Why a superhero, you ask? Well, to put it simply, I am committed to saving my life and bringing out my best self. I have faced so many challenges that it has often felt like I have jumped from one challenge/traumatic event to the next, with hardly a moment to breathe.
I have had many triumphs because of the challenges I faced, and those who helped me. This story is about why I set out to learn code, and how this career change is foundational to my reinvention of self for a better life.
The world is all out of…
Overview:
1. Web Accessibility Around The World
2. ATAG, WCAG, and UAAG — Accessibility Guidelines
4. Narratives On Accessibility
Most people interact with computers and the internet to display content in an easily digestible format. This is accomplished with a wide variety of web technologies and programs that enable our access to the web. We don’t have to deal with giving the computer instructions via code or working in databases when surfing or buying products online. …
Overview:
In the previous story, I walked step by step through an algorithm. Since that was an introduction, I didn’t go into too many specifics and directly showed an algorithm example. Now we’ll go into greater detail, so let’s hang ten and jump right in! We will go over a non-technical example first, and then look at an algorithm that stumped me because I didn’t understand it at first.
Overview:
1. What are Algorithms? Why are they useful?
3a. Refactored Solution.
4. Conclusion.
4a. Resources.
4b. Sources.
Here’s the deal folks, I’m TERRIFIED of algorithms. They aren’t scary for any particular reason, but facing them; and other problem-solving situations, brings up uncomfortable feelings and memories about learning that I like to avoid.
In order to conquer this terror and follow through on my commitment to becoming a software engineering superhero. It’s pretty clear that I’ll need to learn more about Algorithms. Many Computer Science topics, Algorithms, and Data Structures are part…
Overview:
Hi there! I’m Joshua Mclean; you can read more about me here. Dancing Syntax is my new publication here on medium. It’s where you can find both my writings on code and dance, as well as contributions from other enterprising writers.
I’m a career transitioner with a storied past. Y’know that saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?” Well, my version of that is a twisted Rube Goldberg Machine, but hey, it’s working! Making changes in my life has been scary, especially in response to COVID-19 and healing trauma.
Deciding to write…
In 2016, I had put my academic plans on hold after my first year and a half of college in order to take care of my younger sibling when our mother was unable to. Some really amazing friends of mine stepped in to help me out and eventually ended up adopting her (and effectively me too!).
After we stabilized, I felt the urge to return learning something other than dance, and I eventually ended up attending Flatiron School. It had been about five years since I had been in a school-like environment, so managing stress and self-care was difficult. …
While working on my final project for Flatiron School, I had the opportunity to work with two EPIC designers for my project: Anna Wu and Kendra Jenel. They recommended that I export their designs from Figma as SVGs, a file type I have never worked with before….
Coooool, It’s time to learn something new!
SVG was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium in 1999 and saw its official release in late 2001. SVGs are an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based graphic format for 2D images.
About a month into the Flatiron School Bootcamp, a friend of mine gave me this advice:
“Learning to read code will help you become a better programmer.”
At first, I heard that and thought, “Yeah!” It made sense to me, but while working on labs, I came across some code that I struggled to make sense of:
A function called rgbToHex
, a pixel matrix, an npm package, some loops, hex codes, and a lot to do with arrays. Fascinating! At a high-level, data.js is loading a file into an…
Programmer. Lindy Hop Dancer. Founder of HellaBlackLindyHop