Snazzy title, I know.
So long story short, due to circumstances outside of my control I will most likely be pretty much uneployed come February. I thought this would be an opportune time to take a new path in life and learn something different!
My friend has had massive success as a back-end programmer and has had great fun with the job as well. It sparked my interest for programming so I've played with the thought for a few weeks. I think working front-end with web design would fit me better personally, however.
I applied for courses in my country but (surprise surprise) they filled up real fast so this time around I didn't get a spot. I am thinking on applying for autumn instead but am too impatient to wait until then, so I want to start learning ASAP!
So! I am looking for any tips, tricks, good-to-know, experiences, things to avoid etc from people who either have experience in the field or know a bit about CSS, HTML and JavaScript! I am baby so anything and everything is of interest haha. I've found some youtube videos that I'm going to try follow along and learn, but any tips on books, youtubers and recommendations for what to focus on first-hand would be great.
Thank you!
So long story short, due to circumstances outside of my control I will most likely be pretty much uneployed come February. I thought this would be an opportune time to take a new path in life and learn something different!
My friend has had massive success as a back-end programmer and has had great fun with the job as well. It sparked my interest for programming so I've played with the thought for a few weeks. I think working front-end with web design would fit me better personally, however.
I applied for courses in my country but (surprise surprise) they filled up real fast so this time around I didn't get a spot. I am thinking on applying for autumn instead but am too impatient to wait until then, so I want to start learning ASAP!
So! I am looking for any tips, tricks, good-to-know, experiences, things to avoid etc from people who either have experience in the field or know a bit about CSS, HTML and JavaScript! I am baby so anything and everything is of interest haha. I've found some youtube videos that I'm going to try follow along and learn, but any tips on books, youtubers and recommendations for what to focus on first-hand would be great.
Thank you!
<cracks knuckles>
<SLAMS PACKT ON THE TABLE>
they have books on literally every single programming concept you could possibly fathom. i use them for their network collection, but they have (more than) a couple really solid books on css/html/bootstrap that range from 'baby's first <div>' to 'coded html before css was even a thing'. i'll flip through some every now and then when i need to brush up on html
they're running a sale where e-books and videos on sale for 5 bucks each or you can get access to everything for 5 bucks a month. it's pretty solid.
...that's about all i can offer
edit: this is their recommended reading list for beginner web development if you decide to go the packt route
<SLAMS PACKT ON THE TABLE>
they have books on literally every single programming concept you could possibly fathom. i use them for their network collection, but they have (more than) a couple really solid books on css/html/bootstrap that range from 'baby's first <div>' to 'coded html before css was even a thing'. i'll flip through some every now and then when i need to brush up on html
they're running a sale where e-books and videos on sale for 5 bucks each or you can get access to everything for 5 bucks a month. it's pretty solid.
...that's about all i can offer
edit: this is their recommended reading list for beginner web development if you decide to go the packt route
Saturninum wrote:
<cracks knuckles>
<SLAMS PACKT ON THE TABLE>
they have books on literally every single programming concept you could possibly fathom. i use them for their network collection, but they have (more than) a couple really solid books on css/html/bootstrap that range from 'baby's first <div>' to 'coded html before css was even a thing'. i'll flip through some every now and then when i need to brush up on html
they're running a sale where e-books and videos on sale for 5 bucks each or you can get access to everything for 5 bucks a month. it's pretty solid.
...that's about all i can offer
<SLAMS PACKT ON THE TABLE>
they have books on literally every single programming concept you could possibly fathom. i use them for their network collection, but they have (more than) a couple really solid books on css/html/bootstrap that range from 'baby's first <div>' to 'coded html before css was even a thing'. i'll flip through some every now and then when i need to brush up on html
they're running a sale where e-books and videos on sale for 5 bucks each or you can get access to everything for 5 bucks a month. it's pretty solid.
...that's about all i can offer
Ooh thank you! I'll definitely scour this site
My friend recommended some books to me, I'll see if I can find them there. Much obliged!
