Name: How to Become a Web Developer: A Field Guide
Price: 69.00 USD
Availability: InStock

What we think of How to Become a Web Developer: A Field Guide:

How to Become a Web Developer teaches the foundation of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and GIT. The almost 350 pages book is a good way to start of your learning experience.

You’ll learn the difference between language, framework and libraries as well as an introduction to many languages. The ones you’ll get an introduction to are:
Java
Python
PHP
C
C++
C#
TypeScript
ShellScript
Ruby

After the introduction on these languages you’ll also get to know where to turn for free or cheap books and courses to learn these languages.

You’ll also learn to use DevTools, Terminal and an short introduction to SQL.

There is more to the book than what I’ve written here but these are the most essential.

How to Become a Web Developer: A Field Guide is a great start to learn coding. There is a lot of basic information here that you’ll need further on when you want to learn at a higher level.

Imagine:

Not feeling intimidated when you need to write JavaScript code
Being able to know for yourself which programming language you should learn
Understanding what skills are required to get a job as a programmer
Having a clear, straightforward learning path to becoming a programmer
Getting your first job offer to work as a web developer

Today, I want to be your guide and show you the shortest path to becoming a web developer.

I’ll teach you:

What a web page is made out of
How CSS and JavaScript work together to create “apps”
The difference between “front-end” and “back-end” development
The every-day skills that real web developers use in their jobs

A Field Guide to a New Career

Learn how to become a web developer

How to Become A Web Developer: A Field Guide is a book that introduces you to the field of web development. We explain what it takes to get a job as a web developer – and what you can do to become one.

How to Become a Web Developer: A Field Guide is a 9-lesson course that introduces you to the fundamental tools in web developer’s day-to-day work.

This book will show you how to get started in web development – and how to avoid wandering down dead-ends.

Chapters:

0. How to Get the Most Out of This Book

In this chapter, we set your expectations: how much time reading the book and working through the exercises will take. We discuss the type of reader you might be, from the aspiring web developer to the person just looking to understand the topics better, this book is written for the beginner.

We talk about how to read this book and what the Exercises will require of you. We have worked hard to make the Exercises easy to follow. We use a lot of screenshots so you focus on learning instead of figuring out how to follow along.

We also talk about the outline of each chapter. Each chapter ends with a “Considerations for Further Study” section where we suggest follow up topics and resources to explore.

Additionally, we discuss how to reach out for help if you have a question.

1. Setup and Tooling

This chapter prepares us with the necessary tools used in the Exercises throughout the book.

We first walk you through how to use the Chrome DevTools. Next, we have you download a free text-editor and do some short exercises to get you familiar with its basic layout.

Lastly, we talk briefly about Operating Systems, specifically Windows vs. macOS. Both Windows and macOS users will be able to participate in all the Exercises in the book.

2. What is a Web Page?

This chapter is an introduction to HTML, the foundational language of the web. We will learn what HTML is used for, and do Exercises in both the DevTools and text-editor to get more comfortable with the HTML syntax.

The Exercises start by working through what a Markup language is, and then slowly progress through the HTML syntax. We use both the DevTools and text-editor to get comfortable changing and writing HTML.

The focus, as with all Chapters in this book, stays on teaching the concepts – the why and how – rather than having you memorize HTML elements or various definitions. The goal is to show the reader how the browser and HTML language work together to display a web page.

3. Using CSS to Add Style

The previous chapter was all about HTML, the structure of a web page. In this chapter, we’ll be focusing on CSS, the style.

CSS is another markup language that works with HTML and the browser to give the HTML style, such as colors, different fonts, and positioning. We explore these concepts through Exercises, again using the DevTools and text-editor.

We also learn about the DevTools’ Styles pane and learn some of its more handy features. We use the Styles pane to learn more about Selector Specificity. Selector Specificity is an important concept that even experienced web developers struggle with because they haven’t taken the time to understand it; we will.

The last Exercise in this chapter, we explore how you add CSS to a web page, and show why you might choose one method over another.

4. JavaScript

In this chapter, we move away from Markup languages and cover our first Programming Language: JavaScript.

