How to Teach Yourself to Code
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The document provides guidance on learning how to code by teaching yourself Ruby on Rails. It recommends starting with Rails as it is the easiest framework to learn and allows building prototypes quickly. The document outlines a "brute force" learning approach of speeding through introductory tutorials to get exposure to concepts without worrying about not understanding everything the first time. It also recommends resources like Codecademy, Ruby Koans, and attending local meetups and hackathons for support during the learning process.
![['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize }](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtoteachyourselftocode-120210134505-phpapp01/85/How-to-Teach-Yourself-to-Code-54-320.jpg)
![['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize }
(try saying it out loud)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtoteachyourselftocode-120210134505-phpapp01/85/How-to-Teach-Yourself-to-Code-55-320.jpg)
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How to Teach Yourself to Code
- 1. How to Teach Yourself to Code.
- 2. Part 1: Stop Waiting for the Perfect Technical Co- Founder and Start Learning How to Code
- 3. Why learn how to code?
- 4. A lot of you just have an idea
- 5. If you’re expecting to find someone to build that idea for you, it’s never going to happen
- 6. Demand for developers has skyrocketed
- 8. Anyone with any programming talent is getting offers from Facebook, Google and dozens of other startups right now
- 9. Why should a programmer choose your idea over any other?
- 10. Do you want to pay someone?
- 11. 1)You will pay too much
- 12. 1)You will pay too much 2)You’ll be unhappy with the process
- 13. 1)You will pay too much 2)You’ll be unhappy with the process 3)You’ll get something back you didn’t want
- 14. WHY?
- 15. WHY?Software is hard to estimate
- 16. WHY?Software is hard to estimate “Should this really take 15 hours, or am I getting ripped off?”
- 17. If you’re an entrepreneur waiting for someone to execute your idea for you, you’re not an entrepreneur
- 18. (sorry) If you’re an entrepreneur waiting for someone to execute your idea for you, you’re not an entrepreneur
- 19. “Pre-Dodgeball I went through 3-4 years thinking I was going to meet some magical engineer who would build all the stuff I was thinking about. But I never met that person, so I taught myself ASP and MS Access out of a book and got to work just hacking stuff together. I’m still a really shitty programmer but I know enough to hack a prototype together.” - Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
- 20. Learning how to code ≠ How to be a software engineer
- 21. The point is for you to learn to code well enough to build a prototype
- 22. (aka Minimum Viable Product) The point is for you to learn to code well enough to build a prototype
- 23. MVP = quick + dirty
- 24. “Product with the fewest number of features needed to achieve a specific objective.” – The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development
- 25. Side note: build products that are valuable despite being ugly
- 27. Eventually you’ll need to find a lead developer
- 28. Knowing how to code helps you find, pitch and manage good developers
- 29. More and more, the things we interact with in the world around us qualifies as “technology”
- 30. There are 10 kinds of people:
- 31. There are 10 kinds of people: Those who understand binary and those who don’t
- 32. Society is quickly dividing into two groups: 1) Those that know how to code – they can manipulate the very structure of the world around them. If you’re interested in learning more, read Program or Be Programmed: http://amzn.to/yzd6hm 2) Those that don’t – their lives are being designed and directed by those that do.
- 34. I get it, it’s scary to jump in.
- 35. C, Java, C++, PHP, JavaScript, Python, C#, Perl, SQL, Ruby, Shell, Visual Basic, Assembly, Actionscript, Objective C, Lisp, Where do you start? Delphi, Pascal, Scheme, Haskell, Tcl, Backbone, Fortran, Ada, Lua, ColdFusion, Cobol, Erlang, D, Scala, Smalltalk, Ocaml, Forth, Rexx,
- 36. Breaking down a web application
- 37. Web applications are applications accessed over the internet
- 38. (which are different from mobile applications)
- 39. Every web application has a front-end and a back-end
- 40. The front-end is what you see Front-end languages: • HTML • CSS • JavaScript Web Pages
- 41. <h1>Welcome to Twitter.</h1> <p>Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.</p>
- 42. <h1>Welcome to Twitter.</h1> <p>Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.</p> This is HTML
- 43. The back-end is what you don’t see Database Web Pages Rules Programming languages: PHP, Ruby, Python, Java Database languages: SQL
- 44. echo “Hello World”; print(‘Hello World’) puts “Hello World” They’re all the same, just different PHP Python Ruby Hello World Hello World Hello World
- 45. And then there are web application frameworks Database Web Pages Rules Web application frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Django
- 46. “alleviate overhead associated with web development by providing libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.” Web application frameworks
- 47. “alleviate overhead associated with web development by providing libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.” Web application frameworks build web apps really quickly
- 48. If your goal is to build a prototype, start with Ruby on Rails (aka ‘Rails’)
- 49. Ruby on Rails is a web application framework for Ruby
- 50. Rails is the easiest to dive into
- 51. Rails is the easiest to dive into (tons of resources and a huge community)
- 52. Ruby (and therefore Rails) is easier to understand
- 53. exit unless "restaurant".include? "aura"
- 54. ['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize }
- 55. ['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize } (try saying it out loud)
- 56. Rails hides all the stuff you really don’t need to know
- 57. Rails is just shortcuts like this rails new application create create README.rdoc create Rakefile create config.ru create .gitignore create Gemfile create app create app/assets/images/rails.png create app/assets/javascripts/application.js create app/assets/stylesheets/application.css create app/controllers/application_controller.rb create app/helpers/application_helper.rb create app/mailers create app/models create app/views/layouts/application.html.erb create app/mailers/.gitkeep create app/models/.gitkeep create config create config/routes.rb create config/application.rb create config/environment.rb . . . create vendor/plugins create vendor/plugins/.gitkeep run bundle install
- 58. So you can do stuff like this
- 59. There’s a temptation for programmers to say “Start with PHP or Java”
- 60. They say this because: 1. it mirrors the way we learn things in school 2. it’s how they learned
- 61. IGNORE them
- 62. With those languages, you’ll spend MONTHS learning the basics so that you can do this:
- 63. (make a yellow square)
- 64. With Rails, fast and simple is the name of the game
- 66. The ability to get quick and positive feedback on your projects is crucial
- 67. A final note:“Scaling” Rails
- 69. Yes Some of the most heavily trafficked sites in the world use Rails Basecamp Twitter Shopify Yellow Pages GitHubLivingSocial GrouponSoundcloud Zendesk Hulu
- 70. Part 3: How I Taught Myself to Code in One Month
- 71. I find traditional learning extremely tedious
- 72. So do you.(Otherwise you’d have learned how to code by now.)
