2020's crisis gave me the time to really get on with learning on how to code. I started out with learning full-stack web development which was a great experience on the whole but on the last few modules the course was not so deep diving as it was in the first modules which covered the frontend(HTML/CSS/Bootstrap/JS/Jquery) in great depth.
Halfway into the course python got introduced and loved it on first sight, especially when used with Sql/DB's , flask and django.
I was amazed by all off the power of python and wanted to get to the bottom of it on how it all worked and how I could use it to really get a good sense of the back-end.
Sadly , the back-end part of the course was not as comprehensive as it was in the front-end part. The focus was mainly to learn just enough to get some interactive shopping web application working, commercially focused really.
Don't get me wrong i'd love to make a business with coding but my first and foremost motivation is to gain knowledge.
So I learned to make a small app with a database , a flask chat app that runs on heroku and a taskmanager. It was fun but after the end of the course I did not feel like I really remembered on how to do that stuff again.
I took a short break from learning and being in front of the screen all day, because as you can imagine I was slightly disappointed in myself and I needed to recharge my motivations.
Some time later on I picked up things again and found some great python courses and soon found the love back again.
The previous course had missed a lot of fundamental syntax that now make it all work so much better.
However , I still would like to learn JS a bit better then only just the interactive front-end part .
So this causing some mix ups in my brain when it comes to use of certain syntax. Of course a lot code-grammar is very much alike but it can be a lot to process all these subtle but crucial differences.
To give you an example classes in python work very much the same as in JS , so that really helps you to switch fast in your thinking process. I already thought of making a visual aid with an example code in python and in javascript to hang up in the room.
So share with me your thoughts and ideas on this subject!
This is my first post by the way , so let me have it ;)
Jos
Top comments (1)
Hey Jos, welcome to Dev!
Although I have a CS degree and learned some languages in college, my journey (~6 years) in the Web dev scene was very similar to yours.
I too started by following tutorials from simple html, css and js then moved to jquery and bootstrap. After that I started tinkering with the backend and using PHP and MySQL. Later I learned Python and Django. I am currently working for about 3 years as a full-stack developer.
I faced some of your issues too and I still face them sometimes. It's difficult to learn multiple languages at the same time and I still get confused sometimes and mix up js with python syntax 😛.
What I found helping was to focus on building something that I really like and learn through creating small and progressively bigger websites. The web dev field is vast and you could easily get distracted with the new stuff that gets out every week. While learning try to stick with the basics e.g. vanilla js/ Jquery, Flask/Django, css (possibly with a framework) and create as much as you can with them. Then, when you feel ready dive in deeper with a Javascript framework (Vue, React, Angular, Svelte and many many more) or with another backend language. In the position that you are right now, having some knowledge of both frontend and backend I would suggest that you start building your own website and focus on either the backend first and then on the frontend.
Don't get discouraged by the mix ups, they happen to everyone.
Hope this helps, keep learning & creating!
✌