Sometimes it’s hard to admit as programmers when we really don’t have a clue what we’re doing. This is especially evident when learning a new platform or technology. I am going through this exact experience right now as I try to get back into the web programming world. New tags in HTML5, new capabilities in CSS3, and various frameworks that make JavaScript feel much more modern. As my recent posts about HTML5 resources indicate, there’s a lot to learn once you get started. But what if you’re just getting started? Most of the resources out there assume you have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It can be hard to learn something new when everybody assumes more prerequisites than you actually know.
Tracking progress, sharing knowledge
I want to create something that tracks bits and pieces of my learning process and tries to frame it under the ideal of “starting from the beginning”. This is admittedly a somewhat flawed premise since I am not starting from the very beginning (I did some Rails programming back in Rails 2), but I will do my best to describe things for the beginner. As I learn something new, I’ll share it. It doesn’t whether it’s a new fancy CSS trick or something that might seem extremely basic that I don’t want you to miss.(chances are I missed it the first time too!)
The format
This process will not be constrained by an outline up front and posts that follow that outline to the letter. That’s just not how the learning process tends to work. Sure, some of it is structured but a lot of learning happens randomly as we are introduced to new resources and concepts. If a concept is best conveyed by a tutorial, I’ll post a tutorial. Screencasts? Sure! Book reviews? You bet!
Where do I start?
Well, from the beginning would be best. While you wait for the posts from me to come in, I’d highly recommend the following resources for training. Both of these sites include coding challenges to help reinforce the knowledge you learn from the video training. Check out the free courses available from each to see if this will work for you:
Stay tuned, more content coming soon!
Contact
If you have any questions or comments in the meantime, please feel free to email me at bschooley@infragistics.com or find me on Twitter @brentschooley.