What is a function?

A function is an activity or purpose natural to or intended for a person or thing.

Oops. Wrong function!

In JavaScript functions can be described the same way. Functions are intended for a specific thing and typically are created to perform the same task a few times.

There Are Functions All Over

In the real world functions are things that help us perform our day to day tasks. If you take a look at out bodies, our legs have the function of helping us walk. Our mouths have the function of helping up talk. Our ears have the function of helping up hear, etc.

In the programming world a function is a chunk of code that will help our program perform specific tasks, typically more than once

You probably call you parents or friends multiple times a day. Do you type their phone number in each time and hit the call button every time you call them or do you save their number and just press call when you want to talk to them. Hopefully the latter.

This is what the tasks of calling someone would look like using a function versus not using a function.

Type in the Phone Number Each Time and Hit the Call Button Every Time

Let’s say you call someone 3 times in the day. This is what you would have to do each time if you don’t have a function.

function main() {

// Call 1:

Type 9
Type 7
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Press call


// Call 2:

Type 9
Type 7
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Press call

// Call 3:

Type 9
Type 7
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Press call

}

This what you would have to do each time if you use functions.

Find the Saved Number and Hit Call

function callMom() {

Type 9
Type 7
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4

}

function main() {
Find the person you want to call

// Call 1:

callMom()

// Call 2:

callMom()

// Call 3:

callMom()

}

You’re doing the same thing in both scenarios, but having a function makes your life easier especially if you have to do something more than once. There’s less repetitive code, it’s easier to read, and which is something you aim for as a good programmer

Defining a function

To define a function you use the keyword(special word) function followed by a name of the function, parenthesis and a block {} /section that contains the code.

//Version 1
function callMom() {
console.log("MOOOOMMM");
}

//Version 2 - The function is entered as a string ' <THIS IS NOW A STRING> '
const callMom= new Function('console.log("MOOOOMMM");')

//Version 3 - The function is entered as a string ' <THIS IS NOW A STRING> '
const callMom = function() {
console.log("MOOOOMMM");
};

These are the basics of defining functions. Functions can have return values and parameters/arguments. Think of this as inputs. We’ll take a deeper looking at function arguments and parameters in another post.

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What are arrays ?

Arrays are an ordered list of values.

Let’s Play a Game! Can You Guess What Moved? – Nothing

Let’s say you and a friend some have toys you want to place in a container. You decide to make a game out of it. You place your toys in a a box. Your friend tells you to close your eyes and guess what changed. When you open your eyes again everything is in the same order nothing changed. This is what an ordered list of values means. Arrays keep the same order of the items you put inside of them.

Let’s Play a Game! Can You Guess What Moved? – Something

Now imagine this scenario. You place your toys in a a box and line them up right to each other. Your friend tells you to close your eyes and this time they change around the order of your toys. All your toys are still there but they aren’t in the same order. This would be considered a map. Map also goes by the name of dictionary or hash table. All of these words mean the same thing.

Maps aren’t an ordered list, they are an unordered. You can guarantee the order will be the same as what you set it to be. Maps order things as they see best.

Multi-dimensional Arrays

This is a fancy way of saying I’m a large box that has smaller boxes inside of me. Just like arrays multi-dimensional arrays are ordered.

How Can You Confirm the Order?

Arrays

Let’s say you want to look through an array. Looking over arrays are simple since the array is ordered. All you have to know is you start counting from 0 and continue for as many items as you have.

If you have an array with the following values:

let arr = ["doll", "car", "iPhone", "minion"];

You can view what’s inside of the array by using a for-loop:

for(var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
console.log(i + " " + arr[i]);
}
 // This will print out the following
// 0 "doll"
// 1 "car"
// 2 "iPhone"
// 3 "minion"

Maps

Iterating over a map is simple as well but since the map isn’t ordered you go through it in a different way. You can uses number to find an item in your map. They use a key and value pair. Key is a special name for your actual value.

If you have an map with the following values:

let toyBox = [{"toy1": "doll"}, {"toy2": "car"}, {"toy3": "iPhone"}, {"toy4": "minion"}]

for(const [key,value] of Object.entries(toyBox)) {
console.log(key +  " " + value);
}
 // This will print out the following
// "toy1" "doll"
// "toy2" "car"
// "toy3" "iPhone"
// "toy4" "minion"

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What are data types?

A data type is a classification of data which tells the compiler how the programmer intends to use the data.

Think of this as you telling your computer how it should use the information you give it. For example if you want to add to number you have to tell your computer you’re using numbers. Then it would know “oh these are numbers”, I can add or even subtract these.

JavaScript has six data types, five primitives and an object

What is a primitive?

