The next resource I'm covering is Codecademy. Codecademy is a pretty well known site as of now for being really intuitive and covering things in a pretty good and methodical manner. Personally I find it to be a good, if a bit fast pace, more than CodeAvengers. They also cover things for full stack development like Ruby, Python, and PHP if you think you might have a knack for the back end server kind of stuff.
When you get to the website, if you want to learn HTML, head up to the 'Learn' tab up top and go to 'Web Fundamentals'. From there sections 1 through 3 are all HTML. I didn't go quite as in depth on this one and didn't quite finish doing the tutorials, but from what I did, I really enjoyed it. The pacing is pretty good and the examples are quite nice. They don't have review sections quite like CodeAvengers does. However, they do have full project type reviews after the main lessons which is just as, if not more, important to learning how to program.
Overall, I think that the breakdown and ordering of topics that Codecademy uses is better than CodeAvengers. However, don't let that be a view that you pick up just because I said so. Feel free to try everything and see what works. Often times, I find myself picking things up long after I first learn them. Just make sure you put in the effort and time and I think you can learn anything you put your mind to. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
HTML Resource Two: CodeAvengers
Here we are at a tutorial based resource, CodeAvengers. For this section I'll only cover the HTML portion of the tutorials (Up through lesson 10 of level 1) they have. For reference, the entire section took me about an hour and a half to finish, although I was trying to rush most of it down, so expect maybe double to triple the amount of time if you're just starting out. Anything else besides HTML covered, I'll cover in a different post. So let's get started.
To start with, I think that this particular tutorial series is kind of dumbed down. It seems quite slow in its pacing, but for a beginner that might be exactly what you need. However, I also find that their chosen interface is kind of clumsy. The phone on the side is interesting, but the button placements and ordering to remember just seems extraneous.
I think the first lesson is kind of a throw away as you're mainly just typing text and it seems kind of pointless. I also wish that they could just show both the example and your page at the same time. Switching back and forth not only wastes time, it detracts from the learning experience and is kind of frustrating, especially when they have hints that sometimes outright give away the answers. I also find that the ordering of topics is somewhat odd as the <p> or paragraph tag is not introduced until the 8th lesson. They also make an example where they have <p> tags without the closing </p> tag, which while unnecessary, is cleaner and more straightforward in my opinion, <br> tags are the only exception really as <br></br> isn't correct syntax. They make their reasoning for this, but I just simply don't agree. Regardless of these differences in opinion, I find the review lessons really useful as they make you find common mistakes which are sometimes quite frustrating for new coders.
Overall, I think that the site is pretty good. While slow paced for me, I already have some knowledge in the subject and for beginners I feel that it is probably moving at the right tempo. Definitely check it out if you think you'd enjoy it. Unfortunately it seems like you can't skip forward, so if you have some experience you'll have to go through the motions again. However, the strictness of the system is pretty on point as well so I think it's definitely worth looking at if you're new to this subject and are looking for a fresh start.
--CsMiREK
To start with, I think that this particular tutorial series is kind of dumbed down. It seems quite slow in its pacing, but for a beginner that might be exactly what you need. However, I also find that their chosen interface is kind of clumsy. The phone on the side is interesting, but the button placements and ordering to remember just seems extraneous.
I think the first lesson is kind of a throw away as you're mainly just typing text and it seems kind of pointless. I also wish that they could just show both the example and your page at the same time. Switching back and forth not only wastes time, it detracts from the learning experience and is kind of frustrating, especially when they have hints that sometimes outright give away the answers. I also find that the ordering of topics is somewhat odd as the <p> or paragraph tag is not introduced until the 8th lesson. They also make an example where they have <p> tags without the closing </p> tag, which while unnecessary, is cleaner and more straightforward in my opinion, <br> tags are the only exception really as <br></br> isn't correct syntax. They make their reasoning for this, but I just simply don't agree. Regardless of these differences in opinion, I find the review lessons really useful as they make you find common mistakes which are sometimes quite frustrating for new coders.
Overall, I think that the site is pretty good. While slow paced for me, I already have some knowledge in the subject and for beginners I feel that it is probably moving at the right tempo. Definitely check it out if you think you'd enjoy it. Unfortunately it seems like you can't skip forward, so if you have some experience you'll have to go through the motions again. However, the strictness of the system is pretty on point as well so I think it's definitely worth looking at if you're new to this subject and are looking for a fresh start.
--CsMiREK
Monday, May 6, 2013
HTML Resource One: w3schools
First up on the resource list is w3schools. w3schools is a pretty simple website. I actually started learning from w3schools just as a beginning. It isn't the most fun nor the most interactive, however it does go through things very thoroughly. If you really want to know why things are the way they are, w3schools helps out a bunch with that, or better yet look at Mozilla's mdn stuff as that's what a lot of professionals like to look at.
This review's pretty straightforward as the site is pretty straightforward. The content is really quite good, but it goes more like a textbook than an interactive guide. If you like that, then this is probably the site for you. It also includes a lot of knowledge on things like CSS and JavaScript and covers those in very much a similar way. As such I'll step back from reviewing w3schools again on those topics as it'll be pretty much the same thing. If however, you find w3schools silly and suck, you're not alone. In the end however, whatever helps you learn best is the best for you and I hope you don't take my words super seriously because as they say, "different strokes for different folks."
