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Jakub T. Jankiewicz
Jakub T. Jankiewicz

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How to become Front-End Developer

In my option the best way to start your journey as a Developer (of any kind) is to start with Creative Coding in JavaScript (most popular programming language). You will learn coding right away, and not waste your time with HTML and CSS so you will know immediately if programming is for you. If you decide that you want to be Front-End developer you can learn them later.

With Creative Coding you will learn interesting stuff - to draw cool things with code. So it may be more accessible than normal courses on Front-End development, where it take a while before you can create something interesting.

There are few Creative Coding courses on Udemy:

Domestika

And Codecademy

After you finish with creative coding course (you can pick more than one, so to know more creative techniques) and you're wondering what to do next, read the article.

Overview

First are introduction videos from Fireship about general Computer Science, programming and Web Development. They are pretty condensed and fast pieced.

Creative Coding

If you want to just play with code, and create new thing and don't want to work as developer, or maybe no yet. You can start with Creative Coding. The Coding Train is great YouTube channel for learning new things related to programming Math, Graphics, AI, and Games with processing and P5.js library.

The Coding Train - YouTube

All aboard! The Coding Train is on its way with creative coding video tutorials on subjects ranging from the basics of programming languages like JavaScript to algorithmic art, machine learning, simulation, generative poetry, and more. Choo choo!

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This channel will teach you more about Vanilla JavaScript (without extra libraries like P5.js).

Franks laboratory - YouTube

Creative coding experiments, generative art & game development with vanilla JavaScript & HTML canvas. No frameworks and no libraries. Every project is explained line by line as I write the code using just plain vanilla JavaScript & HTML5 canvas element. If you want to SUPPORT me you can use the links below and get some one my EXTENDED classes! :) https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-creative-coding-with-vanilla-javascript/?referralCode=7C560D4661C5C59262BB https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-game-development-with-javascript/?referralCode=69874A38D543D7F510F2 https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-html-canvas-pixels-particles-physics/?referralCode=F7977062A4BC964A1F5E https://www.udemy.com/course/remake-retro-games-with-javascript/?referralCode=2ACCA21F16FE78E631F7 Get Skillshare FREE for 1 month: https://www.skillshare.com/en/r/profile/Frank-Dvorak/507488567?gr_tch_ref=on&gr_trp=on

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This chanel shows showcase interesting tutorials about P5.js.

Barney Codes - YouTube

I make games and creative coding tutorial videos. On this channel I'll share cool things I've learned and the projects I'm working on. You can expect to see videos on data structures, algorithms, graphics programming, game development and more! My videos are a mix of tutorials, that teach you how to create your own creative coding projects, and devlogs, that keep you up to date with my personal projects!

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Front-End

Here is a general overview of technologies that make up Front-End development (the stuff in web browser like Google Chrome or Firefox). This is a series of 100 seconds videos about this topic.

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

TypeScript

WASM

React

Next.js

PWA

SEO

HTML + CSS

If you want to find a job as a developer, you can follow the path of Front-End development. To do that you first need to learn about HTML and CSS, two fundamental pieces of Web platform. HTML is the structure and CSS is the style.

(This is video in Polish)

But this one is in English:

Also this one:

Just CSS

jQuery

When you know about HTML and CSS, next step is to make dynamic changes to style and DOM (Document Object Model - HTML representation in browser memory) with JavaScript. I would start with jQuery even that it's hard to find a job with that technology nowadays. But the interface of this library is so simple so it's easy to learn. Later you can learn Vanilla JavaScript or some framework like ReactJS (which is library but you don't usually use it alone).

(This is video in Polish)

JavaScript

If you're finished with jQuery and can do refresh on JavaScript.

Complete JavaScript course

Build Projects

Next Step is project based learning with Vanilla JavaScript.

Build games

Full 21 hours Front-End bootcamp

And this is combination of everything in one long video (don't worry you're not expected to watch it in one siting).

Description of the course

ReactJS

ReactJS is very popular library, if you know React you can much easier find a job as junior Front-End developer.

API

Last is learning about API (programming interfaces). If you know how API works you can work with Back-end developers in a team. This is very important if you want to find a job.

Learn: API Development using fun challenges (with solutions!) and interactive examples.

And that's it. If you like this post, you can follow me on twitter at @jcubic and check my home page.

Linux

It's good idea to learn Linux and Bash

Git

If you want to work as Front-End developer you need to know Git, version control system that is the standard.

TypeScript

TypeScript is a language build on top of JavaScript that is converted to JavaScript (this process is called compilation or transpilation). A lot of Front-End project are created in TypeScript.

Shorter Crash Course:

And longer more detailed:

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