DEV Community: CamiKuro.js

What I've learnt in 1 month of programming

CamiKuro.js — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:47:33 +0000

My journey has been a radical transformation from someone who knew absolutely nothing about this area to someone with a solid foundation, and I'm excited to share every step of it with you in this article. So, let's dive into the concepts I've mastered so far!

Starting from Scratch
Concepts I've Mastered So Far
- Open Source
- The Basics: HTML, CSS and JS
- Documenting My Journey
- Git and GitHub
- Linux Basics
- HTTP Protocol
Conclusion

Starting from Scratch

Less than a month ago, I was completely clueless about coding languages, programming, or anything related to coding. I mean, I had a vague notion that it was a profession, and lots of people did it, but for me, it was like, "Developers? How do they even survive? Where do they work? Do they exist for real?" LOL, I was pretty much in the dark.

Then, I attended my first tech event called Frontin Sampa, and something clicked in my head. I decided right then and there: "I'm going to dive into programming and switch up my career." I even shared more details about this journey in this article (it's in Portuguese, by the way).

So, with zero prior knowledge, I embarked on my programming journey armed with a basic roadmap that proved to be incredibly helpful for a newbie like me. The best part? It had loads of free resources to pick up along the way!

In addition to learning the basics of front-end programming, I dedicated myself to understanding the concept of open source, which was one of the talks I watched in the tech event and was completely amazed by.

Another crucial part of my journey was becoming an active member of a tech community. Today, I'm proudly part of He4rt Developers, a thriving community. Inside, we have insightful discussions on important topics, collaborative projects, weekly meetings, and beginner-friendly free projects to work on.

But wait, there's more! From the second week of my studies, I started getting some guidance and exploring more complex topics (well, for those in the know, it's probably not that complex, right?). I had a great grasp of the front-end, but when I ventured into the back-end... oh boy, it was like an avalanche of code.

Moreover, what has encouraged me to study every day is the "100 Days of Code" challenge, created by the He4rt Devs community. This challenge encouraged me to share what I learned and track my progress every day.

In my mentoring sessions, I dived into concepts like HTTP, Linux, the difference between Git and GitHub, and got a brief introduction to database modeling. It might seem like a lot to cover in such a short period, but I managed to grasp the basics, and now I'm going to break it all down for you!

Concepts I've Mastered So Far

Open source

My journey began with exploring the concept of "open source," which is a software licensing model that allows anyone to access the source code. In simpler terms, it means that anyone can tinker with, modify, contribute to, and distribute the code according to the specific terms of its license.

At that point, I thought, "Alright, I get the concept, but show me some examples!" So, I continued my research and learned more about the open-source Linux operating system. Don't worry; I'll talk about Linux in a bit. Another example of open source is the participation of companies, even tech giants, in open source projects and their use of open source software in their daily operations.

Working with open source has its perks, such as transparency, collaboration, and the creation of vibrant communities that work together on projects openly.

The Basics: HTML, CSS and JS

Next up on my journey was diving into the basics of programming, starting with the iconic "hello world." Thanks to that roadmap I mentioned earlier, I knew exactly where to begin. I kicked off my HTML studies with a comprehensive online course, where I learned the coding terminology, the actual code, and how to use it properly to command the desired outcomes. HTML is what lays the foundation of a website. It uses "tags" to define elements like headings, paragraphs, and images, telling the browser how to display them on the page.

Then, I moved on to CSS, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the journey. Having the power to change every visual aspect of a website is just mind-blowing, and with each lesson, as I learned something new, I'd experiment to see if it made sense and, of course, if it worked (and it totally does, by the way). CSS is responsible for the look and style of HTML content. With it, you can tweak colors, font sizes, spacing, and even the position of elements on the page, making everything look stunning and organized.

Finally, JavaScript entered the scene, and I thought I'd seen cool stuff before, but this was on another level. JavaScript is what brings a website to life, making it interactive. You can create buttons that do something when clicked, update parts of the page without reloading everything, and so much more.

