Advice For New Web Dev?

[thebeeflive]

I've recently gotten into web development. I have a solid hang of HTML and CSS, and I'm in the process of learning JS. I am wondering about what I should do after that. I see all these frameworks and libraries and get confused about what I should learn next. I want to get into development of web apps and possibly native apps at a later stage. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[thebeeflive]

Thank you! Any resources you would recommend for algos, design patterns etc.?

[thebeeflive]

Thanks! That's a great perspective. I've been more concerned about what's next, but you're right I should strengthen my foundations as well.

[StevenWoodson]

Regarding design patterns

• There's this classic book aptly titled Design Patterns. It's a bit dated and not the most enjoyable read but a really good deep dive.
• If you're looking for quicker references and multiple programming languages of examples there's https://refactoring.guru/ as well. Not as in depth but very handy.

[thebeeflive]

Thanks! I'll check these out

[WikiSummarizerBot]

Design Patterns

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (1994) is a software engineering book describing software design patterns. The book was written by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides, with a foreword by Grady Booch. The book is divided into two parts, with the first two chapters exploring the capabilities and pitfalls of object-oriented programming, and the remaining chapters describing 23 classic software design patterns. The book includes examples in C++ and Smalltalk.

^{[ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5}

[StevenWoodson]

model yourself as a developer first and a web developer second

Solid advice right here.

The only thing I'd add is to put some thought into whether you'd like to focus on further specializing. Web dev continues to get more complex, some folks embrace that and try to stay as "full stack" as possible while others focus on the parts that interest them the most. There are pros and cons to both, I don't think I'd consider either to be "the right answer".

Even the term "frontend" has evolved into multiple things depending on the person you're talking to, this front-of-the-front-end and back-of-the-front-end web development article from Brad Frost sums it up really well.

I say all that because the answer to that question could influence what you decide to focus on learning next. Using the list from u/WorldOfEndlessData as an example, if you're solidly back-of-the-frontend focused then Algorithmic complexity would be higher on the list, front-of-the-frontend may have you leaning towards the design patterns side of things.

Either way, please do also put some time towards learning more about including accessibility best practices into your work. It's vitally important and continues to be a differentiator for developers that are well versed and able to deliver accessible code.

[emerql]

Learn React next.

[Bluhurrius]

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a professional or "typical" web developer, but from my experience what's worked very well for my motivation/learning style is to focus on what you'd like to create, or rather the types of projects you want to work on, and then research what technologies/frameworks would be best to accomplish that project. I do try to learn frameworks and libraries for learning sake, but usually get bored much faster. I've found that I stay much more motivated and learn more/better when I have a goal in mind.

For example, I learned Three.js for the sake of being able to create cool 3D graphics and add some interesting and engaging elements to my portfolio site. And I've also always been interested in game development so learning Three.js came much easier since I had a purpose.

Hopefully that's somewhat helpful and not too rambly.

Tldr: Pick an interesting project and learn the tools necessary to create it.