5 ms·

Interesting feedback: I had my gf do it, and she got stuck in the .length portion, because she kept typing: "name".length. This is because the prompt said

Interesting feedback: I had my gf do it, and she got stuck in the .length portion, because she kept typing: "name".length. This is because the prompt said: Well done! How long is your name? Find out by typing your name in quotes and ending it with .length. For me, that'd be "Ryan".length. Apparently its not clear enough what is code and what isn't. While you and I can tell that the last period belongs to the sentence and not the code, it was a bit confusing for her. Perhaps putting the code in a different font (as well as the current highlighting) would do the trick?

zds 15y ago
Changing this right now. Thanks so much!
nicki_easy 15y ago
I am no one's girlfriend, and I am stuck on lesson five :P I think that if this is aimed at beginners it needs to be dumbed down more--I am a reasonably intelligent absolute beginner curious about coding and whether I'm interested in learning some, and in this lesson you have completely lost me; I no longer understand what I am doing or why, and I don't know how to proceed: Everything we've talked about so far has one value. But what happens when you need to store an ordered list of values? You use a data structure known as an array. The editor now has an array named numbers with the numbers 1, 4, and 6 (look at how we set the values). To access a particular value, you can use the name of the array and its position, or index (they start with 0). To get the number 4 from the array numbers, you would write numbers[1]. Try writing a line that will set the value of a variable called six to third number in the array. I feel like there is not enough building on the previous lesson and not enough practice/repetition for me to get a toehold on what I'm doing/learning before moving on to the next thing. Here you have already moved me up to a level of abstraction where I cannot continue the exercise without seeking outside help (from Google, a book, a friend...). And my hint is: To do this exercise, you have to declare a new variable (using var six =) and set it equal to the value of the array (done with numbers[2]). Remember: array indexes start at 0, not 1. I'm totally lost. This hint is not helpful to me and there are no more hints. I'm stuck and can't continue within the lesson itself without more hints, exercises or explanation. Also, I think this is brilliant <3. Keep going.
- jpd 15y ago
  Judging by the text of the hint you gave us, I believe it's trying to make you type: var six = numbers[2] I am not sure where the hangup is, considering I just copy-pasted that from two parts of the hint. Have they described arrays to you yet? Perhaps the problem is that they insufficiently described what an array was and what it did? I have not tried to use the site, so I'm not sure.
  - nicki_easy 15y ago
    Yes. This is the problem for me. The only description of arrays is what I've pasted above from the lesson. I'd never heard of them before and all I currently know about them is that I will use them when I "need to store an ordered list of values." I'm not sure how much I need to know or understand about them at this point, either--I speak some human languages that are not my native tongue and I was very lost when I first began learning them and relied heavily on memorization. What I need is just to be able to follow along well enough to produce an answer and for there to be enough repetition and regurgitation that things start to gel if I keep it up. This wasn't clear enough for me to be able to continue with the lesson; I was literally stuck since there weren't any more hints or resources (though I have since downloaded an e-book ;). Perhaps it would be good for there to be a cheat revealing the answer and additional problems that appear whether or not you fail the first time. This format is excellent and the site looks great. More coddling, please!
    - liquidcool 15y ago
      I see what you're saying. The analogy I would use is a numbered list in a word processor. That got me thinking, just about every intro to programming book I've seen explains arrays with a picture. I then thought to do a Google image search for JavaScript array and found this: http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/11/ http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/1... Would that have helped? (I also wonder if that's a good tutorial as well.) It seems the focus at Code Academy is on doing, which is fantastic, but more (any?) images will help get the point across faster, esp. for visual thinkers (like designers, who are the perfect audience for learning JavaScript).
HiroshiSan 15y ago
This is amazing feedback, I'm going through the lessons with my 13 year old cousin and she had similar trouble, we got to the arrays when it asked you to add "Monday", "Tuesday" AND "Wednesday" to positions 0, 1, 2. It wasn't explicit enough so she thought that she was suppose to type var weekDay["Monday", "Tuesday" and "Wednesday"];
- zds 15y ago
  We're going to try to make this change within the next few hours. Thanks!
edtechdev 15y ago
Yeah that was the very first thing I noticed, and I have to admit I stopped right there since there was already a typo on the very first lesson

zds 15y ago

Changing this right now. Thanks so much!