- 73. So I developed my own method I call “brute-force” learning
- 74. In college I would download podcasts of classes I was taking (from other schools)
- 75. Then I’d listen to the podcasts on the subway or walking around the city.
- 76. Doing this ended up eliminating hundreds of hours of studying (also teachers loved my “unique perspectives”)
- 78. Have you ever been confused by something when it's explained one way but when it’s explained a different way it just clicks?
- 79. The result is that learning is less tedious
- 80. More importantly, the stress of feeling like you have to learn something the first time disappears
- 81. It’s OKAY to not understand something the first time
- 82. It’s OKAY to not understand something the first time Isn’t that sort of the point?
- 83. The first time you learn something, your mind creates a mental map. A fuzzy picture of all the pieces and how they fit together.
- 84. When you go back, you relearn the specifics and it all starts to make more sense
- 85. Just speed through as many introductory tutorials as possible
- 86. Here’s what I recommend:
- 87. One Month Rails by Mattan Griffel (Me!)
- 88. Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl
- 89. When you finish, you’ll be able to build your own basic web app
- 90. But there will be specific features you don’t know how to implement
- 91. Railscasts by Ryan Bates
- 92. At some point along the way, you may feel a temptation to STOP and learn Ruby (or HTML or CSS)
- 93. At some point along the way, you may feel a temptation to STOP and learn Ruby (or HTML or CSS) Don’t.
- 94. Ruby Rails Ruby is huge
- 95. Ruby Rails Ruby is huge And you only need to know a tiny bit of it
- 96. Besides, you’ll learn all the Ruby, HTML and CSS you need to know along the way
- 97. After you’ve finished, check out these fun resources that cover basic Ruby: • Codecademy’s Ruby Track • Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby • RubyMonk • RubyKoans • Learn Ruby the Hard Way • Ruby Warrior
- 98. Troubleshooting
- 99. 75% of coding is Googling*
- 100. 75% of coding is Googling* *totally made up statistic
- 101. Stack Overflow
- 102. A lot of times you know what feature you want to build, but you don’t know what it’s called
- 103. For example: Cron jobs let you schedule tasks in your app
- 104. Ask someone
- 105. Rails is very popular at the moment and has a LARGEcommunity for support
- 106. The best way to learn is to go to a Rails meetup and ask someone who knows more than you
- 107. in NYC • NYC.rb • NYC on Rails • NewYork Ruby Meetup • Ruby Nuby
- 108. Go attend some hackathonsand find teams to work with
- 109. To hear about hackathons, sign up for the following mailing lists: • General Assembly • This Week in NYC Innovation • StartupDigest • Startup Weekend
- 110. The ∞ list of Rails includes: • Rails for Zombies • Peepcode • Agile Web Development with Rails • Ruby on Rails Guides • Hackety-hack • Teamtreehouse • Code School
- 111. Part 4: Coding in a nutshell
- 112. Installing Rails is super easy
- 113. This is your command center Command Line Text Editor Browser
- 114. The text editor is where you write your code Sublime Text
- 115. The command line is where you run your code Terminal
- 116. The browser is where you see the result Google Chrome
- 117. Rails uses a Model View Controller (MVC) architecture Controller View Model Database
- 118. Database Web Pages Rules ControllerView Model Rails uses a Model View Controller (MVC) architecture
- 119. Github is where you save versions of your project files
- 120. Heroku lets you deploy your app so that it’s live in seconds
- 121. Part 5: Let’s begin
- 123. 1. Go to RailsInstaller.org 2. Download the right installer
- 124. 1. Go to RailsInstaller.org 2. Download the right installer 3. Follow the instructions
- 125. 1. Go to RailsInstaller.org 2. Download the right installer 3. Follow the instructions 4. Yes do the Git thing too
- 126. Some people get this error: Error changing group of /opt/rix to rvm
- 127. Some people get this error: Error changing group of /opt/rix to rvm Who can solve this first?!
- 129. Let’s check if it worked
- 130. Find your command line
- 132. Find your command line Open Programs > RailsInstaller > Command Prompt with Ruby and Rails
- 134. Type this command and hit enter rails -v
- 135. Type this command and hit enter rails -v Rails 3.2.13 If it says something like this, then it worked!
- 136. You’ve installed Rails, and you’re ready to create your first app
- 137. Go to onemonthrails.com to keep learning
- 138. Thank you :) Mattan Griffel [email protected] mattangriffel.com