Emily KingA kingdom for a get into coding school that doesn't prioritise front-end coding for web pages.
(Near enough every single get into tech through coding ad I see on places like Facebook or Instagram are about learning HTML, CSS and maybe JavaScript.)
Russell Garner@emkingma what do people want to get into coding for these days, in your experience? (It was easy for me, I wanted to write games in 1981, but I am now comprehensively out of touch)
@rgarner well, if the copy of these ads are to be believed, it's to escape low paid jobs that aren't WFH. Considering that low-code web platforms like SquareSpace and Wix are increasingly popular, it seems to me that promoting front-end web development learning isn't going to be something that leads to a profitable career.
@emkingma so it's less about "I want to do project X with code" and more about "I want to learn enough generalised concepts that I can start a successful new career"?
Ah, right, I misunderstood about "front-end" — I tend to take that to include — indeed, prioritise — JavaScript, and often React, and you really *can* have a career in that (although I often bemoan it because I don't like what React has done to the modern web).
@emkingma I think any modern career has web elements as its foundation, so HTML/CSS are necessary, but they are an adjunct, not the whole thing.
Have you looked into anything like #RailsGirls? That initiative tends to combine real code with the HTML/CSS outputs while also being welcoming, although it's not a school, exactly.
@emkingma the state of the modern "get you started coding" world is parlous, as you say, and makes many lean toward self-teaching with a support group.
@rgarner I don't want to learn front-end though.
@emkingma Well ok. That's a pretty challenging entry to commercial coding in 2023, and I'm glad I learned before the web for this reason.
So you want a coding course that will teach you to make real programs from first principles via, say, the command line?
@emkingma most courses are going to want you to specialise up-front in some way with an idea of what sort of program you want to be writing. Perhaps a Python course, either general or with a data analytics slant?
@emkingma sorry, I've got into solutionising now, I'll shut up. I'm quite into the teaching aspect, and I like it when I can *just* teach a language without assuming HTML/CSS, and I'm wondering about what modern coding courses really look like, because *nobody* gets the opportunities some of us GenX'ers got pre-web. I appreciate that I get quite garrulous when people start talking about the state of this.
Quantum ⊂ AI
ianames@emkingma @pikesley @rgarner freecodecamp have quite a few python courses: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-python-free-python-courses-for-beginners/
The codeclub projects for kids have quite a few python projects they're usually a lot more fun and really well explained too (if you can't explain it to a 6 year old etc etc) https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/pathways/python-intro
The codeclub projects for kids have quite a few python projects they're usually a lot more fun and really well explained too (if you can't explain it to a 6 year old etc etc) https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/pathways/python-intro
Learn Python – Free Python Courses for Beginners
Python is a great programming language to learn and you can use it in a variety of areas in software development. You can use Python for web development, data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more. In this article, I will list out 15 free Python courses for beginners.
@emkingma @ianames @pikesley this was also just recommended to me:
https://github.com/WomenWhoCode/guidelines-resources/blob/master/learn_to_program.md
