Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jpd 5425 days 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.
1 comments
nicki_easy 5425 days 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!

link
liquidcool 5425 days 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/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).

link