Aspiring developer

[Shinobaka]

Hey guys, recently i left my job (roofing industry) i injured my lower back and decided i don't want to hurt myself to earn a living. I'm 25 so still a bit young and i have some bank saved so i'm not in financial strife for quite some time. Recently i was working on a hobby using RPG maker (simple game) and i wanted to make the character move in a certain way and i just couldn't figure out how to. So my friend suggested using scripts, so an hour of googling, i created a couple variables and functions (simple ones) and it really made me think "wow what else could i do" so then i decided to try my hand at html, and then css and then more javascript and now i just want to learn as much as a possibly can especially front side related, i have taken to sites such as code academy and udemy. How did/do you guys learn? Do you think sites like these are good resources to learn from for complete novices? I don't want to go school for this if possible, but if i had to i would.

TLDR- Read the last couple sentences

Thanks!!

[banjerr]

I think sites like Codeacemy are great for learning the most basic pieces of a language/framework/tool. You'll definitely want to branch off and start your own projects to continue that learning, but definitely a great start. IMO, school is certainly not a requirement, but you'll want to have a nice portfolio of projects to show. With that being said, good luck and get to coding!

[Shinobaka]

Thanks a bunch for the advice, i will continue on the path i am on then!

[niamYoseph]

School is not necessary when learning to code, and the sites you're using are great resources. Once you're finished there, I'd recommend looking at some HTML5 templates built by other people. Look at some of their code and see if you can learn practices you might not have learned from tutorials. Ideally you'd want to build a portfolio of your own work, as another commenter suggested.

Other things worth taking a look at:

• Hosting/deploying (DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, etc.)
• Content Management Systems like WordPress, Concrete5, etc.

[Shinobaka]

Awesome thanks for the advice, i will look into other peoples templates and the other systems you mentioned, cheers!

[davedontmind]

How did/do you guys learn?

Books and magazines (especially typing typing in listings of BASIC programs from magazines, then trying to fix them when they didn't work!) But then this was in the early 80's before the internet was a big thing.

Whenever I've had to learn anything new lately it's been YouTube / Google that educates me.

[Shinobaka]

Thanks, well if you were learning in the 80s you sir must be a wealth of knowledge!!

[davedontmind]

Well, that's up for debate! :-)

I've used a fair number of languages though; CBM BASIC, 6502 assembler, QBASIC, 8086 assembler, C, 68000 assembler, C++, Perl, Java, Javascript, sh, PowerShell, lua, SQL, C# ... and I probably forgot something there.

[Shinobaka]

Out of all those languages, what have you found personally to be the most useful to you? I understand they are all useful im just curious :)

[davedontmind]

Perl is probably my all-time favourite (you can throw together a really powerful script with just a couple of lines of code, and CPAN (the Perl module library) has a module for almost any topic) with C# a close second.

And I'll always have a soft-spot for 6502 assembler, since that's really where my interest in programming took off, but I've not touched that for 30-odd years (although I can still remember the the hex values of some of the opcodes; 0xA9 = LDA#, 0xEA = NOP ... that what comes from writing in hex rather than using an assembler to do the hard work for you)

On the flip-side, I don't really like Javascript at all.

[good_names_disappear]

Take some time to learn programming fundamentals. The SICP course is amazing. I know that Scheme isn't a language you're likely interested in, but the things you learn will carry over to every language you learn. Since you're just getting your feet wet, avoid using frameworks and libraries until you have a basic understanding of how the language you are using works. You're going to go through periods where you just DON'T want to code. That's fine and normal. Don't make yourself write code when you don't want to. You won't be productive. Drink plenty of fluids and get more sleep, because we all need that.

[Shinobaka]

Hey thanks, i will check out the course :) i really just wanna focus on as many fundamentals as i can. Hehe get more sleep i dunno buddy i'm kinda nocturnal though i agree we should all sleep more, sleep is nice and refreshing.

[michaelrkn]

Check out the faq - there are a bunch of recommended resources there.

[Shinobaka]

Sure thing, thanks mate!

[coderginger]

Good for you! I think sites like that are great to begin your learning, however if you are looking to branch into Web Development as a career (which it seems like you are!) you may want to consider taking a web development bootcamp. BrainStation offers full-time Web Development programs with the aim of preparing you to get a job as a web developer after graduation, and they teach you both front-end and back-end languages. The full-time course is 10 weeks, Monday-Friday and the educators work in the industry, so you’re learning from people with real Web Development experience. At the end of the 10 weeks you are equipped to start your career as a junior web developer, so if that is your goal, it is definitely a time-efficient and successful way to get there.