--CsMiREK
This review's pretty straightforward as the site is pretty straightforward. The content is really quite good, but it goes more like a textbook than an interactive guide. If you like that, then this is probably the site for you. It also includes a lot of knowledge on things like CSS and JavaScript and covers those in very much a similar way. As such I'll step back from reviewing w3schools again on those topics as it'll be pretty much the same thing. If however, you find w3schools silly and suck, you're not alone. In the end however, whatever helps you learn best is the best for you and I hope you don't take my words super seriously because as they say, "different strokes for different folks."
--CsMiREK
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Step Two: HTML
In learning how to program for the web, the first essential element is HTML. So the question to ask is, what exactly is HTML and why should I care? HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Language and without going into too much detail, it's the reason why websites even exist. Your internet browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.) reads HTML and turns it into a readable format along with CSS.
As an analogy, we can say that HTML is the outline for your site. It includes things like title, body, and headers along with paragraphs that are used to help describe and organize websites. And just like an outline, a poorly written HTML file can lead to some pretty terrible looking things. I won't go into details on how to build lists or tables in HTML, that's for the resources I'll cover. However, I would like to say that HTML by itself is quite powerful, even without CSS or JavaScript. But, I will also say that simply knowing HTML isn't enough to make really nice looking and robust websites. Also, while you can do fine tuning of positioning and visual manipulation in HTML, that type of stuff is better suited for CSS, which I'll go over later.
Look forward to the next few updates which will cover some resources to get you started on HTML.
--CsMiREK
As an analogy, we can say that HTML is the outline for your site. It includes things like title, body, and headers along with paragraphs that are used to help describe and organize websites. And just like an outline, a poorly written HTML file can lead to some pretty terrible looking things. I won't go into details on how to build lists or tables in HTML, that's for the resources I'll cover. However, I would like to say that HTML by itself is quite powerful, even without CSS or JavaScript. But, I will also say that simply knowing HTML isn't enough to make really nice looking and robust websites. Also, while you can do fine tuning of positioning and visual manipulation in HTML, that type of stuff is better suited for CSS, which I'll go over later.
Look forward to the next few updates which will cover some resources to get you started on HTML.
--CsMiREK
Friday, May 3, 2013
Step One: Resources
Step one in learning anything new is getting resources. While some people like their books and swear by what books can teach them, I find that learning by book is really poor. Don't get me wrong, books have their strengths, namely in organizing and structuring facts and knowledge. However, they do a poor job of interacting and providing impetus to continue learning. As such, I feel that any resource that does not give a strong level of interaction and satisfaction probably won't be good.
As for coding resources, I'm sure all of you can Google for 'coding tutorials' or 'html tutorials' or whatever the else you feel like typing. But, I'll save you some trouble and give my own ideas about what these things do well and what they don't. You'll notice that this month will have a lot of updates and that not all of them will be coding related. I'll try to cover as much as possible and review as much as possible, but I'll put in some other stuff to break it up I promise.
If you want to get a heads up on what some other people think about the resources available and what it takes to be a coder, check out these links. Ok, so the last one kinda sucks as it seems totally corporate, but I hope this month will be informative for you and I know I'll learn a lot. I just hope you come along for the ride. Also, fun fact, this is post number 42, woo!
--CsMiREK
As for coding resources, I'm sure all of you can Google for 'coding tutorials' or 'html tutorials' or whatever the else you feel like typing. But, I'll save you some trouble and give my own ideas about what these things do well and what they don't. You'll notice that this month will have a lot of updates and that not all of them will be coding related. I'll try to cover as much as possible and review as much as possible, but I'll put in some other stuff to break it up I promise.
If you want to get a heads up on what some other people think about the resources available and what it takes to be a coder, check out these links. Ok, so the last one kinda sucks as it seems totally corporate, but I hope this month will be informative for you and I know I'll learn a lot. I just hope you come along for the ride. Also, fun fact, this is post number 42, woo!
--CsMiREK
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Disclaimer
Unlike previous posts, this month's posts are gonna be a bit more technical. As such, I want to make some things clear. First, learning to program is not easy. Like anything worth doing, it takes time and it takes work. However, like most things, it can be readily learned. And like many things on the internet, it has many resources available to you to help you. These posts will be focusing on those resources and what I think of each one. I am not an expert in HTML/CSS/JS coding so this will be an informative experience for me as well. If you have any interest in the subject my recommendation is to learn a bit from tutorials. But mainly I think the best way to learn is to jump into things, even if you fail, you're bound to learn from your failure. When you can understand and appreciate this and my words, then I think you'll have gotten over some of the biggest hurdles facing you. Without further ado, let's begin and I hope you come along for the ride.
--CsMiREK
--CsMiREK
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Into the Void
Well, I hope you enjoyed poetry month. I missed a couple of updates but they're all up now. Other than that, I think I'll spend this month going over some HTML/CSS/JS resources. Partially because I want to do it to help myself and partially because I think it'll be fun for you guys as well. So without further ado, let's begin our journey into the void of the internet.
--CsMiREK
--CsMiREK
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