Ask HN: I want to be a programmer
Any good books or screencasts or anything to get my feet wet on become a web developer? I like udacity but it costs money and don't have money for it.
And also it's really boring to read basic stuff about variables, objects, pointers if you already know anything about these.
When I was learning HTML when I was 12 my math teacher told me to open any website and mess around with the source (and get hosting from Anglefire ;))
Later I read a simle step by step description of html tags. CSS and styles in general were a novelty back then. I later learned about JavaScript. Based on my experiences I'd recommend w3school - I think the basic html course is very good. Take notes - no more than 10 pages from the entire course, use two colors - one for the code, another for your comments. Use plain text notepad for editing code.
1) Choose Javascript. It will be the universal Web language for years to come, both at browser and backend. 2) If you don't know it yet, learn simple HTML5 and CSS first. How the document is structured, what are simple tags (you can do nearly everything with div, span, p, a, button and img, by the way). Write a few simple HTML pages. Try various CSS styles on the same page and see how it's changed. Use a simple text editor for it (I recommend Atom).
CSS is roughly subdivided into layouts and styling. Layout is the way various web page components arranged on the screen. Style is the way they are displayed (like colors, borders, fonts etc.) Here is what you should start with:
Layout: Use Flexbox. Ignore older CSS layout properties like "float", "clear" etc. Try all examples from https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/ (like copying them into your own CSS file and see how they work). Add "margin" and "padding" properties to your items and containers to see how they work and what can be changed. Styling: learn following CSS properties: "color", "font-...", "text-...", "background-...", "list-...". This should be enough to get you started.
Now, you can replicate a simple web page, like Hacker News. Do it. Then, make it better looking. :) Continue learning the rest of CSS from here. Continue replicating (and improving) other web pages.
Then, start learning Javascript. Open your browser's development console (Google how to do it). Write your obligatory Hello World:
console.log("Hello, world!")
Press Enter. Congratulations, you are now initiated on the path of software engineering.
Start with client-side development (manipulating page elements in response to some actions).
Download the last version of jQuery and include it into your page's scripts. You can start without it, but everyone uses jQuery anyway (until you get to React, which is some advanced level not covered here).
Create a simple Web page with a button and some text.
Read jQuery documentation and figure out how to:
- Change the text when the button is pressed - Delete the text when the button is pressed - Add another button when the button is pressed - Make this added button also adding a button when pressed, etc. - Go to another web page when the button is pressed.
Now you know the basics of client-side scripting. Continue from here, try a few more things from jQuery's documentation. Time to move to the server side.
Install Node.js. Run node.js web server. Write a simple server that gives something in response to your page request: http://blog.modulus.io/build-your-first-http-server-in-nodej...
Go back to jQuery documentation. Read how to use ".ajax" method. Write a function that replaces some text on the page with the response of your Node.js server.
Congratulations, you are now newly minted web developer. Think of some ideas you can do on your own. Learn some most popular web frameworks mentioned in job requirements (probably Bootstrap, and you are already learning jQuery).
Learn how to debug your code (with browser's development tools). You'll have to use Google a lot and read lots of docs, this is expected. Be confident that you can find the answer for your every question, on your own.
Then, go create!
It's the second best thing you can do after writing, and I bet you can get hired as a web dev without spending a penny. There's a lot about web development on the internet.
Both of these courses give are a good place to start and by the end of the ~4 hour course, you will have built a real-world application (Pinterest and Yelp clones) and give you a decent grounding in MVC.
Did you read what the OP asked for? Even though OP said he does not have the money to pay for web training,you still went ahead to suggest this paying site to him.Too bad.
I've found a video here and there to be quite helpful, especially when I'm trying to rapidly learn something. For some this is the primary utility.
But as a long term learning resource, they're disjunct, inconsistent, and generally time consuming.
I've fallen in love with programming books which teach through code example. The one I've read most recently is "Node.js in Action". Love it.