Building a Pokémon Downloader CLI: Lessons from My First Projects

Transitioning from a Blackjack game to a Pokémon data downloader CLI has been a rewarding (and humbling) journey! Here’s what I learned, where I got stuck, and how each project helped me grow as a developer.

From Blackjack to Pokémon: Building on the Basics

When I worked on my Blackjack game, I got to grips with control flow, conditional logic, and managing user inputs. Blackjack was relatively self-contained, but it gave me confidence to handle project structure and to debug issues as they came up. These fundamentals became incredibly valuable in the Pokémon CLI project, where things were less about game rules and more about fetching and managing external data. Having that foundation helped me focus on the newer, more complex areas, like async functions and error handling.

Async Functions & Error Handling: From Theory to Practice

In the Pokémon CLI, one of the biggest leaps was learning to work with async functions and error handling in a real-world way. Exercises were helpful, but using async/await in this project solidified how to handle API requests, ensuring my program didn’t crash if things went wrong. Each time I handled errors, I learned to expect them as part of the process rather than feeling defeated by them. I’d log out values to narrow down issues, especially when the error seemed to point somewhere unexpected. For example, I got a reference error that seemed unrelated to my changes, only to realize I’d missed updating a reference in another file. I found that console logging was a game-changer in tracking issues back to their source.

Reading Documentation: A Whole New Challenge

One of my toughest challenges was learning to read documentation for packages like inquirer and path. It felt like I was told to find a mythical creature in a forest without knowing what it looked like. Inquirer was manageable after some experimenting, especially when it came to validation options. But path was a different story—I had no idea how to approach it at first. I ended up looking for more introductory resources to get a sense of what path even does and why I’d want to use it.

This process taught me that sometimes it’s okay to step away from the official documentation when it feels overwhelming. I started looking for tutorials and examples to understand the purpose of each package before diving back into the docs for specific features.

Wrapping Up: Takeaways & Next Steps

This Pokémon CLI project felt like a step up in complexity from my Blackjack game, pushing me to grow in error handling, async functions, and reading documentation. I also learned about ArrayBuffer and handling binary data, which I used to store images locally instead of just fetching URLs. While I don’t fully understand all the mechanics of ArrayBuffer, I understand enough to use it effectively in this project.

Looking back, each project builds on the last. While there’s still plenty to learn, it’s encouraging to see these skills evolve. I’m excited to tackle my next project with even more confidence (and maybe a few less mythical creatures to track down in the docs)!

You can find the project on my github!
https://github.com/liamdewitt/pokemon-downloader-cli