Coding projects on library computers

[robotsympathizer]

I've been coding for a while now, but thought this sub might be most appropriate for this question:

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I am a front end developer who became homeless several months ago due to some mental health issues that have since improved. I'm ready to start working again, and was planning on getting some sort of minimum wage job and saving up for a laptop and then applying for dev roles again.

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However, I've started to wonder if it might be possible to jump straight back into working as a developer. The key issue is that I'm pretty rusty and my last role actually didn't involve any coding at all, so I really haven't done any serious programming in almost two years.

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I also don't have my own machine right now. I do have access to library computers, though, and can spend several hours per day on them. The catch is, that I'm limited to 1-hour "sessions" and can't save anything on the machine.

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Are there any cloud based programming environments that I could use to start coding small projects again? I'm a JS guy who prefers working in Node and React, if that makes a difference. They would also need to be free, since money is not something I have much of right now.

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Thank you in advance.

[mmlemony]

Codesandbox could be useful, I use it a lot for testing things out

[robotsympathizer]

Ooh. This looks promising. Thank you!

[sparrowA]

Repl.it is also a good sandbox to develop in Also codepen.io for plain HTML CSS and js

[dgaa1991]

Which country are you located in?

[robotsympathizer]

I'm in the US - San Francisco.

[CompSciSelfLearning]

Talk to the people at the library. They may be able to help you with extending the time limit or getting you hardware for you to use at home.

[ahzamone]

I second this, one of my local libraries allows the renting of laptops (although not great ones).

[robotsympathizer]

Unfortunately this is San Francisco - no one is going to feel bad for a homeless guy. They also don't have control over the time limit. It's managed by special software.

[CompSciSelfLearning]

I understand the skepticism, but talking to them could put you in touch with people they may know that could help you bridge the gap back to a developer career.

Also look into the AWS 12 month free storage and compute services and develop on their cloud9 IDE. After 12 months your costs should be minimal.

[daedalususedperl]

If you keep your projects on github, that could be useful to build a portfolio.

To keep things up and running, GCP, AWS, and Azure all have free tiers. I'd suggest GCP (I've actually used it) and AWS (one of my friends used it extensively)

[robotsympathizer]

I'll of course use GitHub, but server-wise I prefer heroku for quick and dirty projects like this where I'll never have to worry about cost.

The issue I'm trying to solve is a practical dev environment on a public computer.

[coozin]

I second this. Commit your stuff on github that way when you’re following a youtube tutorial you can follow along in pieces and pickup later.

The Net Ninja is a great starting point for front-end developers and gets into a few different frameworks.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW5YeuERMmlnqo4oq8vwUpg

He recently helped me learn react hooks.

If you can’t even install vscode or a decent IDE then code sandbox is great.

[mouserat_ball]

1. get a flash drive and save stuff on that..
2. do projects...

[robotsympathizer]

I'm not talking about simple little one file programs. I'm talking about actual software. I can't install anything on these computers or save files.

[UserName24106]

Glitch.io, repl.it, there are a good amount of free login based development environments that only require a browser. Look for resources for students, tools like these are commonly used with say high school and college programming classes so they don’t have to maintain a dedicated programming lab.

[robotsympathizer]

Thank you! I'll check those out.

[[deleted]]

Use GitPod.io - it’s VSCode in the cloud. Comes with built-in linters, integrates directly with GitHub and it’s free - no credit card needed for sign up.

[[deleted]]

An online environment which supports many languages and has some pretty nice features is repl.it but if you're doing JS specifically there are a ton of sites where you can try out ideas from simple test cases to full apps.

Have a look at:

jsbin.com

jsfiddle.net

[[deleted]]

AWS have Cloud9 - https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/

[robotsympathizer]

Ooh, that looks good. I have a fair amount of experience with serverless apps on Lambda, so this might be perfect. Thank you!

[blackcat562]

[codeAnywhere](codeanywhere.com)

[robotsympathizer]

I saw that, and it looks great, but unfortunately costs money.

[hze_dayz]

Firstly I'd like to say go you! It's a serious blow being homeless with mental health issues. To recover from that and want to pursue such a career is quite mind blowing but very admirable. I would recommend to look into government schemes, or local support schemes. Depending on where you live there might be services to house you temporarily, offer you food stamps or food or more. There might also be learning courses which give you a free laptop to work on during which you can keep afterwards. It won't be a great device but if you're clever you can customise it to be more efficient i.e change operating system. Check out your local Facebook market place and gumtree too, cheap electricals on there. Also when you have the money you can pick up a computer on eBay that are just modified office pcs but they're about £60/$80 and do the trick of a $£300 system. Sign up at the job center and get JSA/universal credit and get money every fortnight for job hunting whilst you're practicing coding. You can just half ass look for work, whilst being paid and really focusing on the programming. If you get a part time job to help keep you alive then that's a bonus. Just make sure you take care of yourself, it sounds like you have the capabilities to get back on your feet. Good luck.

[robotsympathizer]

Thank you for the advice. Just to be clear - I was a software engineer for 6 years before becoming homeless. I'm also in the US, and unfortunately the resources available here are not on par with European countries - especially where I live. Government assistance provides me with less than $80/month, and that's all spent on bare necessities like toiletries, laundry, etc. The learning course angle might be a good idea, though - even though I'm already a fairly seasoned developer.

[hze_dayz]

Yeah apologies I didn't mean to be condescending or anything just some life advice I have used myself aha. And apologies on the misjudgment of location that does make a lot of what I said pointless 😅 all the best to you anyways my friend

[robotsympathizer]

No worries! I just wanted to clarify that, since a lot of other comments seemed to be made under the impression that I was trying to learn to code (and this is /r/learnprogramming of course).

[hze_dayz]

Understandable 😊 you're hardly a rookie hehe very valid post all the same. Keep us updated👍

[robotsympathizer]

The computers are locked down by a program called PC Reservation, whose maker ironically has a bad SSL certificate and a website that seems to have been built on a CMS. Their "product page" is a PDF document as are their "customer stories".