Documenting My Journey

While I was diving into HTML, I also started online mentoring sessions on other subjects. During these sessions, I learned the importance of taking notes in a bullet-point format as I went along, making it super easy to reference later. I also learned how to create notes in markdown and realized why we see "md" at the end of files like "README.md." Plus, most of these mentorships were conducted in English, which helped me improve my technical vocabulary and conversational skills.

Git and GitHub

In one of my mentoring sessions, we dove into the differences between Git and GitHub, along with the jargon associated with both:

* Git
    * Tool for versioning your codebase
    * Terminology:
        * Repository (project) - getting-started
            * Branches (environments inside a project)
                * Commits - (changes into the codebase)
* GitHub
    * (Cloud Environment) Host the repository
    * Issues - Place to discuss bug, glitch, improvements, fixes, ideas or w/e
    * Pull Request - Submit changes into the codebase (in different branch/fork)
* Setup my GitHub account
    * create a READ.md 
    * add commits

"Git" is a critical tool for version control that enables developers to collaborate effectively on projects, while "GitHub" is the platform that hosts Git repositories and simplifies teamwork. Learning these tools gave me the ability to contribute to open source projects and share my code with the community.

Linux Basics

The next topic in my mentoring journey was the Linux operating system, which is open source, meaning the source code is freely accessible for anyone to view, modify, and distribute. With this openness, a large community of developers and enthusiasts can contribute to its development and create their own versions based on the Linux kernel. Some popular Linux distributions include Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, and CentOS.

Just like with other mentorships, my notes looked something like this:

* Linux 101
    * Distributions
        * Kernel, Package Manager, Drivers, Tools/Tooling and Shell
        * Graphic Environment: 
            * Gnome (Ubuntu)
            * Kubuntu (KDE)
            * OS X (Plasma)
            * Link to [UnixPorn] (https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn)

After getting a grasp of the theory, it was time to get hands-on. Using the command "cat .bashrc," I could view all the existing commands. So, I decided to create one more command by accessing "nano .bashrc" and voila!

HTTP Protocol

To wrap up the concepts I've covered, let me explain HTTP, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It's the glue that connects the client and server in web interactions. The client could be your web browser, a mobile app, or anything that uses HTTP. The server, on the other hand, is where a request is sent, and a response is received.

Whenever we request data or services from a server, it can respond with status codes represented by numbers. You've probably heard of "404" which means "not found", but there are others like "201 - Created" and "500 - Internal Server Error." During one of my mentoring sessions, I was given a website that showcased all these status codes with kitten memes and a brief description. It was fantastic and helped me grasp each one of those statuses better.

HTTP also uses verbs like "GET" to get information and "POST" to send or publish data to a server. Also, it can work with JSON, a document model usually used for analyzing and transforming data. This makes HTTP a fundamental protocol for all our online activities.

Conclusion

After one month of daily coding, exploring concepts, and engaging in activities, I can confidently say that I've transformed from someone who knew absolutely nothing about this field to someone with a solid foundation. And you know what? I'm thrilled to share all of it with you in this article.

One of my next steps is definitely to hone my practical and technical skills (you know, more coding), and who knows, maybe even apply for a job in this field. The career transition is already underway, and I couldn't be more excited!

Uma Produtora de TV no mundo DEV!

CamiKuro.js — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 01:00:25 +0000

Decidi escrever esse artigo pra praticar redação e também deixar uma marca nessa plataforma que vem me ajudando nos meus estudos de programação há um tempo.

1. 'Primeiros Passos' como Comunicadora

Minha história com a área de comunicação social começou cedo, aos 13 anos, quando descobri que existiam pessoas que expressavam suas artes através de fotos bem editadas, desenhos e vídeos e o fato mais extraordinário nisso tudo, elas ganhavam a vida fazendo o que gostavam!

Desde então passei a pesquisar mais sobre produção de conteúdo e passei a produzir meus próprios conteúdos para a internet. Criei um canal no youtube e alimentei a ideia de trabalhar com isso.