I recommend reading through W3Schools to get the basics going.
Having HTML and CSS as your foundation, and them moving on to JavaScript is something I advise strongly. I also recommend giving it a shot at designing some RPR Epic Styles and turning them into CSS. I also run an Accessible Styles group that focuses on this. We have a beginner's guide as well!
SEO and accessibility are two areas where, if you get those down right, will give you a huge leg up on competition in the field. I'm a certified webdev and just got hired in the field after 15 years of hobby programming, and people in senior positions don't even get the basics of them right. (Literally wrote a blog post on SEO and alt text, and providing the entire contents of the post in images without alt text. I think my brain yeeted itself into space at the irony.) Lots of people are very skilled technically, but forget about accessibility and being just generally found on the internet. Focus on this! It'll pay off!
Having HTML and CSS as your foundation, and them moving on to JavaScript is something I advise strongly. I also recommend giving it a shot at designing some RPR Epic Styles and turning them into CSS. I also run an Accessible Styles group that focuses on this. We have a beginner's guide as well!
SEO and accessibility are two areas where, if you get those down right, will give you a huge leg up on competition in the field. I'm a certified webdev and just got hired in the field after 15 years of hobby programming, and people in senior positions don't even get the basics of them right. (Literally wrote a blog post on SEO and alt text, and providing the entire contents of the post in images without alt text. I think my brain yeeted itself into space at the irony.) Lots of people are very skilled technically, but forget about accessibility and being just generally found on the internet. Focus on this! It'll pay off!
Back in my baby programmer days I got a lot of use out of those programming books that Saturninum mentioned. I followed along with one that taught CSS, and listened to a podcast (that will now be WILDLY out of date) that focused on web accessibility, and got a good start with that.
In more recent years, I have had good luck getting a foothold in new skills really quick with Udemy courses. They run A LOT of sales every year where the courses go for $5 - $15. TBF I knew HTML, CSS, JS and PHP before Udemy was around, but I've grabbed hold of all kinds of other technical skills using those courses, and then branching out from there with whatever other resources I can find by Googling.
In more recent years, I have had good luck getting a foothold in new skills really quick with Udemy courses. They run A LOT of sales every year where the courses go for $5 - $15. TBF I knew HTML, CSS, JS and PHP before Udemy was around, but I've grabbed hold of all kinds of other technical skills using those courses, and then branching out from there with whatever other resources I can find by Googling.
hello i am hot garbage at this sort of thing (closest i have to anything like that is whatever the heck toyhouse codes are and scripting visual novels). however i am sending my very cash money engineer gf to this thread to offer far better advice than my piddly two lines kjfhgkhjfg
Hi, yeah, so as Kamui outted me, I am a fullstack software engineer albeit a junior, but I've also been raised by a woman who's been a senior software engineer longer than I've been alive in some incredible fields.
Everyone else and yourself mentioned CSS and HTML and yes that's about all front end is, when you water it down. You sound like you know a little more than most people I'd talk to about Web design, though, so I'm not gonna come and talk about Django or React or other web platforms, but I will say those are more important than I think people really give them credit for. If there's one issue my peers have, it's that they're really underestimating how important it is to understand those platforms, and that although say Django uses Python, that it also has its own syntax and 'dialect'.
Take the time, as with any code, to really understand what it's saying, and how to talk back to it.
Biggest advice for a newbie if you haven't learned this already, is making base.html structures and "extends" arrangements so you don't have to copy paste and clutter your headers into every page's code, or even your HTML5. You can put all your stylized HTML5 into one base.html and every other template becomes just body contents, as well as a unique title. I know it's pretty entry level, but some people still overlook it, and it's cleaned up my code a ton.
Compartmentalise. Everything.
Models, forms, views. They're all back end but as a front end developer, you'll have to know what all of those do, and if everything is organised right, you're going to very quickly learn how to read everything like a plot chart from the GET, to the view, through its context, into the models, forms, and into rendering your request and context onto your template like a step by step process very very quickly.
