Learn Canvas, Elixir and Grunt

Elixir is a dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications.

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

elixir

Some common uses for pattern matching in Elixir include checking conditions and passing parameters into functions. It's useful for pulling out only specific variables from collections of data.

Additional resources:
- [Elixir docs on pattern matching](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/pattern-matching.html)

Pattern match in conditions and function parameters in Elixir

Elixir uses `=` as an operator, but rather than assigning values to variables with it, it *matches* values on the right hand side of the `=` with the left side. This can be used in simple values, more complex data structures, and powerful condition checking.

Put into simpler terms, pattern matching is Elixir's way of assigning variables.

Additional resources:
- [Elixir docs on pattern matching](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/pattern-matching.html)

Pattern match values in Elixir

These videos include the introductory steps to writing your first Elixir function and beginning to understand some key concepts in Elixir that make it unique. 

Some of those concepts include:
- the Mix build tool
- project structure
- collections of functions written in modules
- function *arity*
- pattern matching and common uses for it
- the pipe operator

Getting Started with Elixir

The syntax to pass arguments into functions is akin to many other languages. Elixir functions are uniquely recognized when running based off of the number of arguments passed in (a term called *arity*). This means you can define functions with the same name, so long as a different number of arguments is passed in.

Arity is a key concept to be aware of when reading documentation and writing your own code.

Additional resources:
- [Information about arity](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/modules-and-functions.html#function-capturing)
- [Default arguments in functions](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/modules-and-functions.html#default-arguments)

Pass arguments into Elixir functions and understand arity

Elixir code is organized into groups of functions called modules. You can create your own modules and built on top of predefined modules that are a part of Elixir by default.

Additional resources: 
- [Getting started with Modules and function from Elixir docs](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/modules-and-functions.html)

Write a New Function Inside of an Elixir Module

Bootstrap a new Elixir project using Mix (a build tool included when you install Elixir), with its built in project generation.

Additional resources:
- [Official introduction to Mix](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/mix-otp/introduction-to-mix.html#our-first-project)

Generate a new Elixir project using Mix

A <canvas> element provides scripts with a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which can be used for rendering graphs, game graphics, or other visual images on the fly.

canvas

The `canvas` element exposes a 2d context which allows you to draw lines using the `moveTo`, `lineTo`, and `stroke` api. You can combine this with Mouse events to make a simple drawing app.

Draw with Your Mouse on an HTML Canvas

The pipe operator is an easy to use and powerful feature of Elixir. It takes the output from the expression on the left, and automatically passes it as the first argument to the function on the right. This is especially useful when chaining together multiple function calls or data transformations. Using the pipe operator results in code that's easier to read, write and refactor.

Chain Function Calls with the Pipe Operator in Elixir

In this lesson, we cover several different ways to animate graphics drawn to Canvas.

Animating with Canvas

In this lesson, listening for and handling mouse and keyboard events in Canvas is covered.

Listening for Mouse and Keyboard Events with HTML Canvas

In this lesson, you'll learn how to read and write individual pixel color values from a canvas.

Canvas and Pixels

Transformations can change the default canvas coordinate system and create complex drawings with much less code.

Canvas Transformations

Learn some of the different ways you can affect the graphical content that you are drawing to a canvas. We'll cover global alpha, global composite operations and shadows.

Canvas Effects

In addition to vector drawing, you can draw bitmap images into a canvas, and also retrieve a bitmap based on the content in a canvas.

HTML Canvas and Images

With the HTML `canvas` you can easily draw text as well as graphics. Let's take a look at basic text manipulation on the canvas.

Drawing Text on Canvas

When drawing on the HTML5 canvas element, your fills aren't limited to flat colors. You can use gradients to get smoothly blended color fills on your drawn elements.

Gradient Fills on the HTML5 Canvas

You aren't limited to boring black lines when drawing on the HTML5 canvas element. Using styles, you can program interesting colorful images with JavaScript.

Drawing Styles on HTML5 Canvas

When drawing on your HTML canvas in JavaScript, you aren't restricted to straight lines. Using curves and arcs you are able to create smooth curved lines.

Drawing Paths - Curves and Arcs

Now that we have an HTML5 canvas to draw on, let's take a look at drawing simple lines and rectangles with JavaScript

Drawing Paths - Lines and Rectangles

The HTML Canvas element allows us to access powerful drawing APIs from JavaScript. In this lesson, the first in a series, we will learn about `<canvas>`, and get ready to start drawing.

Introduction to the HTML Canvas element

grunt

Grunt will clean up your build with the grunt-contrib-clean to make sure that no artifacts from previous builds are hanging around.

