I’ll admit, at first it was daunting and very difficult. I spent many hours, days, weeks, and so on…trying to to teach myself various coding languages. Half of the time I was copying and pasting, while the other half I was trying to decide which language(s) or stack I really wanted to learn. I had tried python, php, ruby, javascript, etc. and still didn’t know which one best suited me.

Now that I have developed a basic understanding of how programming works, I have become much more capable of teaching myself. I didn’t reach this point until after I had taken a back-end web development course with General Assembly in San Francisco. Once I completed that course, I had a decent understanding of ruby basics, ruby on rails, and HTML/CSS. Having said that, I don’t think it’s entirely necessary for everyone out there to take a programming course just so they can learn to code. Teaching yourself can be difficult, but with some guidence, patience and persistance, it can be done. I can only say that, because even now after having taken one course and being well on my way to completing a second one, I still have to go out on my own and teach myself new concepts on a regular basis.

Code school instructors are a great resource, especially when they have a teaching style that you mesh well with, that scenario will certainly put your learning into gear. But what do you do when those options aren’t available to you? You teach yourself. So here are a few tips on getting started and avoiding endless hours of headache (just kidding, you’re going to have endless hours of headache regardless :P).

1. Start small

One problem you may run into is having too large of an expectation for yourself or your first couple of projects. Save that great app idea you’ve been conjuring up and start small. Build a few (dozen) ToDo List and Blog apps. Doing this will save you time later since you will have a strong understanding of how every app works, from the ground up.

2. Google it

This may sound cliche, but even the long time programming masters will admit to using Google. Resources like Google and Stack Overflow will be your best friend. Almost every issue you’re having has been had before by someone else, and it has also been solved and most likely documented. This brings me to my third point…

3. Document it

If you find a good solution to a problem, especially a unique issue, try to remember to document it with a blog post or a Stack Overflow thread. Nothing will earn you street cred in the interwebs like being helpful to other developers. Even if the issue has been documented before, it’s always nice to find a resource with a collection of common problems and solutions.

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These are only a few of the recommendations I have for anyone new to the coding world, check back soon for my follow up post where I’ll share more tips along with some of my favorite online resources (free and paid) for learning to code.

In the meantime, checkout this link for a list of some great resources suggested by other developers http://teachyourselftocode.com/

Until next time, happy coding!

Ian

We have learned a ton of new information and technologies in class. Before the break we were developing web apps in a framework called Express that uses the Node JS runtime. Express is a great framework, lightweight and low-level with a lot of functionality, but there’s definitely some give and take. The methods we used to communicate with our database were rather cumbersome, using db.query calls with SQL syntax. I’m glad we learned SQL and some of these lower-level processes, but I definitely prefer working with Rails and Active Record to create migrations. Fortunately, we are now starting to work with Rails to develop our apps.

This first week back has been a lot of review from my BEWD class, but it has given me an opportunity to revisit some things I was fuzzy on and also teach myself some new things like SASS. I am happy to say that even now after four months of steady programming, I am still completely stoked on the whole thing and I can’t wait to begin working in the industry.

I have a few ideas for fun, practical web apps that I hope to implement over the coming weeks in order to exercise my current knowledge of programming while also learning some new features along the way.

That seems like a good note to end on, I’ll try to be back on here within the next few days to put up another post or two in order to compensate for the lack of content from the break.

Until next time,

Ian

Class has been really great, I was a little bummed about leaving town to visit Texas for Thanksgiving because I felt like I was falling behind. Turns out I’m right on track, so no worries there. I think I was getting separation anxiety from class, as lame as that sounds. I really enjoy programming and learning about programming, so being away from it (even for just a week) generated some stress.

Now that I’m back in SF, I can’t wait to start building new projects and learn new technologies. Today we are working on a basic blog app built with the Express framework. I was able to use some prior knowledge from my other GA class (Back End Web Development) to add Bootstrap to my app to make it look a little prettier.

Well the weekend is here, hopefully I can sort out some moisture issues aboard the boat I am living on. This has also been a source of much stress in the past few days, although it seems to be teaching me not to worry so much about the small (or even the big) things. One way or another, everything always works out.

Until next time,

Ian S.

Until next time,

Ian Schoonover