What Is This?

This is a project from the boot.dev golang series. This is a REPL built in golang that uses the PokeAPI to gather information. We created a pokedex to store pokemon and it's information in. We can look up locations, catch pokemon, store pokemon in a pokedex, and view information about pokemon that were caught.

Building and Running

To run this application locally, follow these steps:

Clone the repository and navigate to its directory.

Build the application:

go build ./cmd/pokedexcli; ./pokedexcli.exe

go run ./cmd/pokedexcli

Run the application:
```
./pokedexcli
```

Commands

Usage:

    > map: Returns a list of the next 20 locations
    > mapb: Returns a list of the previous 20 locations
    > explore: Returns a list of Pokemon based on the location provided
    > catch: Tries to catch the pokemon passed in as a parameter
    > pokedex: List all the pokemon that were captured and added to the pokedex
    > inspect: Inspect a pokemon that has been caught inside the pokedex
    > help: Displays a help message
    > exit: Exit the Pokedex

Examples:

	> map
    > mapb
    > explore canalave-city-area
    > catch pikachu
    > pokedex
    > inspect pikachu

Goals

Learn how to parse JSON in Go
Practice making HTTP requests in Go
Learn how to build a CLI tool that makes interacting with a back-end server easier
Get hands-on practice with local Go development and tooling
Learn about caching and how to use it to improve performance

My Thoughts on The Project

Overall I thought it offered a good experience into creating a CLI and interacting with JSON using Golang. I felt like at times it was a bit difficult to figure out how to get something started and what the best approach was. This lead me into creating something that works, but could be much better. I did think that the topics that were explored were great topics to know in Golang and it sort of touched a bit on some key topics.

What Would I Improve

I would improve the overall structure of the code. It is a bit messy right now and this means there is a lot of duplicate code where there should not be.
- Using a context to pass information about the api connection.
- Being able to pass certain parameters to a function and know what they are. Right now it is just a slice of parameters.
- Having a config, but don't store context information in there and only store them in a context in which it relates to the api itself. For example, the only api that needs to know about next map and previous map is the map command. Other commands do not need that context.
I would dive more into types and how I can best use them. I had to use a work around so I could create a function where a type is a reciever. There is probably a better and simplier way to accomplish this, as I just want to print some information.
I would do better error handling. Right now I just default to a Fatal error if the response is 300 or greater. For instance, if you get a 404, the program should not throw a fatal error and simply just say something does not exist.
It would be nice for the CLI to support the "up" and "down" arrow to cycle through commands.
I would like to add some more unit tests and get some more practice there.
Create a pokedex that is persistent and saved to disk so it can be reloaded.
Improve the catch algorithm of pokemon, right it is pretty simplistic. I could always expand on this and add more functionality like catching the same type of pokemon and also catching pokemon of different levels.