ANY SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MAGIC
Who Am I
- A Full-Stack Software Developer, Tech Mentor and Enthusiast, 2yrs of Experience as a JavaScript Systems Architect, Experienced MERN Stack Developer
- I love to teach. It's a challenging task that forces you to peel back all the knowledge you've gained so you can approach someone who lacks the same experience and terminology you have. It forces you to take amorphous concepts floating in your brain and crystalize them into solid concepts that you can describe. It forces you to acknowledge your gaps in knowledge because you'll begin to question things you know others will question. For me to ever master a concept, I have to teach it to someone else.
Baraka M Mulumia
Some words of Encouragement
Honestly you've come in at a great time. Things are more open than they've ever been. There will be rough patches, but you've gotten through so many before, and you'll get through these. Keep moving forward and never be afraid to ask questions.
Is Software Development Marketable?
The demand for software engineers has been on the rise for quite some time now, and shows no sign of stopping. Software developer employment is projected to grow 21% by 2028, But the ultimate determinant is the ability to adapt, willingness to always learn, patience and consistency
Objectives
- Html & Css
- Foundations of Database
- Foundations of Programming
- Project & Exams
Tools
Before we get started, we need to set you up with all the necessary tools you're going to need to get up and going.
Every developer has very strong opinions about their tools and will tell you that is some reason you have to use their tool. Don't listen to them. Find what works for you. If you find yourself fighting your tools more than they're helping you, consider trying something else. Keep an open mind. What's shiny or popular is not necessarily going to work for you. Take time to invest in making your tools work the best for you. Small wins amount to huge boosts in productivity in the long term.
The Browser
One of your biggest allies in writing websites is the web browser. You may not be yet aware but your browser has a myriad of developer tools built into it that help you understand your code, helps you find bugs, and helps you experiment directly on your running website. All of the modern browsers are great and you can use any one of them to develop sites with. I recommend you pick one and really get to know its developers tools.
My Recommendation: Firefox
The editor
One of the most controversial things you can ask a developer is which editor is the best.
There are so many strongly-held opinions that it's hard to tell which one is going to work for you.
There are many flavors and it all depends on what you want out of your editor: do you want it to hold your hand as much as possible? Do you want it to get out of the way? I'm going to give you several choices but let's start with what I've been using for a few years now.
My Recommedation: Visual Studio Code
If you're not feeling VSCode, two other editors that are similar in their offering are Sublime Text 3 and Atom. Both are great. I used Sublime for a decade and I still like it. Both are free to download. Sublime has an unlimited trial that asks you to pay $80 when you can.
If you want a more complete offering, you may investigate using an integrated development environment (commonly called an IDE.) The reigning, best IDE for front-end development is WebStorm. WebStorm is a very powerful IDE that has a lot of features and tools built into it. It aims to be more than just an editor; it aims to be the entire development suite. Great tool.
Trusted Resources
Something really important is that you choose to learn from good sources. Just like it's important to get your news from quality sources, it's important to get your technical information from sound sources. Here are some of my personal favorites:
- For anything to do with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, Mozilla's MDN is my go-to. I literally have it open all the time.
- CSS Tricks has fashioned itself into a premier development website. It has great content not just for CSS but for HTML and JavaScript too. If I want a tutorial, I'll head there. If I want more technical how-to info, I head to MDN.
The terminal ??
Don't be afraid. It aint as scary as it seems
WOHOOO
Congratulations on starting your journey. Some things might come easy, others might be crazy challenging, but all will be possible with perseverance. When things get hard, keep pushing through and don't be afraid to ask for help. Lots of us love helping, just ask.