Mar 18, 2019
Learning to Code
Why I started coding and everything I learned from HTML to full fledged project development before, and while I am in college.
Part 1: You will never be perfect
Take it with a grain of salt.
You may move fast but the world probably moves faster. I can’t speak for everyone or even most, but from the many coders I’ve met, there are always flaws in there coding and there are always solutions but not a one size fits all to any programming endeavor. You can always (and always should) get better but its probably never going to be perfect and even if think it is, you still need to have upgrades and more.
That being said, starting is what is most important and learning is crucial. If you hate learning or you can’t motivate yourself to start learning, then you might as well call it quits. You can learn the basics to make a website or get your feet wet with app development, but the key to getting good is to practice over and over. One website or app doesn’t make you a pro and having a list of failed project attempts doesn’t make you a failure. I personally see it as a constantly growing space and you’re on a mission to show what you know.
Part 2: How to start
Take your idea, write it down in detail, and then forget about it for a but.
Before you can create any project or idea from scratch, you need to know what you’re doing. I remember showing up to my first hackathon and thinking
“Wow, I really suck. But at everything”
And then I realized, thats normal.
You see, Coding is a lot like learning spanish, which is kinda like learning calculus. First it’s hard, then it’s interesting, then you can’t stop, and lastly, you probably won’t forget it.
I started with an idea, then a hackathon, then a few and then a website, and now I’m addicted to all the things that I can do with the things I learn. (At the time I’m only 20 but I have interest in more project ideas than I can list and a number of coding languages that I’m familiar with)
But none of this answers the question, how do I get started?
Part 3: The method
- ) First pick your platform and environment. Narrowing down the idea/project to its user base is what I recommend because where ever the users are is where you should go.
(People who don’t use a phone likely won’t use a mobile app etc.)
(If you want to go multi-platform, look at React/Node.JS, Xamarin, and simple web development w/ Phone gap)
2. ) Once you’ve decided on a platform, look at how the platform operates, and begin the planning of simple pseudocode. You will need to understand the terminology but thank goodness for google.
3. ) Now you get to learn the language!
Ex. If you’re doing a website, bootstrap, html, CSS and maybe Javascript
(If you did the pseudocode already then this shouldn’t be too difficult but don’t by any means expect this to be easy)
4. ) Code your project (not sure why this is a step but make sure your apply what you learn and don’t forget to use stack-overflow and other resources to help you create an Minimal Viable Product)(MVP)
5. ) Deploy/Debug- If you're already at a working project, you can deploy but please make sure nothing is broken and if something, is don’t deploy it just yet until it’s fixed. I know the enthusiasm behind wanting to deploy an MVP but by doing that you lose motivation to fix the code(something I am notorious at)
Debugging is usually harder than the actual writing of code so don’t stress yourself out! One technique that works well for both solo and teams is SRUM which is a method of project development that forces you to break it into sections of tasks and then complete each task individually in a To do, doing, done manor.
6.) UPDATES- Once you have a working deployed model, now is the long stretch of taking your idea/project to the next level through rigorous updates and modifications to keep things smooth, efficient, and solid.
Since I became Programming Club President, Florida Polytechnic University along with most universities in the state of Florida have been shutdown due to the corona virus so Im writing out a practice / additional coding practice guide cause I’m not sure if the semester will end online.
I will not to fluff this list up so make sure to research any interesting resources mentioned.
The skills covered are pretty much most of the basics of stuff you’d want to know going into a hackathon.
I’ll add to this if necessary or solid mentions.
Table of Contents
- Certificates
- Courses
- Project Ideas/Further Readings/Awesome’s
Certificates
These are the best providers for assorted certificates, AWS has good ones and they’re very useful.
Courses
These are courses I would like to take or I have now, Its really spread amongst languages and project types so I guess have a look.
EDX:
Coursera:
Udemy:
Azure:
AWS:
Alexa Skill Builder — Specialty
Project Ideas/Further Readings/Awesome’s
https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners
Overview & Summary
Now if you’re still here, congrats! I think too many people underestimate how hard coding and especially project development can be but with the right skills and motivation, it’s possible. I still have my own fair share of work tp be done but for the time being I am in college focusing on my major so that I can work from simple hardware all the way to the software where I’d like to spend a majority of my time upon graduating.
My advise is to get started with myfreecodecamp.com and EDX/Udemy courses until you’re able to start creating working prototypes and then start focusing on your project idea since starting development from scratch is a daunting task that can definitely be a speed bump on the road to being a developer. With all that being said I hope to see a project you end up developing and if you need and help or have any questions, I’d love to help in the comments but if not — Stack overflow is quite the resource.
Thank you again for reading and enjoying this journey with me!
Buy me coffee? https://ko-fi.com/jonngan
