Recently the San Diego Tech Immersion Group (SDTIG) started a new track in learning JavaScript from the very beginning.  What we'll be doing is following the curriculum outlined by a web post found at JavaScriptIsSexy.com.  It looks like it will be a heavier workload than previous tracks, but it will almost certainly be one of the very most rewarding as well.  If you are not familiar with SDTIG, I would highly recommend checking it out and joining up! 

One of the first questions that came up was how one might go about writing some JavaScript code and playing around with it to see how it works and what it does.  There are a LOT of different ways to do this, and there are just as many tools you might use.  Since a lot of the developers in SDTIG are familiar with Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE, I thought it might be useful to have a step-by-step tutorial on setting up a very basic website that would allow someone with just a little Visual Studio knowledge to get up and running in no time.  I hope that some of you will find it useful!  If you have questions or thoughts on how to make this tutorial better, please leave a comment or contact me!

Go grab yourself a caffeinated beverage, fire up Visual Studio, and have a look at this tutorial to start tinkering with JavaScript right away!

I have been using C# to develop software for several years now.  Before that, I was using REALbasic.  Before that, I used Java.  Here and there, I've tinkered with Objective-C to work on iOS apps.  All of these nice, wonderful languages are strongly typed, and have class-based inheritance.  They make clear, relatively simple sense to my mind.  When I look at code in any of these languages, I smile and let out a sigh of warm comfort, as I feel like I am home sweet home.

Now enter the first four chapters of 'JavaScript: The Good Parts'.  Holy hell, Batman, we're going to need a lot more whiskey!  So far, JavaScript feels like the wild west of programming.  Fast, loose, dangerous, and might have tuberculosis.  I kind of dig the idea of being a nerd version of Doc Holiday, but JavaScript seems to be pure evil.  In fact, the author seems to confirm this within the first three pages of the book when he says that "global variables are evil, and in JavaScript they are fundamental."  Done deal.

Thankfully, I am not tackling this book on my own.  If you live in the San Diego area and are interested in software development (with a heavy .NET focus, though that's not the case for the current track through JavaScript), you owe it to yourself to check out the San Diego Tech Immersion Group (SDTIG).  This group is composed of three fantastic mentors who help guide the rest of us through greater and greater programming proficiency.  It is essentially a geek book club.  A book is selected, and the entire group reads a certain amount each month.  At the end of that time (which happens to be the 4th Wednesday of every month... All the details are on the website), we get together to talk about it, ask questions of not only the mentors, but of each other, and hash it all out.  In between the monthly meetings, we have a Google Group set up for everyone to be able to post up questions and answers as we hit them, so you're not stranded for 30 days at a time. 

One of the group members was unable to make this past month's meeting, and posted a question up on the Google Group asking if someone might fill her in on the highlights of what went on.  I took my best shot at it, and was quite honored when Ike Ellis (one of the group mentors, and the original founder of the group) asked if he could post my reply up on his blog.  So I won't re-do it all here, I'll just provide a link over to Ike's site.  Since it is absolutely my goal to become a programming Jedi, I've been just full of geek pride today.  If you're interested in hearing about what we talked about at the first SDTIG meeting on Javascript: The Good Parts, I am proud to link over to Ike's blog to read about the goings on!  If my blathering on is not all that enticing, then think about coming on out to join the group.  It's a great way to get introduced to a lot of different technologies!

ps -- Yes, I really do pair-programming with Batman.  And yes, we drink whiskey while we code.