Comment by ManuelKiessling | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ManuelKiessling | Hacker News Reader

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ManuelKiessling

Hi all,

I'm the author of The Node Beginner Book. Thanks for discussing it here.

Your input is a great help. I see the points WA makes regarding the bad things.

It's true that it's yet another Node tutorial chewing around on the web server / web app stuff; but I think for the people I'm addressing it's still the most useful scenario because it allows to understand how a full fledged app is put together, and is a great example to explain all of the fundamental concepts, new JavaScript ones and conventional ones (because it might makes sense to understand what stuff is done differently and what is done in a known fashion).

So nothing really new here - I hope where this tutorial differs is that it (arguably) might be the first "one-stop" tutorial for Node to get beginners started. Not more not less.

Every other resource I could find forced me to google around to fill the gaps - while this is not a bad thing per se, I think sometimes it's nice to have something that really guides you from A to Z.

Like, for example, http://ruby.railstutorial.org/. If I manage to create something that's only 10% as cool, I'm going to be very happy :-)

Hi there, thanks for this, I've been looking for something self-contained-ish to point friends to when asking about node.

One thing, the site is really messed up in browsers that aren't super wide. My browser is ~1100px wide and the size/positioning of the main content puts it off the right side of the window forcing me to scroll horizontally. I'm not sure why you have stuff like `margin-left: 160px;` in there. It would be a lot better to use `margin: 0 auto;` so people with small screens or unmaximized browsers wont be assaulted :)

Thanks again!

edit: To be clear, I'm suggesting:

    #book, #disqus_thread, #footer {
      /* your styles */
      margin: 0 auto;
      margin-top: 24px;
    }

Hi thenduks,

thanks for this one! I changed the CSS as you suggested and updated the site, it's now scroll-bar free down to 1000px.

Sweet, looks awesome.

Btw, on a positive stylistic note. I love the big container and big text. Too many sites these days have tiny microscopic text -- I couldn't read that stuff if my life depended on it, and my eyes are 20/20! :)

Yeah, I hate that too. The only thing even more evil are sites that present you a tiny font on mobile devices AND don't allow you to zoom.

But saying this, I have to admit while http://nodebeginner.org can be zoomed on the iPhone, the font could still be a bit bigger for my taste (but on the normal site it's ok how it is).

Any idea how to tell CSS that I want an even bigger font on Mobile Safari?

Indeed I do!

Try something like this to get started:

    -webkit-text-size-adjust: 160%;

Great, I'll give it a try! Thanks so much!

More node resources the better at the moment. A simple CRUD application guide would be very helpful. The java Play! Framework site has a really nice basic blog tutorial which is perfect for understanding the entire process.

I plan on starting my first node app in 6 weeks so please hurry up ;)

Here's a list of CRUD+ apps that I keep open in textmate to consult as examples:

I suck at formatting here; apologies in advance.

Alex Young's NodePad (from daily.js) (more than a simple CRUD app but helpful nonetheless)

  https://github.com/alexyoung/nodepad

Individual Node + Express examples by TJ (as mentioned in another post)

  https://github.com/visionmedia/express/tree/master/examples

Another basic Node+Express example (by TJ again)

  https://github.com/visionmedia/finance

Guillermo posted a CRUD with Express + Mongoose a few days ago

  https://github.com/guille/mongoose-meetup-04-05/

There's another VERY simple CRUD app somewhere in the Mongoose Google group as a zipfile(yes, this uses Mongoose as well obviously). I can't seem to find it right now, but I think Siegfried Ehret was the original poster. Email me if you'd like me to send it to you.

Also try nodetuts.com. Pedro's stuff helped me when I started learning a few months ago. Some of his stuff might be out-of-date but it will still help you conceptually (and not all of it is by any means). Some out-of-dateness will just be making simple code changes (like upgrading Express).

Hope this helps!

Hi,

6 weeks should be doable, I started the site last friday :-)

Well I really enjoyed what I see so far. Partially just from the great links you recommended!

If you do have a CRUD style app I always like being able to download the finished version for when I am stuck (which is often), nothing quite like looking at the entire code to see where I am going wrong.

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