Starting JavaScript
To begin with JavaScript I knocked out freeCodeCamp’s Basic JavaScript section, containing 113 small tasks covering the basics. I definitely looked before and didn’t see it, but apparently The Odin Project does in fact have a JavaScript Course. I was really sad, thinking this didn’t exist and I only found it this moment as I’m typing actually, but that’s okay. I’m certainly going to delve into that, because I’m just a big fan of how they were presenting the web design material.
The Odin Project provides a lot of external links, and expects you to go do the work they have shown you outside just their site. It felt much more like you’re getting a couple hints then thrown into the pool to figure it out, and I liked that.
Along those same lines, I found this project-based JavaScript tutorial on YouTube from freeCodeCamp, and I loved it.
Here, all the complaints I had about hand-holding were eliminated. The instructor, Per Harold Borgen, is incredible. He has his own teaching site actually, Scrimba.com. I really appreciated his approach, and he does an incredible job of giving you just enough information, then presenting you a problem that is just the right difficulty to apply that new information yourself, rather than being spoon-fed. As a former flight-instructor I really appreciate someone demonstrating such proficiency when it comes to instruction. I feel that even with zero coding background, his approach is going to get you up and running pretty quickly, and about as easily as you could hope.
Regardless of the programming being very basic, there was an almost magical feeling writing some bits of code that let you click a button on the screen and actually interact with the page. It was a really great feeling, and I’m planning to look into further instruction from him.
I was so inspired working on the small projects via the above JS course, that I dove right into working on rudimentary versions of projects I wanted to build. I’m still deciding how I want to document those projects as I move forward. The idea as of now is to try and use maybe Firebase to go for a functioning app version? But I really am probably better off just sticking to getting the basics of JS down more solidly, then layering something like React on top before trying to do any sort of app development. I’ll probably not do that though, because I tend to forge my own path, regardless of whether that’s the smart thing to do. How would you proceed here? Would you try to work on the app? Continue JS courses and fundamentals? Both? I’d love the advice!