2. Trilha de uma Produtora de TV

No ensino médio, descobri a faculdade de Rádio, TV e Internet, e as áreas de atuação envolviam fotografia, filmagens, produção de vídeos e a área de rádio. Passei no vestibular de Radio e TV e cursei os 4 anos na esperança de trabalhar um dia com televisão. Durante o período da faculdade, apliquei para múltiplas empresas de comunicação até que consegui meu primeiro estágio como âncora, editora e publicadora do 'Jornal da Tarde'.

Os primeiros meses me enchiam os olhos, eu estava maravilhada com os bastidores e como funcionava o mundo da televisão. Adquiri experiência em produção de programas, coloquei em prática o que aprendi na faculdade e estava tudo indo bem. Acontece que o ambiente não é o dos melhores e comecei a me sentir muito desgastada e entretanto numa vida automática...

Aquilo que eu sempre amei fazer, que é produzir conteúdo estava perdendo o sentido dado o ambiente que eu estava, e isso me fez querer buscar novas possibilidades e eu encontrei algo que gostei muito na área de tecnologia. Sim! Sempre tem uma esperança pra gente trilhar <3

3. Virando a chave: comunidades de T.I

Após conversar com pessoas próximas a mim sobre a minha situação, ouvi algumas sugestões, sendo alguma delas:

Fazer uma nova faculdade;
Criar uma 'produtora independente';
e tentar o mundo de tecnologia/programação.

[...] e sinceramente? Achei todas as possibilidades bem impossíveis naquele momento, já que eu estava sem muita força pra continuar. Porém uma coisa bem importante que mudou tudo foi que: meu namorado dá aulas gratuitas de inglês em uma comunidade de pessoas desenvolvedoras chamada He4rt Developers há muito tempo e eu nunca tive tempo pra dar uma olhada no conteúdo em si.

No primeiro dia que entrei na He4rt eu fiquei COMPLETAMENTE EM CHOQUE, vi a comunidade se movimentando e fazendo coisas bem fora do comum, que foram:

Revisões de conteúdos publicados por membros:
Livestreams quase que diárias pra ensinar pessoas leigas (engual eu klk);
Reuniões semanais pra debater projetos internos e externos
Engajamento em redes sociais para ajudar na divulgação de conteúdos
e mais um monte de coisa que eu vou deixar você descobrir indo lá na comunidade :p

Querendo ou não, ver mais de 150 pessoas numa segunda feira, dentro de um servidor do Discord se organizando pra fazer coisas realmente boas foi algo que me inspirou a estar contribuindo.

O mais sensacional foi que no primeiro dia, entrei na reunião e eles estavam falando sobre um evento de tecnologia super produzido e estavam dando ingressos pras pessoas que gostariam de ir num evento pela primeira vez e eu, que acabei de chegar no rolê, consegui o meu. MANO HAHAHA!

4. Meu primeiro evento tech

Conseguindo o ingresso, eu fiquei ansiosa num nível que era completamente sem explicação. Chegando no evento, que foi o Front In Sampa, eu juro que nunca vi tanta gente que gostava da mesma coisa junta antes.

Todo lugar que eu parava pra observar era alguém falando alguma coisa que eu não entendia, alguma tecnologia etc mas eu ainda sim tava muito animada.

Assisti a palestra da Tatiana Barros sobre Open Source, do danielhe4rt sobre a profissão de Developer Advocate e todas as várias outras palestras que foram rolando no evento enquanto a galera da comunidade ia me apresentando a pessoas e cada vez indo mais. No fim do dia eu decidi e coloquei uma coisa na minha cabeça: eu preciso mudar de área e isso aqui é realmente o que eu quero fazer.

5. Finalização

Esse artigo foi escrito pra que eu me lembre o por quê de eu estar nessa correria toda aprendendo Linux, Back-end, Front-end e coisas que até dois meses atrás eu nem sabiam que existia.

Espero que você tenha gostado e eu posso dizer com toda propriedade do mundo: existe espaço pra todo mundo em tecnologia. E que provavelmente a He4rt pode te apoiar nessa jornada.

Obrigada por ler até aqui, e até a próxima!