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Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

howtocode.io

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Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#11

Post by frogpelt »

apsurd wrote: post #6

Constructive criticism: I think the video should be 100% about "what's in it for me" (the user). I understand the reason why you are introducing the people behind the project, but after 1minute in the video becomes "about howtocode.io" and less about "me". I closed the video after that to be honest. Again, I get that you are providing validation and answering "why should I trust you" but honestly, unless you can say…

What I picked up in the "whats in it for me" category was pretty much in the url. I'm going to learn "how to code". The video went on to explain that I specifically could learn HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery, and Ruby on Rails, with some programming basics, and Git usage thrown in--for free.

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#12

Post by exo_duz »

Currently this is the big thing on the Internet. Teaching people how to code.

I really believe "Knowledge empowers the person". So keep up the good work guys! The more learning experiences out there the better knowledgable about the Internet, web technologies for the public.

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#13

Post by benburton »

gyardley wrote: post #9
bstar77 wrote: post #2

I love the efforts to build these types of resources, I just hope this isn't redundant with Michael Hartl's tutorial. Also, I'm not a believer in TDD, especially with beginners. I find it tedious especially when prototyping an app, which I almost always do before starting a non-trivial project. Once my prototype works reasonably well, I do a refactor with good test coverage in an effort to produce production ready co…

Worse yet, the TDD in that tutorial didn't even use the standard test framework built into Rails - so you're taught from the start to use something non-standard. So irritating. I always recommend the Pragmatic Programmers book for new learners.

This is most certainly NOT a bad thing. The vast majority of Rails users prefer RSpec, so it's effectively the standard.

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#14

Post by wentkenko »

bstar77 wrote: post #10
wentkenko wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this series could be redundant as it's free and Michael's videos cost money. Michael's website also looks like one of those classic 2001 sales pitch/squeeze page which makes me doubt the quality of the tutorials.

The web version of hartl's is free. Don't prejudge the content based on the site design, it's as stellar resource.

Ah ok, the website I found didn't have any information for the free resource. I don't normally but it's just those squeeze page designs are shit.

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#17

Post by jaggederest »

benburton wrote: post #13
gyardley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse yet, the TDD in that tutorial didn't even use the standard test framework built into Rails - so you're taught from the start to use something non-standard. So irritating. I always recommend the Pragmatic Programmers book for new learners.

This is most certainly NOT a bad thing. The vast majority of Rails users prefer RSpec, so it's effectively the standard.

With minitest's spec format it's even available by default for ruby 2

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#18

Post by codingdave »

apsurd wrote: post #6

Constructive criticism: I think the video should be 100% about "what's in it for me" (the user). I understand the reason why you are introducing the people behind the project, but after 1minute in the video becomes "about howtocode.io" and less about "me". I closed the video after that to be honest. Again, I get that you are providing validation and answering "why should I trust you" but honestly, unless you can say…

I got the impression that they were not really trying to find customers, they instead were trying to gauge interest in the project. Nothing on the site gave me the impression that this was anything more than a web site soon to be a kickstarter page.

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#19

Post by _raul »

I'd like to see things like some hours of face-to-face mentoring per week (via skype or hangouts) and extra exercises and reviews in the Premium plans. There are almost no online resources providing such features, and I find them extremely important when teaching to beginners as I explained in a recent post: http://bit.ly/HjiCpm

Re: Learn Web Development: From Novice to Employable

#20

Post by dustingetz »

bstar77 wrote: post #2

I love the efforts to build these types of resources, I just hope this isn't redundant with Michael Hartl's tutorial. Also, I'm not a believer in TDD, especially with beginners. I find it tedious especially when prototyping an app, which I almost always do before starting a non-trivial project. Once my prototype works reasonably well, I do a refactor with good test coverage in an effort to produce production ready co…

Zero to employable is a different audience then "program a game for high school kids". I don't like TDD either but it can only help if you're new
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