So, today’s the day when I actually dive into web application and mobile development. Why is this important enough to blog about?

Well, I feel that something good will come out of this, and that it’s a large achievement. Regardless, of how the end product is, I already know that it will be something to be proud of.

Shouldn’t that be how we live all of our days? How great is it to have put time, and still be putting time into something, that you KNOW you will be happy about. That’s been a rare feeling for myself, often in a sea of absolute confusion, but perhaps, it’s also the reason why I’ve been more or less happy with my life choices up to this point.
Maybe it’s just an outlook on life, and the concept is that you should be proud of your journey regardless?
The journey itself has been very informative, although I still feel as if I know absolutely nothing about programming. The reason why I say my dev journey starts today is that I feel I have learnt enough that I can start building my program(in the most hack job way possible). Hack job meaning it won’t turn out like shit, but I will be struggling along the way to make it happen.

I don’t have intention of creating a true dedicated blog to development, and how to’s, but I’ll list how I’ve gotten to this point, and what I liked, and didn’t like.

BALLS DEEP BABY! (Always) 

It Ain’t Clear Cut

Layed off in October, and the dev journey started in December (when I actually started reading things about programming). Here were some questions I had about programming, most of them still exist today.

Time

I’d say, don’t consider time commitment as such a big thing. YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FEET WET. If you’re willing to just start Googling terms, or researching “how to learn”, you’re probably in a good spot and you’re already starting the process of learning (also in the most organic manner possible).

If you’re stuck assessing, oh, do I have enough time to do this? I’d wager a guess, it will be difficult for you to start, whether it’s because you are unfortunately so busy, or maybe it’s just not something you’re that into.

Once again, my motivations were coming from me wanting to learn how to develop a mobile application, and this interest had me randomly Googling snippets on super broad topics like, “How to take a picture, Android”.

As for development, I’ve only learnt aspects of front end developing and it’s February 23, 2016. I have not learnt back end development (things to organize your data, especially on a server), but have a decent understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (which later led into AngularJS, which later led into the Ionic Framework and Cordova).

Where to Start and What to Learn?

This is the hardest question of all of them, with a lot of developers online providing cheap answers that come from their years of developing.

If you have access to developer friends, ask them. If you don’t, Google it. Stack Overflow is a great place to start, but too date, I still haven’t figured out if I learnt “the right thing”, but here’s what I do have to say:

1. 1. JavaScript is the language of the future (somewhat, at least in terms of web technology) – The internet is evolving very rapidly, and the need for JavaScript programmers is at an all-time high.
   2. JavaScript is a language, after that you have to decide what framework you want to use! – Phew, it keeps getting more complicated! Yes, but there’s a good thing to this: if you’re looking to develop hybrid mobile apps (Ionic), native mobile apps (React Native), or web applications (React, AngularJS, etc.), all of these use JavaScript!
   3.  You can pretty much program anything in any framework – One thing, which I have yet to test, is that you can pretty much program anything in any framework, as said by my friend Joshua Pinter. You kinda, just need to get started. There will be caveats and strengths to every language.
   4. It’s hard to tell if a language is the “right language”, unless you have someone who is very experienced in programming, and willing to listen to your every requirement and advise you. – The thing is you likely don’t even have any idea what you need to do to make “it” happen anyways. So it’s a catch 22. The thing is, the more you put time into it, the more clear it will be whether you can work with the technology you are learning, or whether you should jump ship onto something else.
   5. If you don’t know, you won’t know what you don’t know, till you know.
   6. Hybrid vs. Native Mobile Development – Native meaning: Swift for iOS, and Java for Android. Hybrid meaning using web technology (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and wrapping it in a native language so it can mimic a native app (essentially a shortcut). As you can guess, shortcuts don’t get you too far. It will all depend on the feel you want your app to have, and whether the PhoneGap/Cordova plugins can satisfy your needs as a developer. If you’re looking for specific functionality (as I was), it might be better to learn a native language (Oops!).

For my development journey I used the following:

1. http://javascriptissexy.com/ – Oh yeah, this was a great resource. Textbook (see link) was great as well.
2. codecademy.com – JavaScript, HTML and CSS tracks.
3. https://thinkster.io/a-better-way-to-learn-angularjs – A decent, long, dry look at AngularJS. I’m curious if there’s something better, but it most definitely covered the fundamentals, and better than my attempt to read “Professional AngularJS” by the Wrox Publisher (definitely not a good intro level textbook).
4. https://thinkster.io/ionic-framework-tutorial – A decent take on the Ionic Framework
5. https://www.udemy.com/ionic-from-web-to-mobile/learn/ – I wanted to take a look into Udemy, a popular online learning tool. I liked using it in conjunction with step 4, but I wouldn’t rely on it solely alone. I feel it would’ve brought little value overall, until I had done the Thinkster tutorial.

Thoughts of a ho… Now you know…