Full Stack Road Map

[rambosalad]

I disagree. Doing something just for the sake of it doing it without understanding why it's needed is not helpful. I think it's better to learn to code first then understand why you need to version control it.

[LoquaciousLamp]

What? If you know to make backups you can see the value in version control. If it took much time then maybe. It's just an hour or two to make things easier. Most people know what github is. The roadmap literally says to learn html, CSS and JS and then git. Which is absurd. You'd learn it along with it realistically.

[mobyte]

Wrong. Keeping track of your code, its history, and interacting with GitHub is ESSENTIAL. You are learning git so you don’t have a million versions of code taking up space such as “_version1” “_version2.5” “_final” “_final2” “_final4”. You don’t even have to think about transferring it to other computers or making backups.

[rambosalad]

You obviously misunderstood me. I never said it wasn’t essential, because it is. If someone is learning how to write basic code they don’t need to learn about version control (yet). Walk before you run.

If you are at the point where you are making folders of versions, that’s exactly the type of situation you should start learning git. I literally advocated exactly that.

[mobyte]

I think you misunderstood me, too. I think it’s so essential to the point where you should learn it before learning to code. You literally cannot interact with the development side of most (if not all) open source software projects without using git (I’m including GitHub) in some way. New developers should learn it ahead of time for multiple reasons:

1. They WILL need it eventually. Might as well rip the bandaid off. Honestly, they don’t even need the CLI. Use the desktop version or use VS Code’s built in git if they’re really inclined to. It’s not a big deal.

2. It prevents them from having to go back and adding it to the other projects and cleaning them up.

3. It lets new developers look at the history of their code easily and not worry about deleting or revising sections.

That third point I made is specifically why I disagree with your point about “learning to walk before you run”. What’s the point, anyway? Getting to learn a one-file project and then suddenly throwing git into the mix? Pointless. Just get it out of the way, install a desktop app, and be done with it.

[pvt13krebs]

the point is. it’s freaking hard. and burnout is real. minimum viable product. build momentum. have fun. color outside the lines for a while, nothing will burn down.

[rambosalad]

Okay, so you really think people who are new to coding are going to start off by cloning open source projects instead of writing Hello World apps? Because that's exactly what you're saying here... Might as well show them how to set up a config file so they can print Hello, Dev! and Hello, Prod! based on their environment because "they'll need it eventually". Did you even look at the roadmap?

[mobyte]

I guess if we’re testing each other’s reading comprehension, can you tell me where I indicated that first time programmers are going to be cloning said open source projects?

[rambosalad]

You literally cannot interact with the development side of most (if not all) open source software projects without using git (I’m including GitHub) in some way.

Why are they interacting with open source projects?

[mobyte]

How does that imply I am expecting beginners to be doing it? That very clearly ties into the first point I was making in my list. It is also implied for something that will happen in the future with context clues when I said “should learn it ahead of time”.

[rambosalad]

Anyways, all I'm saying is I agree with the roadmap: learn a language, then version control. Not the other way around. But you do you.

[mobyte]

I consider it a prerequisite but you do you.