As I previously noted in my last post, I have started to re-learn front end development. Some of you reading this may ask what I mean by “re-learn”. Even more of you may ask why I would even do such a thing. In this post, I will try to explain the answer to those questions and tell you about what resources I choose. As a bonus, I will also provide the fruits of my labor.
To the first question, the answer is simple. While in high school, I discovered programming and took my first computer science class. I really loved it. As a result, I started out college by majoring in computer science. I say started because I eventually changed my major to management information systems. While in college I worked for an insurance company and part of my job was to help develop and maintain the company website and online rating system.
To address the question of why I would do this, I really enjoyed web development and I would like to get back to doing web development, potentially as a freelancer. I made this decision as I was leaving my most recent position as head of product management for a software company. I decided that while I was looking for my next product lead opportunity, and since I try to instill the value of education in my children, I thought I would update my knowledge on a topic I enjoyed at the start of my career.
I think it's important for those of you reading this to understand where I left off in my previous front end development knowledge. When I last wrote any front end code, HTML5 did not exist and Microsoft was heavily pushing iframes. Anyone who has done any web development will know exactly what this means. For those that do not, think about any web page you visited in the last 1990s and you should understand what I mean. To ensure all of you really understand what I mean and thanks to the Wayback Machine, here is a sample of exactly what I am talking about.
Briefly, I also want to touch on the editor I previously used and compare against the editor I went with this time around. When I was writing HTML code for the website referenced above, I used EditPad. I am fairly sure I did this mostly for the tabbed view and the ability to move quickly from one file to another, as I made updates. When looking at the options today, I went with one recommendation from the course I am currently taking, Visual Studio Code. I knew I wanted an editor that would help me with auto formatting, and have contextual help, so I did not have to always look up functional and their parameters. I also really like the Live Server extension that allows me to see my updates in real time without having set up any hosting solutions. Visual Studio Code has allowed my learning efforts to be solely focused on writing code for now, and I would highly recommend using it.
As far as what learning resources I wanted to use, this was a harder decision to make. When I first started learning to do front end development, there were books you could read and expensive in-person courses you could take. While these are still valid options, I wanted to find something that was simple and costs effective. This is mainly because I knew I had all the background knowledge needed, and I did not necessarily need a live person to provide me with feedback to questions I may have. It is also important to note the amount of resources that are available today. Aside from the books that are out there, there are many YouTube videos that can aid you in your learning efforts.
After doing several hours of research, I went with a low cost, on-line learning resource. While there are many of these options, I found a course on Udemy that has most of the topics I wanted to tackle first. What was key was to find a course that would force me to relearn what I thought I already knew and provide me with the necessary knowledge to update what I have missed over the last 20 years. This led me to choose the course titled, "React JS - A Complete Guide for Frontend Web Development".
In the coming posts I will provide an ongoing review of this course, but for now I will leave you with a screenshot of my work below, from the final project of the first section of the course. You can also check it out by visiting the project I created on CodePen (a cool resource I will review at a later time).
What you will notice about this project is it is a very simple HTML page, liken to a time when I last did web development. I have come full circle.
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