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A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

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Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#31

Post by LargeWu »

varrock wrote: post #16
temporaryvector wrote: post #15

This is a very well done and pretty comprehensive tutorial. However, there are plenty of pretty good basic web development tutorials out there, and few, if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices. As the websit…

This is the crux to my imposter syndrome. Luckily, I work with people that specialize in this, but it limits my personal growth quite a bit. I really need to figure this portion out.

Part of the problem is that it's become a completely different and independent body of knowledge. And you often have to learn a how a specific hosting stack (AWS, or whatever) works on top of that.

Some people find it really interesting. Personally, my eyes glaze over when I try to learn that stuff. It's literally the most boring stuff in the world to me. Oh, I'm supposed to be able to figure out why our DNS configuration is working because I also wrote some database queries 10 levels up in the stack? No thank you, I'd rather just find a new career.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#32

Post by ianamartin »

ktpsns wrote: post #17

I'm not a native speaker and maybe overstress my understanding of "being hard", but CSS and especially HTML are famous for their simplicity. One can start basic markupped text with a basic text editor in minutes. Of course any advanced features require some learning. But I don't like people calling basic web publishing technologies (which are decades old) to be "hard". Because they are designed to be simple and that'…

All technologies aim to make some certain aspects of things "simple". But all technologies end up being hard once your problem space gets bigger than the space the technology has successfully made simple. And real world situations are always bigger problem spaces than any technology can map to a simple solution.

Sure, HTML and CSS are very simple to get started with, but they get complicated and hard pretty quickly. Just like almost every technology. I think maybe the one class of technologies that this doesn't apply to is academically functional programming languages. I don't think they are simple to get started with. But once you do obtain proficiency with them, the difference between basic and advanced usage isn't as large.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#33

Post by snowwrestler »

radiator wrote: post #22
varrock wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the crux to my imposter syndrome. Luckily, I work with people that specialize in this, but it limits my personal growth quite a bit. I really need to figure this portion out.

Yeah, just rent a VPS for a month for $5, install an OS, install a (software) web server on it, acquire a subdomain for free (or buy your own domain) then edit the configuration of the web server to respond to requests for different domains and to enable HTTPS.

I laughed at this, so I hope it was intended to be sarcastic.

I know how to do those things, but even so, the thought of doing all that just to get a little side project online gives me a sense of dread. It’s not what I would call fun.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#35

Post by linuxftw »

snowwrestler wrote: post #33
radiator wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just rent a VPS for a month for $5, install an OS, install a (software) web server on it, acquire a subdomain for free (or buy your own domain) then edit the configuration of the web server to respond to requests for different domains and to enable HTTPS.

I laughed at this, so I hope it was intended to be sarcastic. I know how to do those things, but even so, the thought of doing all that just to get a little side project online gives me a sense of dread. It’s not what I would call fun.

Yeah, I'm with you. For static pages, I like gitlab. For other things, there's always google-app-engine or similar services.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#36

Post by linuxftw »

lpellis wrote: post #27

This looks pretty good. I had a lot of people tell me they get stuck following most basic tutorials since they all assume some level of basic knowledge that you forget you even have if you work in the field (stuff like 'where to put these files', or even that you can view your file in a browser by doubleclicking it). I even wrote a very basic getting started guide myself ( https://medium.com/@lpellis/getting-started-…

Yes, we used to call these 'basic computer skills' but many people don't have them.

Do you think you could buy a car that needed new piston rings and replace them successfully if you've only ever driven a car? Someone can give you the manual, but you'll be like "What's a torque wrench?" Why should PCs be any different?

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#37

Post by halfjoking »

snowwrestler wrote: post #33
radiator wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just rent a VPS for a month for $5, install an OS, install a (software) web server on it, acquire a subdomain for free (or buy your own domain) then edit the configuration of the web server to respond to requests for different domains and to enable HTTPS.

I laughed at this, so I hope it was intended to be sarcastic. I know how to do those things, but even so, the thought of doing all that just to get a little side project online gives me a sense of dread. It’s not what I would call fun.

I have trouble setting up servers and database instances while being a full-time professional developer. At work the DevOps people handle that, but still I should be able to do it on my own.

I hate to imagine how hard it is for someone who has never typed 'cd' or 'ls' in a terminal.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#38

Post by eralps »

temporaryvector wrote: post #15

This is a very well done and pretty comprehensive tutorial. However, there are plenty of pretty good basic web development tutorials out there, and few, if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices. As the websit…

> if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices.

I consider this the seperating difference between a good and bad tutorial.

Re: A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners (2017)

#39

Post by draw_down »

ktpsns wrote: post #17

I'm not a native speaker and maybe overstress my understanding of "being hard", but CSS and especially HTML are famous for their simplicity. One can start basic markupped text with a basic text editor in minutes. Of course any advanced features require some learning. But I don't like people calling basic web publishing technologies (which are decades old) to be "hard". Because they are designed to be simple and that'…

CSS famous for simplicity? Surely you jest.
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