As you come to learn, JavaScript is everywhere. We will take a closer look at why JavaScript is everywhere, and what the web feels like without it. Hint: it’s not that great.

We then explore the JavaScript syntax using the DevTools’ Console panel. We use our text-editor to explore what “interactivity” looks like and how we can use JavaScript to make a web page interactive.

We cover JavaScript Element Selectors, Event Listeners, Variables, Arrays, and Objects. All key concepts in learning JavaScript, but more importantly, key concepts that are foundational to all major programming languages.

5. Programming Languages

The last three chapters – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – were dense. I fire-hosed 🚒 you a little, and I apologize if you feel a bit wobbly on your feet.

This chapter is less Exercise heavy and should be a more casual read. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the core-language trio of web development. The language(s) you choose to study after mastering this trio will depend a lot on where in web development you want to go. The Programming Languages chapter focuses on this discussion; introducing you to the top ten Programming Languages.

We end the chapter by reviewing resources to help you search for web development jobs. And more importantly, how to read through these job postings, deciphering the skills that are really being asked for in the position.

In all honesty, this chapter is my favorite. But, I am also a touch of a motorhead. Which, as you’ll come to see why, may have influenced my fondness for this chapter.

6. Terminal

The terminal is one of the most important tools you will learn to use as a future web developer. But before we begin to use it, we need to learn how it works, and what makes it special. In this discussion, we talk about Shells, GUIs, and CLIs. These are concepts that are often skirted over but are crucial if you want to understand how the terminal works. Spending time on these details will also bring a lot of concepts together, resulting in an “ah … now I get it! 💡” moment.

In this chapter, you learn how to open and run popular commands inside of the terminal. We generate our own “note-taking” file where, from here out, we start recording notes about the commands we’ll learn about.

We also cover a very important but often overlooked discussion on file paths. Similar to grammar’s “effect” vs. “affect,” people don’t really know the difference between the different types of file paths, they guess and hope for the best 🤞. We take the guessing out of the equation, clearly explaining the difference and setting you up to be a master terminal user.

7. Git and Version Control

With our new-found skills in the terminal, we are now ready to use one of developers’ most beloved tools: Git. Git is a version control tool, helping developers keep all their files and changes organized. Sounds boring? I promise it’s not; it is actually very impressive.

Git is a tool that web developers use daily. Git eventually becomes such second nature it’s easy to take it for granted. We spend a little bit of time looking at Git’s history, and competitive edge, helping us appreciate its power and what it does for us.

From there, we work through Git’s general workflow using the terminal. Once we have the workflow down, we spend a bit more time understanding exactly what a Git commit is. Hint: it’s the key to what makes Git so powerful.

We then move on to look at the power of branching, Git’s ability to never forget, and Git in the cloud.
During this chapter’s exercises, you will have created a GitHub profile. Git and GitHub are different tools you often find paired together. We finish the chapter by creating a Pull Request that will be reviewed and accepted by the author. This will be your first step towards creating a GitHub presence.

8. Frontend and Backend Web Development

This is the last chapter to introduce new concepts and Exercises. We have covered the main subjects of web development, and are now at a fork in the road. This fork, the separation between Backend and Frontend, is what we discuss in this chapter.

We look at why this split occurred, how the separation did not always exist, and what this means for you and your future job searching. We breakdown the different components between the Frontend and Backend, making it very clear what constitutes the Backend vs. the Frontend.

We introduce you to APIs and use various Exercises to explore how APIs aid in the communication between the Backend and Frontend. We end this chapter by creating our own APIs using Node.js for the Backend and JavaScript, HTML and CSS for the Frontend.

9. The Web Developer’s Field Guide

This last chapter takes all the topics we’ve learned and puts them into a Field Guide that visually represents the next steps.

You will have access to an 11 X 17 pdf Field Guide. On the Field Guide, there are time estimates for additional studying and time spent on projects. Additionally, I break down each of these “trail posts” to discuss the following:

Skill level
Project Suggestions
Estimated hours spent
Frontend vs. Backend.

“A wonderful introduction to the basics of front end development. I could have really used this book when I was starting to transition into technology and coding websites on my own without a technical background… This book should be your first read if you are considering…See Full Description by pressing the image below.