Cleaning your build folder with grunt-contrib-clean

In this lesson, you'll learn how to enhance the accuracy of components generated by Cursor Composer by aligning your project's package.json with Cursor's rules. We'll guide you through extracting the list of installed packages from your package.json and incorporating them into your .cursorrules file, along with brief descriptions of their functionalities. By providing Cursor with this contextual information, you'll enable it to generate components that are more precise and functional on the first attempt. The lesson includes demonstrations of component generation both with and without these enhancements, highlighting the improvements in accuracy and efficiency.

Boost Cursor Composer Accuracy: Integrating package.json with Cursor Rules

Speed up your bug-fixing process dramatically with Cursors Composer. Take a warning from your logs, search for relevant terms, then seamlessly import both the warning and search results into Composer. Add documentation and apply fixes to all search results in one go. This streamlined workflow resolves multiple issues rapidly, saving valuable development time.

Batch Fix Every File in Search Results with Cursor's Composer

 We map over the initial set of results then use `Promise.all` to efficiently fetch the details of each pokemon rendered in the table. This allows us to add more columns to our pokemon table.

Fetch and display row details with Promise.all in Tanstack Table

map over the initial set of results then use `Promise.all` to efficiently fetch the details of each pokemon rendered in the tanstack table

Create a custom hook to fetch remote data by passing a promise to the React 19 `use` hook. Then render this data in Tanstack Table by memoizing the results and passing them to `useReactTable`.

Render remote data in a Tanstack Table with React 19's use hook and a promise

Create a custom hook using React 19’s use to fetch data with a promise. Render it in a Tanstack Table by memoizing and using useReactTable.

You know when you're deep in the code trenches and need someone to challenge your assumptions? That's exactly what this is about.

Instead of waiting for someone to poke holes in your master plan, you can paste that strategy straight into AI Studio and let it pressure test your ideas. We're talking about using this tool to validate everything from your feature proposals to your ambitious refactoring strategies.

The real magic happens when you hit that microphone button. Now you're in a real-time verbal sparring match. It's like rubber duck debugging but the duck actually pushes back and makes you defend every architectural decision you've made.

Here's the workflow:
1. Drop your master plan into the system instructions
2. Tell the AI to challenge every assumption
3. Hit that mic and defend your choices like you mean it
4. Watch your plan either emerge stronger or get rightfully dismantled

This approach is perfect when you're:
- Stuck in your own head with a complex problem
- Need to validate if your approach holds water
- Want to catch edge cases before they catch you
- Looking for opportunities you might have missed because you're too close to the code

It's like having a senior dev on call 24/7, ready to challenge your ideas and push you to think deeper about your solutions.

Now go forth and get your ideas challenged. Your projects will thank you for it.


An Uncomfortable and Challenging Conversation with AI Studio

In this lesson, you'll learn how to effectively brainstorm your project ideas before working with AI agents. We'll cover:

1. The importance of having a clear plan before starting work with AI agents
2. Using traditional brainstorming techniques to gather your thoughts
3. Leveraging video recording to capture your brainstorming session
4. How to review and analyze websites for inspiration
5. Documenting likes, dislikes, and potential features for your project
6. Using AI tools (like AI Studio) to organize and process your recorded brainstorming session

The lesson emphasizes a modern approach to brainstorming that combines traditional techniques with video recording, making it easier to later process your ideas through AI tools. This method helps ensure that no ideas are lost and that your thoughts can be effectively organized by AI for future reference.

How to Brainstorm Your Project Features to Prepare for AI Agents

fast-check allows us to create composite generators that suit our testing needs. We'll generate two numbers to create a point simulating an X and Y and assert that the distance should always be greater than or equal to 0.

Generate composite objects with fast-check fc.record

Just using fast-check by itself can make you tests verbose and tough to read. Lucky for us there are many integrations with fast-check such as the `@fast-check/jest` package that will help remove some boilerplate from our test.

Tidy up your test with @fast-check/jest

Many people share .cursorrules files, but trying to craft your own from scratch is a huge pain. Instead, this lesson shows you how to grab ALL community-created .cursorrules files to build a custom rule set for your projects. We'll use Gitingest and Google AI Studio to gather these examples and generate an awesome starting point customized to your specific project.

Generate Custom .cursorrules for Your Project Based on Community Examples

The GitHub CLI allows you to search issues and filter on different criteria like amount of comments. This allows you to search for real-world situations and pains/solutions people have using different technology. 

With the GitHub CLI in hand we'll drop 100s of issues as context in Googles AI Studio and have Gemini determine the 10 most frequently asked questions. This will give us a sense of how people use a library and where people get hung up.