Its been almost a month to the day since my last blog post, which is very poor on my part, but is due to a combination of life and work and 3 assignments all falling at the same time.

I worked hard on Mu120, which although only being a level one course, I seem to be spending plenty of time on the questions come assignment time (maths never was my strong point). Coupled with the fact that my priorities are definitely toward getting high marks in M263 and M255 my actual study of the MU120 modules has slipped a lot in the last 6 weeks, meaning a lot of catch up and skimming during the assignment period.

The other two assignments are almost at completion, and even though I am only one assignment deep I have come to the conclusion already that M255 is definitely my favourite course so far, one which I recommend to any one interested in studying computing with the OU.

I'll post the scores when I know them.

Due to the popularity of my post about the Yaldex 1st Javascript Editor last year (it has been my most hit page for the last few months) I am going to record some very basic video tutorials about using the software, particularly for debugging for all the M150 students bashing there head against a brick wall come assignment time. This should be done within the next week and will be posted on the blog.

****UPDATED 22/04/2008****
Link to tutorial video HERE

I was thinking about which course I should post information on first, T175 or M150? I have gone with the latter for two reasons, coming from a development background this course presented the most programical challenges and secondly I found a great piece of software to help me through my TMA's.

M150 is a great foundation to my degree, I will complete it in two months and I have found it fairly easy to get to grips with the wide range of content you are presented with. So far I have studied the fundamentals of computing, from bits and bytes, to data storage, manipulation, html and JavaScript programming. JavaScript has definitely been the most interesting and rewarding topic covered in this course but on the other hand it has also been the hardest to get to grips with! TMA03 is almost completely programming based, building on the foundations of JavaScript that you are taught in units 7 - 10. The first part of my TMA involved 'debugging' a section of JavaScript code which was provided to me. Debugging is the process by which you analyse or look at a piece of code which contains errors and identify and correct them. This can be an arduous task and considering this question had the smallest score allocation it still took me a long time to solve.

The reason being I am used to having a tool which I can execute code line by line and find errors in specific lines quickly and easily. With JavaScript debugging in IE or Netscape the only feedback given to you is that there is an error!! This means you can't tell whether an amendment you've made has actually worked or not as there could still be different errors causing the problem.

Luckily after hunting the Internet I found a great piece of software called Yaldex 1st JavaScript Editor Pro which had a built in debugger, allowing me to quickly step through code and solve problems. It was a life saver to say the least! It became invaluable in helping me write my code for the remaining questions in my assignment and I am sure I would not have scored 98% without it!

I used the 21day free trial however I was so impressed with the software I decided to buy it for good as I am sure it will become invaluable. It only costs around $49.00 (around £25 GBP) and was worth every penny.

I have added it to my links collection and would recommend anyone studying M150 or JavaScript makes use of it via the free trial or purchasing.

So that's my top tip for the day! I will have more don't worry!

Simon