befriend.

Okay, okay, I just gotta practice and absorb. Worth chewing on slowly for a while. Sigh.

Gratitude to:

• Max Ogden - https://github.com/maxogden/art-of-node#callbacks
• Javascript Jabber podcast - Episode 001 (from 2012, sigh. Five years to catch up on) - https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/001-jsj-asynchronous-programming
• Footnote https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/EventLoop
• And a couple other random explanations I surfed up

Hey look! Max Ogden actually explains what Node is-- a detail the chaps at FreeCodeCamp didn't think necessary to include before merrily sending me to learn npm and node.js. Why would I want to actually understand what I was learning? Thanks Max!

I will now slow down and back up once again...

After how-to-npm comes learnyounode, apparently. Or, following FreeCodeCamp, at least the first seven of the thirteen lessons. Finished the first three today.

Command line is kind of fun. And I am slowly learning to manage my anxiety about not knowing what I am doing. So, I might break the computer with a typo. Oh, well! Sail gaily forward!

Another month later

Another month later. Dealing with family stuff. Hopefully this summer will see the last of it. It's been three months, really, since I was really "at" my virtual "camp".

Back to the how-to-npm thing...