A primitive is a value that cannot be changed.  Think of these are a really long list of accepted values understood by your computer. i.e 1, 2, true, false, “a”, “b”,”cow”, “dog”, the list goes on. Think a really really really big dictionary.

Data Types:

• Boolean (P)
  • This can only be true or false
  • Think yes or no

    var isOld = false;

     

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Constants

Constants are values that can’t be changed once they are set. Think of this like your birthday. You are born on a specific month, day and year and once that happens you can’t get a new one.

Syntax – ECMAScript6

const birthday = "07/24/1992";

• const
  • This is a special word that means, I can only be given a value once. Think giving getting a birthday
• birthday
  • The word that comes after const is special name for so your computer to know what to do when it sees this name again
• =
  • This symbol is give your name a value
• “07/24/1992”
  • This is the value you assign to the special word you chose

If you want to display what value birthday has you would do the following:

console.log(birthday);

Output: “07/24/1992”

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Set and understand your goal. This is probably the most important part of any project. Understanding the scope of your work and outcome will give you a better idea of how long a project will take and will help you break your project into smaller digestible tasks

Make a list of tasks and features for your project. Don’t skip this step even though it may seem daunting and time-consuming. Having a full view of everything you’ll have to do will help you complete your entire project and will give you insight to any potential task dependencies

• Kanban board
• Sticky notes
• Excel doc
• Bulleted list

Use diagrams whenever possible. Sketching things out will help you see the end goal as clearly as possible. This method doesn’t have to be use for purely visual based projects such as apps and websites,, this will work for backend work, APIs creations and/or even databases.

Get started. Once you outline your tasks a can see what it will take to complete your project, start coding/designing. Tackle those tasks one by one until you can mark your project as complete

 

iWomen have been the minority of computer science for years. Many realize this, but don’t know when and why this occurred.  Gender Code, by Thomas Misa,  explores the how, when and why women started staying away from the computing field. 

Background

Thomas Misa looks to see what attracted women to computing and when women started to leave the field. Misa looks at the history of computer science,  gender and computing dynamics,  and the media to answer these questions. 

Women Ruled the Field

Computer science used to be a female dominant field. The Data Processing Management Association had to work to portray computing as a more masculine job because of the amount of women that were initially in the field. Men and women had a 50/50 chance of becoming programmers. The initial measurement for aptitude, IBM’s programmers aptitude test, lacked bias.

The Change

Starting from the mid-1960s a surplus of women flocked into the computing field. Computer science initially attracted many women because it lacked the grease and dirt associated with other traditionally “masculine” jobs. Sex typing and status anxiety helped account for gender-segregated work in data processing. The automation in government and private sectors shifted the female dominated field to a male dominated field. Women became the primary workers in the punch-card industry but when computers replaced these positions women were sent to fill the low-level data-entry positions, effectively stopping them from obtaining higher level computing jobs.

Seen Internationally

In Britain, a similar halt occurred that wasn’t as subtle as giving women low-level positions, they actually forbade women from gaining high advance positions because of gender targeted thing rubrics, which effectively hardened the gender line. While women were struggling with gaining power and position in the workplace they also lacked the support of society.  The field wasn’t being portrayed in their favor.

Hilda Corneliussen versus Aristole Tympas

Hilda Corneliussen used tools of discourse analysis to understand the image of gender and computing. She examined Norway’s newspaper, Aftenposten, to understand how gender and computing was portrayed to the world. Hilde found newspaper reports stressed men’s mastery and competence in using computers, while portraying women as indifferent and lacking mastery and skill.

Aristotle Tympas, then analyzed the Greek journal from the 1980s, Computing for All, to challenge the idea that computing is an exclusively male dominated field. Tympas found that there was no shortage of women, but the image of men and women in computing were complete opposites.Women were shown with their hands on the computer and interacting with the machines while men were shown on the phone or with coffee in their hands, portraying women as office clerks, and men as the ones in charge.

The Shift

Examining the history of “nerd culture” gives us a better understanding of the effect society had on the image of computing. The rise of the “nerd culture” and computing are closely related. The term “nerd” described someone whose life passions was to be excluded from society. They were traditionally seen as weird and strange, no one wanted to associate with nerds. By the 1960s the rise of the word “nerd” went viral and appeared on television, radio and media. The 1970s, the decade of the stereotypes, and the show “Happy Days” popularized the term. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that power and pride of being a nerd rose.

The Takeoff

The 1960s was a time of social, political and cultural change. The media made great social impacts in the 1970s. The image associated with nerds was established in the 1960s as white men, who wore plain shirts, and large glasses. As the image of the nerd rose, the number of women in computing declined. These power and prideful nerds took over the face of computing, effectively pushing women and others that didn’t share their same passion for technology out of the field. The computer nerd that is technology oriented, singularly focused in computers, lack intrapersonal skills, intelligent, and wimpy still are the face of computing. Women combated this movement in the 1990s with the girl gamer movement,where Tomb Raider and Ms.Pacman came out of ( games where there were female lead characters).

