What coding language should I learn first?
I don't know about you but I am a frequent flyer of the r/learnprogramming subreddit. One of the posts I see the most is "What coding language should I learn first?" While I'm by no means a professional, my answer to any and everyone is the same,"the one you start with it". I actually had to take my own advice this week. I have an amazing fellow at my work who is hosting a little Python class biweekly. To include homework and all. When it first started I was so pumped. I was like OH YEAH, I'm gonna learn JavaScript and Python at the same time.
FULL STOP
What I am doing? It only took a few lessons to realize, that advice I was giving others, that advice I'd hear and read over and over again was so true. I need to slow down and learn the first thing I started with. JavaScript. Python isn't going anywhere right now, and it'll be easier to get a grip on once I learn my one language first. So I call my "instructor" friend and tell him what's up. He already knew I was trying to learn to code and was concentrating on web-development. He wholeheartedly agreed.
What HAVE I been learning?
We just started touching on Node.js, an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime. I learned that computers don't translate JavaScript directly, but there is an engine inside the browser, the JavaScript V8 engine, that is written in C++. The V8 engine compiles our JavaScript into machine code. Net Ninja on YouTube has a great little Intro to Node course if you want to learn more. I'm chipping through it now.
I can create a server with simple HTTP and FS requests listening on a port channel. And even managed to manipulate the DOM for a coin flip server side with some help from a GREAT 100Devs stream team member Mayanwolfe.
Even on days where I feel like I'm not making any progress, I just have to look at how far I've come. I'll continue to build small apps to practice what I'm learning and review my ANKI cards. Pushing through that "what am I going to build" has been hard. I know what I like and enjoy but I want to make something that helps not just me but others too. I want to do a little series on what I'm building when the time comes. For now, you get to see me for me. Just a girl trying to learn to code and make it in this world!
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