Code Journey - Old Dog / New Tricks: Keeping It Real

Just a short update. I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to start posting regularly, and claimed that I would have a post on a particular date. That was a mistake on my part, as I'm not pro at pumping out content. But I am pro at learning code.

So to be real: I'm a developer first. What can you take away from this? Push comes to shove, I will (you should) stay in my (your) learning groove until it has run its course. If I can't socialize that on a well-formed blog post, that is secondary. But I absolutely want to help anyone I can. So I'm still trying to figure that out. Talk to me, I love to discuss everything coding.

What I've done in the last two weeks

• Udemy course on node.js (https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-nodejs-developer-course-2/)
• Udemy course on Vue.js (https://www.udemy.com/vuejs-2-the-complete-guide/)
• Built a dozen new projects to play around in these environments.
• Built and deployed placeholder node projects/git repos/Heroku apps for my intended new websites with domain names.

I can't emphasize enough how good and inexpensive the learning resources are. I used to have to pay tuition for this kind of learning. Now it is at your fingertips for a little over ten dollars per course. Sounds like a sales pitch. But I'm just a seasoned developer telling you that it is the best way to pick up a new coding language. Doesn't have to be Udemy, I've heard good things about Egghead.io

What exactly did I use and learn?

• How to use Visual Studio Code as my coding environment. (I can do any opensource that I want)
• Get my data science projects working in Visual Studio. (I just wanted to see if VSCode could handle it)
• How to use Github to store and back up my projects. (I use SVN at my job)
• How to use Heroku cloud platform to deploy my apps.
• How to use Postman to test my web service endpoints. (I've used SOAPUI)
• Node.js
  --- Express
  --- Mocha, Expect, & Supertest (For unit testing Node.js)
  --- MongoDB and Mongoose (The database)
  --- socket.io
  --- bcryptjs & node-jsonwebtoken
  --- and about a dozen more node modules
• Vue.js (The client-side /browser portion of the code.)

What I plan to learn/ building next

• Better integration/planning with combining multiple node projects.
• Develop a node class library / Express web service API.

Not too distant intention

• React.js Udemy course to compare against the Vue.js. I want this in my toolbelt.
• I will build my react projects on the same underlying node API as the Vue.js projects.

Like I've said before, I'm trying to figure out ways to help give new aspiring developers a hand. I'd like to do Twitch videos and a regular blog. But we see how that's going so far. So I will document and get better at the content delivery.

I am you.
I know where you're going.
I've been there before.
I know the way.
I know the roadblocks you're about to hit.
I know some of the shortcuts.
I know the conversations you're going to have with yourself.
I know the conversations you're having with yourself right now.
I believe in you.
I believe in you probably more than you believe in yourself.
I can get you there.