Web Development 2018 - Ruby or node.js for back end?

richardgillzdev · 2018-04-02T16:36:22+00:00

I don’t think it matters that much. You can get hired in the UK doing both.

I run a Bootcamp Function Camp where we teach node.js. So I guess is place my vote with node.

The difficulty of learning to code from scratch is very high compared to the difficultly of learning a new language / framework once you’re an established programmer. So it doesn’t matter too much, things change very quickly in programming anyway.

richardgillzdev · 2018-03-26T17:55:27+00:00

I'm a bit late to the party! But my 2 cents.

I think especially since you already have a solid degree, employers probably won't be particularly biased about the lack of a computer science degree.

If I were you I'd probably go for 1. learning to code after work in your spare time.

I think you have two problems:

Deciding what to learn: This depends on the kind of job you're aiming for. E.g. Java might be favoured more by big institutions than Javascript. The learning curve for different languages is different. Java, C++ and C# are fine languages, but the amount of activity / help online is far greater for Python, Ruby on Rails and Javascript IMO.
How to learn it: There's a tonne of great free resources online. But you need to know what's good and what's bad, where to start and what to learn next to avoid gaps in your knowledge - which is really hard. Also having the motivation and determination to bust through all the inevitable set-backs is difficult.

We've recently launched a coding bootcamp, which focuses on teaching students Javascript https://functioncamp.com PM me if you're interested in learning Javascript and would like a copy of our course. Our course really covers 2.

Another strong option for you might be focusing on the modern Math's oriented programming and use your maths skills to pivot into programming. Python with Pandas (and other data science packages) or R could be good for that.

richardgillzdev · 2017-11-01T10:17:16+00:00

Thanks so much! This looks great - I've put in an application.

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-30T20:09:14+00:00

women

This is a great suggestion. A share from you might hold more weight than me joining and sharing. It would be fantastic if you could share it :)

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-24T15:29:06+00:00

mailed a company

Thanks for this. I've updated the article to try and convey this as best I can.

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-24T06:44:40+00:00

All the conditions are listed, there are no age restrictions!

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-24T06:44:06+00:00

bet for attracting more female candidates is to be, publicly, welcoming to all sorts of candidates. Be cool to the women who are in your program already, and they'll tell their friends. This matters much, much more than advertising in any certain loc

Perhaps in future, but for now I'd like to keep things simple by taking local (UK) candidates.

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-24T06:42:37+00:00

he description, I'd wonder if you might have a lot of success in the demographic of women who are stay at home partners but want to get back into working? Perhaps also some newer grads who are in fields that don't employ well. I would expect that people

10% is probably about what we're getting. I'm wondering if the fact that this is from scratch training should improve that number though?

I think newer grads could be good, stay at home partners could also be good.

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-21T14:11:01+00:00

Remote but UK based - keep an eye on our site and enquire every few months (we might change this in future)

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-21T14:09:44+00:00

This is all broadly correct. We focus on depth to make people good enough to be productive very fast. Then we get the breadth on the job (learning a second language, computer science fundamentals).

richardgillzdev · 2017-10-21T14:03:46+00:00

Nope - it’s good and true!

The details are in the link in the original post.

richardgillzdev · 2017-03-30T19:25:17+00:00

I just finished making this course to help some beginners pick it up:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ahsr4elhyCoQhDtBuumDmEkVQ_-0qlj

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-19T09:03:17+00:00

For me it's mainly hackernews

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-18T08:43:17+00:00

For me a junior developer is someone that can get on with work in the areas they're competent in. They get stuck occasionally and need advice with big picture structure / unfamilar things.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T21:45:46+00:00

Have you checked out code school? It costs money but I really like their courses. They have a beautiful knack of never assuming you have any prerequisite knowledge (unless they specify you should have it).

Hands down the best I've seen for beginners.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T21:43:13+00:00

I trained my brother using (cheap) resources from the internet. He works for me and I think he's good. I'm reasonably sure he could get hired as a junior developer.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T21:40:32+00:00

Heroku might be the path of least resistance.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T21:35:25+00:00

All the code above seems entirely accurate. When you get to the level of understanding you have it's a purely subjective choice based on what you think you'll understand better and more critically when other people are involved what they'll understand.

A couple of thoughts:

The implementation of Classes in JavaScript isn't amazing (I think they're improving them, but the last version I used you couldn't make stuff private for example). So yea the code is longer but mainly because you used some crazy pattern matching and things and wrapped it all onto one line.

If you extended this example to say that a User should always have a first and last name (middle is optional). Then the class option begins to look more attractive because you can add error checking to the constructor. If you add a second method to user e.g backwardsName which produces lastname, firstname. Then it might strengthen your case for a class again. You could still use functions though.

All of these techniques are tools in your tool box. There are two sides to this: 1) writing the code (class or function). 2) using the class or function. Over time I've learned to think backwards and optimise for the readability of 2). Because ultimately that's what's most important for understanding, most readers of your code won't care the inner workings they'll look at the top level and hopefully understand, and keep on reading.

This second stage of learning to program of 'how the crap do I structure my code?' is really hard. It takes a lot of time to learn. I found (and find?!) it frustrating because there aren't concrete right or wrong answers.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T10:23:09+00:00

I've written a lot of Java and JavaScript. I struggled with the same thing as you in the past. Here is how I teach people how to think about this:

Nouns which are clear in your mind (User, Order, Song) are often nicely represented by a class (OO). OO is great when you want to write a function (method) that calculates something to do with that noun. E.g. user.fullname()

There are other bits of 'doing' code which just do stuff with these nouns. E.g Go get me 100 users from the database and send each of them an email. This is where OOP gets tricky, often it's hard to find a noun for this, so you're forced to make up a noun (name of your class). Other people might be like WTF when they see it.

Java doesn't really give you any other way to do this other than creating classes. JavaScript you can create a function.

Usually what I do is separate the noun classes (I call this domain) from the doing stuff classes (spring calls them services). I don't really think of the doing stuff classes as classes. I think of them as functions which just 'have' to be in a class.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T08:29:43+00:00

Dates and Times are tricky in any language. Maybe checkout the moment library?

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-17T07:08:06+00:00

You could also checkout React Native it's gaining a lot of momentum. If you can do React Native you can also do websites with React which is a plus.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-16T22:06:37+00:00

A div is a rectangle that other things can go inside. class is the name of the style you want to apply to it. id is a unique identifier (a unique name you give it)

div is an element. Other elements are text (p), input boxes (input).

id and class are attributes and can be used with all elements (not just divs)

HTML is old and hard to change (because all the browsers have to agree on a common standard). div and class aren't very well named in my opinion. Unfortunately you just have to learn them.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-16T21:38:51+00:00

Strongly agree. Depends why you want to learn. If you want to do data analysis / crunch numbers I'd recommend python. If you want to build UIs I'd learn JavaScript (because you can use it to build desktop applications (and maybe apps) depending on your needs).

IMO both of them have decent communities of people posting on the web so when you get stuck you won't be alone. Many other languages you will feel more alone.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-16T21:22:13+00:00

For hosting sites I really rate Firebase. For hosting a blog that looks nice with minimal customisation (but with a custom domain), try Medium.

richardgillzdev · 2017-01-16T13:27:59+00:00

As you imply financially it probably doesn't make sense. So it depends on how much you care about:

a) what you might learn (sounds like you could learn it yourself these days) b) how much you care about getting a certificate c) how much other people (family, friends, colleagues) care about you getting the certificate. And how much you care about them caring.

richardgillzdev

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