nicki_easy 15y ago

I am no one's girlfriend, and I am stuck on lesson five :P I think that if this is aimed at beginners it needs to be dumbed down more--I am a reasonably intelligent absolute beginner curious about coding and whether I'm interested in learning some, and in this lesson you have completely lost me; I no longer understand what I am doing or why, and I don't know how to proceed: Everything we've talked about so far has one value. But what happens when you need to store an ordered list of values? You use a data structure known as an array. The editor now has an array named numbers with the numbers 1, 4, and 6 (look at how we set the values). To access a particular value, you can use the name of the array and its position, or index (they start with 0). To get the number 4 from the array numbers, you would write numbers[1]. Try writing a line that will set the value of a variable called six to third number in the array. I feel like there is not enough building on the previous lesson and not enough practice/repetition for me to get a toehold on what I'm doing/learning before moving on to the next thing. Here you have already moved me up to a level of abstraction where I cannot continue the exercise without seeking outside help (from Google, a book, a friend...). And my hint is: To do this exercise, you have to declare a new variable (using var six =) and set it equal to the value of the array (done with numbers[2]). Remember: array indexes start at 0, not 1. I'm totally lost. This hint is not helpful to me and there are no more hints. I'm stuck and can't continue within the lesson itself without more hints, exercises or explanation. Also, I think this is brilliant <3. Keep going.

jpd 15y ago
Judging by the text of the hint you gave us, I believe it's trying to make you type: var six = numbers[2] I am not sure where the hangup is, considering I just copy-pasted that from two parts of the hint. Have they described arrays to you yet? Perhaps the problem is that they insufficiently described what an array was and what it did? I have not tried to use the site, so I'm not sure.
- nicki_easy 15y ago
  Yes. This is the problem for me. The only description of arrays is what I've pasted above from the lesson. I'd never heard of them before and all I currently know about them is that I will use them when I "need to store an ordered list of values." I'm not sure how much I need to know or understand about them at this point, either--I speak some human languages that are not my native tongue and I was very lost when I first began learning them and relied heavily on memorization. What I need is just to be able to follow along well enough to produce an answer and for there to be enough repetition and regurgitation that things start to gel if I keep it up. This wasn't clear enough for me to be able to continue with the lesson; I was literally stuck since there weren't any more hints or resources (though I have since downloaded an e-book ;). Perhaps it would be good for there to be a cheat revealing the answer and additional problems that appear whether or not you fail the first time. This format is excellent and the site looks great. More coddling, please!
  - liquidcool 15y ago
    I see what you're saying. The analogy I would use is a numbered list in a word processor. That got me thinking, just about every intro to programming book I've seen explains arrays with a picture. I then thought to do a Google image search for JavaScript array and found this: http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/11/ http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/1... Would that have helped? (I also wonder if that's a good tutorial as well.) It seems the focus at Code Academy is on doing, which is fantastic, but more (any?) images will help get the point across faster, esp. for visual thinkers (like designers, who are the perfect audience for learning JavaScript).

HiroshiSan 15y ago

This is amazing feedback, I'm going through the lessons with my 13 year old cousin and she had similar trouble, we got to the arrays when it asked you to add "Monday", "Tuesday" AND "Wednesday" to positions 0, 1, 2. It wasn't explicit enough so she thought that she was suppose to type var weekDay["Monday", "Tuesday" and "Wednesday"];

zds 15y ago
We're going to try to make this change within the next few hours. Thanks!

edtechdev 15y ago

Yeah that was the very first thing I noticed, and I have to admit I stopped right there since there was already a typo on the very first lesson