COLOR SCHEMES.
Look them up. Make them. Save them. Experiment in your own time. Create mood boards and pick dominant color themes. This is huge and the results are fantastic.
Box things out. I mean it, take a journal, and box out what you want on a Web page and how you want it accessed. Seriously. UI and UX are vital today and they make the difference between a god awful patient portal for a clinic where you have to click into the weirdest places to get to the most simple data, and a comfy and quick blog page where you get what you want through a simple and straight forward menu, without condensing your content.
If you're using VisualStudioCode for javascript, PLEASE download a curly bracket cleaner, or something that checks your semicolons before you run your server or try to compile your code. It'll save you two or three runs every time you try to run your code. That starts to add up not just in minutes wasted but frustration. Kamui has heard me at my wit's end, arguing with a webpage I made, should have taken me 1 day, but I spent three trying to figure out why my code wouldn't work and it was a single semicolon in some template somewhere that was calling to my context model.
Syntax. Saves. Lives. Plugins that check this stuff for you can save you so much time and stress.
Feel free to DM me or I'm sure Kamui would give you my discord if you need advice or just to bounce something off someone else with Web design experience, but for now I hope these things help out a little! Good luck going into Web design!
Everyone else and yourself mentioned CSS and HTML and yes that's about all front end is, when you water it down. You sound like you know a little more than most people I'd talk to about Web design, though, so I'm not gonna come and talk about Django or React or other web platforms, but I will say those are more important than I think people really give them credit for. If there's one issue my peers have, it's that they're really underestimating how important it is to understand those platforms, and that although say Django uses Python, that it also has its own syntax and 'dialect'.
Take the time, as with any code, to really understand what it's saying, and how to talk back to it.
Biggest advice for a newbie if you haven't learned this already, is making base.html structures and "extends" arrangements so you don't have to copy paste and clutter your headers into every page's code, or even your HTML5. You can put all your stylized HTML5 into one base.html and every other template becomes just body contents, as well as a unique title. I know it's pretty entry level, but some people still overlook it, and it's cleaned up my code a ton.
Compartmentalise. Everything.
Models, forms, views. They're all back end but as a front end developer, you'll have to know what all of those do, and if everything is organised right, you're going to very quickly learn how to read everything like a plot chart from the GET, to the view, through its context, into the models, forms, and into rendering your request and context onto your template like a step by step process very very quickly.
COLOR SCHEMES.
Look them up. Make them. Save them. Experiment in your own time. Create mood boards and pick dominant color themes. This is huge and the results are fantastic.
Box things out. I mean it, take a journal, and box out what you want on a Web page and how you want it accessed. Seriously. UI and UX are vital today and they make the difference between a god awful patient portal for a clinic where you have to click into the weirdest places to get to the most simple data, and a comfy and quick blog page where you get what you want through a simple and straight forward menu, without condensing your content.
If you're using VisualStudioCode for javascript, PLEASE download a curly bracket cleaner, or something that checks your semicolons before you run your server or try to compile your code. It'll save you two or three runs every time you try to run your code. That starts to add up not just in minutes wasted but frustration. Kamui has heard me at my wit's end, arguing with a webpage I made, should have taken me 1 day, but I spent three trying to figure out why my code wouldn't work and it was a single semicolon in some template somewhere that was calling to my context model.
Syntax. Saves. Lives. Plugins that check this stuff for you can save you so much time and stress.
Feel free to DM me or I'm sure Kamui would give you my discord if you need advice or just to bounce something off someone else with Web design experience, but for now I hope these things help out a little! Good luck going into Web design!
Ooh thank you all for your input! I am overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude 😁 I'm definitely going to come back to this thread to re-read your replies as I move along through my learning process!
Feel free of course to lay it on me if you have any more tips, thoughts etc. I'll be taking notes (and will probably return with questions in the future 😂)
Feel free of course to lay it on me if you have any more tips, thoughts etc. I'll be taking notes (and will probably return with questions in the future 😂)
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