Week 3 – The Internet of Some Things

Week three at Makers was a game changer. It was the week we all SPONTANEOUSLY MORPHED INTO WEB DEVELOPERS.

Cool huh? And super convenient too.

The week started with a workshop: Introduction to the Web.

Apparently the internet is not powered by freaky trolls on treadmills with a collective penchant for cat-based memes. Who knew?

Not us. The first question put to the room was what is a server? Responses were rather varied:

• a big buzzing computer in a room with no windows
• with wires and beeping and dust
• with no user interface at all, it’s magic
• … and is something to do with The Internet?

Seems legit.

But apparently it wasn’t. Needless to say, this week has delivered us from ignorance in all things web. Again, very convenient.

We swatted up on requests, responses, GET-POST-redirectsl loops, params and sessions. Above all, we discovered that the coffee shop down the road does the BEST chocolate beetroot cake. Priorities.

The week’s accompanying project was to make a really shitty impressive-for-our-level street fighter ‘web application’. The story went as such:

Player one makes a death-defying leap (with their mouse) towards a singular ‘Attack!’ button floating around on the screen. He has chosen the one singular ‘Attack!’ button wisely! Player two takes much damage. Inspired by player one’s skill and bravery, player two dives the very same mouse towards the very same singular button and successfully attacks player one! Player one takes much damage.

This truly nail biting encounter continues until, whatdyaknow, player two reaches zero health first. EVERY. TIME. But just when you think the fun is all over…

After reaching zero health himself player one makes a surprise move: he hits the ‘Attack!’ button again! What’s this? Minus ten HP for player two? Oh the fun never stops. Literally. We ran out of time to implement minimum health constraint.

Using our new found WEB DEV SKILLZ, we attacked the weekend challenge with as much gusto as we had the battle project. On a similar theme – we set about creating a web app paying homage to the much loved ‘who tells mum we stuffed a banana in the VCR’ decider – Rock Paper Scissors. If you want to experience the thrill yourself, my code is saved here – the README has all the important install instructions. And just check out this fancy styling:

I meeeeean. I think the term is ‘minimal’. Apparently, it’s all the rage.

On. Freakin’. Trend.

#CSSisfordummies