Old Images Modern Day Continuation

Shows like the “Big Bang Theory” and current day media continued the image of the nerd as they did 40/50 years ago. “Big Bang Theory” is a show that focuses around Leonard Hofstadter, Sheldon Cooper, Howard Wolowitz, Raj Koothrappali and Penny. The four male main characters are scientists who are portrayed at the typical socially awkward nerds. Penny is portrayed as the typical pretty ditz. Facebook, Inc., came out with stickers that were an addition to emoticons. They release a sticker called “hacker boy”. This hacker boy sticker package is described as, “He is a computer genius who doesn’t always play by the rules.” They didn’t release a “hacker girl” sticker package until a few months afterwards. Men who run the corporations and large businesses are constantly pushing women into the shadows.

Computing in Universities

The image of computing isn’t the sole factor that pushes women out of computing. The computer science curriculum also need an education reform. The standard computer science curriculum was put in place to help men and women of the future become great programmers, yet they have a gender bias towards men. Computer science departments are filled with robots, star trek posters, binary numbers and video games. These things interest a larger majority of men. Statistics studies show that men and women view computing differently.

Carnegie Mellon Making Positive Changes

Carnegie Mellon University has one of the top computer science departments in the country.  They understand the issues in computing and realize that men and women share different interests in computing. Their research shows that women’s passion for computing is on a societal scale, while men’s passion in computing is because they want to figure out how it works. Most computer science curriculum, focus on male interests solely forcing women to want to leave computer science because their male colleagues are extremely passionate about technology and they don’t share the same extreme passion.

Reflection

I initially was afraid of studying computer science because many schools expected prior programming experience and at that point I didn’t have any. Fortunately, my mentors and positive role models were enough for me to be a change to the stereotype. I was inspired to start an after school robotics club for high school girls like me, who had interests in computing but didn’t know where to start.  If I didn’t have a mentor I would have scared myself away from the field based on my own personal research (Google image searches).  I ultimately entered the computing field because I loved problem solving and math and didn’t want the portrayed images to keep me away.

Societal Gender Roles

Societal expectations influence focus on the issue of gender and computing. The difference in societal expectation from men and women start when we are children and continue well into the workplace. From an early age women are taught to not speak unless they are spoken to, be gentle, and don’t be “bossy”.

On the other hand men are taught to be brave, strong and physical. The words “don’t be bossy” are telling little girls of our society, don’t act like a boss. We are pushing them away from leadership positions. Boys who show “bossy” behavior are encouraged with praises, letting them know they will be a leader one day.

Women lack these positive encouragements. These situations don’t disappear; they just carry on into the workplace. We call women “bossy” and we call men “boss”. We say women are being pushy yet a man is being persuasive. While a woman is advancing in her career she is asked, “Don’t you want to get married someday? Is your job more important than your family?” Women with children are asked, “Do your children need you, why are you here at work so late?” Not once is a man asked “Shouldn’t you be home with your kids?”We call these women selfish, but we call their hard working husbands focused. 

What Happens Because of This

It’s no wonder women are dropping out of the work place so rapidly. There’s an evident double standard. Women who take care of their image are “showy-offs” and “vain”, yet men are “neat” and “smooth”. Women lack support and positive mentors. We therefore end up with women who feel guilty for the positive strides they have made in their career. I’m not a middle-aged woman yet, but these things worry me when I think about my future career. Should I have to put off having children because my peers may view me as weak, pushy, bossy and vain?

Universities are Taking Notice

Harvey Mudd College has been able to increase their number on women in computer science at their school from 10% to 40%. Dr. Maria Klawe has been able to increase their numbers in computer science by change the three most important things that kept women away from studying computer science. They identified that high school girls and women don’t want to study computer science because they find it boring, they lack programming skills, and don’t like the computer science image. To combat this Harvey Mudd made an introductory course to computer science that uses an easier programming language and applies programming problems to practical fields within engineering, promotes teamwork, and provides classes that help women without prior programming experience, and bringing first year students to the Grace Hopper Conference to show that their a hundreds of women in technology that share the same passion as they do!

Change

Having awareness about the issues in computing is only the first step. By highlighting successful women in computing and identifying some of the issues that keep women away from computing and combating these issues,  we can work toward positive change. Increasing and retaining the number of women in computing is a threefold process. We must change the image of computing to more accurately portray the members within the field, make reforms in educations to attract both men and women and stop treating women differently than men when they are making the same decisions and actions. Computing was an open community that accepted both genders. We need to make reforms to return it to that state.

