Learning Web Development Update

July 11, 2015  

Learning front end development is not something that happens instantly.For me this process has been enjoyable and also frustrating. Currently I am learning javascript by reading a couple of books and doing the examples from the text.

Javascript is challenging but not impossible. More recently I'm able to find the answers to my problems with js on the mozilla developers network at this web address: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/



This is a resourse that I found through the team treehouse course on front end web development. It took several trips to the MDN with the guidance of the tree house instructor to get the gist of how to use the information on the site, and of course I am still learning, but this has become part of my problem solving workflow. The next major component of learning javascript for me has been the console in the chrome developer tools. There are often times when I will attempt to run an application in the browser that I've written from an example in a book but the code doesn't work. In the event that the code fails, I immediately open the console by typing shift- ctrl- j  and check for errors. Most often these errors are 'unexpected token', where I have forgotten a curly bracket or a semi-colon, or the 'undefined' error where I have misspelled something. At this point my main debugging tool is the console in chrome developer tools.

Currently I have completed reading the first two chapters and am well on my way into the third of Professional Javascript for Web Developers by Nicholas C. Zakas. This book was copyrighted in 2012 and is slightly out of date here in mid 2015. The first two chapters were about the history of JS and the reading was a bit dry. Beginning JavaScript by Jeremy Mcpeak and Paul Wilton is the next book I am reading and I am mid way through chapter one. Already this book seems to flow better in the writing and easier to follow than Zakas but time will tell. Beginning JS fifth edition was copyrighted this year and so is current with all browser information and trends, so I feel good about that.

Today I finished chapter one of Javascript by Example Second Edition by Ellie Quigley. There is not much here in the first chapter but it feels like a good start. Later today I'll read the first chapter of Javascript for Kids by Morgan to get a feel for how that is going to go.

That's all for now. Cheers,

Jon