A few people have asked - how do I get started with software development. Get an A level in computing? Go to university and study software engineering? That's what I did! That was before we all knew what the internet was. There's so much stuff posted online, and its changing at an alarming rate. Is there another way? With the cost of going to university, is it worth considering? With the rate of change, will what I learn at Uni even be relevant? I don't know.
There's a few guys that work for me that came through FDM, they went through their academy. Essentially, they paid a fee, got some intensive training, then FDM found them a placement. They worked for the client, via FDM for a couple of years and have since taken a permanent job. Much cheaper than going to Uni.
But my mate Darren was made redundant from his job as a teacher. He didn't much like his job so didn't want to go back in to teaching. He was convinced I could teach him how to be a developer. You should read Darrens blog, he thinks he's funny (he's doing stand up next month). He's performing at the Forum in Darlington on the 16th February 2012 (details here - clicky). And his blog is clicky.
Anyway, Darren wanted to learn about software development, so I found a bunch of tutorials he could try and wrote him an email. I've since had to dig this out and send over to one of the lads at work. Jamie's in a band called Hey! Alaska. Not my cuppa tea, not enough signing and too much shouting. I just found something out about the name of the band - apparently it means something that's shit, or just plain disappointing. clicky Lol.
Anyway, I dug out the same email and sent it over to Jamie. Last I heard he was running through the same tutorials as Darren did. It put Darren off, I wonder if it'll have the same effect on Jamie
You need to start by downloading some software. Notepad++ is an advanced text editor, I use it all the time. It's great for editing html and css.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Download and install it.
So, whats html and css? Web pages are made up using html (or xhtml) and style sheets (css stands for cascading style sheets). The html holds all the structure for the page, and the css tells the web browser how to display it. There are other elements that can build up a web page, things like javascript and images, but we'll concentrate on the html and css for now.
Follow this tutorial, it'll give you something to get going with...
http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
This gets you started with html without the complication of css. Very simple and straight forward. Once you've done that, go through and look at the different html examples...
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_examples.asp
Just work through each example one by one. Work at your own pace, if you find it confusing, then this is where we can start with your first lesson. We could work through them one by one and I'll explain the bits you don't understand. But if it all makes sense, continue through them.
If you get through those, you could then move on to applying the styling using css....
http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
And finally, a simple tutorial that covers both html and css:
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss.en.html
Hows that for starters?
As a complete and utter code virgin, I followed Bruce's advice and once you grasp the basics you quickly get a feel for how it all works. But more importantly an.understanding of how much you enjoy it without signing up for an expensive course that will probably waste your time with modules on using outlook and defragging your hard drive. Well done Bruce!
ReplyDeleteJust for the record though it didn't put me off, my job hunting and blog writing just took over. I will return to it one day! Bizarrely I know of someone in that band too though! Its a small world but I wouldnt want it shoved up me bum!