A Better Future

My hope is when you do a Google images search for “nerd” in 2028 you won’t find hundreds of images of a white male, in suspenders, a white polo, large glasses, with a comb over and a pocket protector glued to a computer. It is these images that scare so many women away from the field. No one wants to willingly admit that they associate with these people because they aren’t “cool”.

You Don’t Need a Lot of Time

I don’t have much free time as most people because I work full-time and head my side business, but it’s important for me to stay current with technology. I like  to read, watch or test the latest technologies. I’ll even read or watch video reviews if I’m unable to get my hands on the latest tech. I dedicate a minimum of 15 minutes each day to read up on any new updates. I use Google Alerts and Apple News. Why? Because they send the articles right to me based on keywords that I’ve chosen so I don’t have to waste time browsing for articles.

Do It First

I usually do my reading first thing in before the start of my work day. Once the work day sucks you in it’s hard to calm your mind and relax. I like to read my articles at the start of the day because I’m not tired and I’m not stressed from work yet since the workday hasn’t started yet. I sit down and check my inbox for articles/ phone for apple news notification while I have my breakfast or on the train ride to work.

Keep it Simple

I read through one or two articles depending on my mood and then continue with my day. If I read anything of interest then I’ll favorite it or kept it in my inbox. Some days I’ll have more time than others so if I enjoyed  what I read then I’ll go back to the article and read something else related to the topic if I have spare time

I’ve found it a lot easier to read about tech by having the articles sent to me. I don’t have to look for articles and risk getting distracted by something else during my search. I get to stay-up-date and save myself time.

 

Follow the following links If you want to know: How to set up Google Alerts or Setting Up Notifications via Apple News.

 

Brief Look at Potential Uses for Apple’s new ARKit

Apple announced the release of its AR Kit. If you are unfamiliar with augmented reality, AR superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world (Layman’s terms: Augmented reality draws images on top of the world we see around us). This can be seen in apps such as Snapchat, Pokemon Go, etc.

Before the announcement of the AR kit, developers would need to be knowledgeable in OpenGL development, GLKit and complex engineering concepts. The AR kit allows for an easier way to draw digital objects into the 3D space without requiring heavy engineering to do it.

Now that you’re familiar with AR, I’m sure you’re wondering what you can do with AR aside from swap faces with your pets, draw funny filters on a face or chase 3D creatures. I see potential uses for this in several industries. I’ll list a few below:

Cosmetics

You walk into Sephora. Instead of having to use the bacteria filled trial mascara and risk getting a stye, you could scan a product and see how you would look while using the product all without ever applying a single brush stroke.

Housing

You could potentially furnish your whole house with virtually created furniture without having to lug heavy furniture around while you try to determine if the sofa looks better on the left or right side of the room.

Vision

A faster Warby Parker. Currently, this company ships lenses to you to try on for free. You can keep what you like, return what you don’t, and then pay for the ones you want to keep. AR could allow you to preview how a frame or even contacts look on you without having to wait for them to arrive to you,all on your phone! And with a simple click of a button, you could order your new glasses or contacts, hassle free.

I see a lot of potential time savings with product trials and AR. ARKit still will have it’s limitations as it’s in its earlier stages of development, but it has the potential to tap into many untouched markets.

 

Seamlessly Go From Design to Development

Ever have a beautiful design created and when you received your product back, your product looks nothing like your design? Usually the delivery team chalks it up to your design wasn’t technically feasible. This could be avoided if the design and development team did one thing: COMMUNICATED EARLY ON. Keep reading to learn how to go from design to development seamlessly.

Traditional work cultures separate designers and developers into silos with very little communication between the design and development team. Once the designs are complete, designers hand off the files for design integration without any form of communication. There aren’t any daily discussions, no brainstorming across silos or exchanging off ideas while the designs are being created. Many times developers are left to guess what the designer means or have to reach out to the designer several times after the design has already been agreed upon. Engaging the developer into the design discussion as early as possible is key to having your final delivery look like your design.

When you involve your developer as early as possible they will be able to let you know if what you requested is possible from a technical standpoint. They can provide feedback as to whether your design fits the developer design guidelines, i.e Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, Google’s  User Interface Guidelines, etc

Ways to Bridge that Gap

 

Involve Developers Early On

Even if you’re using design tools such as Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc you can add developers to your client calls. They don’t have to join every call but by having them on the initial design and functionality calls helps. They can provide their insight into how things will translate into an application

 

Designer Hand Off

Your designer should label every single layer in their design file. One of the most important assets for developers is a style guide. This should contain fonts, font size, colors, transparencies, and any style details that will be used in your project. You want to hand off designs that are as detailed as possible.

 

Involving developers early on, creating a design asset and keeping open and clear communication is the sure way to have your website, app, product, etc look exactly as you expected without any unexpected surprises at the end