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How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 11:37am On Dec 10, 2020
I have had a few mentions from some people asking for advice on how they would go about learning web development.

If I was to start learning to code today precisely web development this is exactly how I would go about it

I would learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and then React. React is a JavaScript framework which makes your live a lot easier. Once I am done learning react I would pick up Gatsby and Nextjs both React frameworks. Don't worry it's very easy to pick up once you know React. The thing is plain React is absolutely ridiculous for SEO. So if you intend to get your website found by Google, use Gatsby or Nextjs.

Once you are done with this you should have covered the frontend track. With this technologies and a few projects to your portfolio you should be able to apply to frontend developer jobs.

Now the backend is where it gets very tricky. A lot of people would recommend Nodejs which is a JavaScript runtime that enables you to run JavaScript outside the browser. For a beginner avoid Nodejs, I feel the hype for nodejs is created by startup founders to flood the market with Nodejs developers so they could be spoilt for choice when it comes to hiring. I have seen a lot of MERN, MEAN and MEVN stack developers on twitter looking to even work for free to gain experience. Some companies even feel it's not possible for a junior developer to be a MERN stack or whatever JavaScript full stack technology developer. I feel it's a very bad choice for beginners.

I would recommend a beginner to instead pick a platform. Learn the language that powers that platform. If you wanna be an expert at WordPress and Magento development then PHP Is your go to language. If you want to be a Shopify developer then ruby on rails should be your go to language. Shopify uses liquid which is an offshoot version of Ruby on rails. If you wanna be a salesforce developer then java and c# should be the languages you learn. Salesforce uses apex which is java on steroids. There's another platform called sap which uses abap as it's own programming language.

Why a platform? It's better to niche down early. A lot of bootcamps, training centres, self learners et al are all learning the MERN stack or whatever other stupid JavaScript full stack technology. They are all going to copy the same projects and then they will all apply to the same jobs with the same projects. Web development is so freaking wide. So many aspects are untouched and overlooked.

Aside getting a high paying job easily as an expert in this platforms, this platforms are largely distributed and they can enable you to make money on your own as a developer. For instance , on Shopify the average Shopify theme goes for 200 USD and everyone familiar with Shopify knows how ugly the themes on the Shopify store are. Imagine building a much better looking theme and putting it up there and you even sell just 3 themes a month. That's more than what 70 percent of developers in Nigeria make. There's also the Shopify app store which you can build apps that make E commerce easy and you can charge users on an annual or on a monthly basis. You don't even need to worry about distribution as Shopify already takes care of that. The same thing with Shopify also applied to Magento and salesforce. Magento has very few themes in the marketplace. If you check envato marketplace you would find a Magento theme that has done over 1 million USD in sales. The least sales from one Magento theme there is around 20000 USD. So many people fit no see this kind money for their life for naija till them die.

Salesforce is filled with enterprise level applications. Applications that are used by big companies think ExxonMobil, Chevron, KPMG, Deloitte. It cost 2500 USD to list an app on the Salesforce store but the average revenue from each paid app on the store is over 1 million USD. Some apps from the salesforce store have become billion dollar companies. Companies like docusign started as salesforce apps then you have sap. You can check the sap app store. The lease annual subscription for an app is around 5000 USD a year. I have seen 20000 USD in annual subscription for an app. Anyone who works in any of the IT departments of any of the big multinationals must have seen sap.

So in summary, learn the basics and niche down. Most of this platforms also have certifications which employers use for hiring. Those certifications alone immediately set you apart from everyone else. No one is gonna hire a generalist web developer as a Salesforce developer.

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Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Alonso80(m): 1:36pm On Dec 10, 2020
Nice write up. This is just exactly what I needed.

3 Likes

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Nobody: 1:48pm On Dec 10, 2020
Nice one sir. Please, if I want to be an expert in WordPress like you said, how do I start? I really want to learn programming but want to niche down. What do you suggest?

Meanwhile, I have basic knowledge of WordPress blog designing. I have sold few sites I designed myself and still running one. But I wish to learn more about WordPress. Both the coding aspect and WordPress theme and plugin designing. Please, any tips?

1 Like

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 1:51pm On Dec 10, 2020
ClixMaster:
Nice one sir. Please, if I want to be an expert in WordPress like you said, how do I start? I really want to learn programming but want to niche down. What do you suggest?

Meanwhile, I have basic knowledge of WordPress blog designing. I have sold few sites I designed myself and still running one. But I wish to learn more about WordPress. Both the coding aspect and WordPress theme and plugin designing. Please, any tips?
For building wordpress themes you have two options. Wordpress as a monolithic system and then headless wordpress. If you know React, I would recommend you instead go the headless wordpress way. It's a niche that is still very new and React provides speed and security. I have built a wordpress theme with wordpress as a monolithic system and it takes around 20 seconds for one page to load whereas in Gatsby and wordpress that I am using now it takes around 2 seconds. For wordpress as a monolithic system there are starter themes like underscores and understrap that you can use to develop your themes. Check them out. I haven't yet learnt how to do wordpress plugins so I can't really say anything about that. You have to be comfortable with PHP regardless of which wordpress theme route you choose. A lot of plugins will need to be rewritten to work with the wordpress rest API for headless wordpress and if you are gonna built monolithic themes then PHP would be everywhere.

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Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by BlueBanana: 2:48pm On Dec 10, 2020
Nice write up.
I'm still on front-end. Can you please recommend learning materials and the best way of learning front end web development
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Nobody: 3:20pm On Dec 10, 2020
tensazangetsu20:

For building wordpress themes you have two options. Wordpress as a monolithic system and then headless wordpress. If you know React, I would recommend you instead go the headless wordpress way. It's a niche that is still very new and React provides speed and security. I have built a wordpress theme with wordpress as a monolithic system and it takes around 20 seconds for one page to load whereas in Gatsby and wordpress that I am using now it takes around 2 seconds. For wordpress as a monolithic system there are starter themes like underscores and understrap that you can use to develop your themes. Check them out. I haven't yet learnt how to do wordpress plugins so I can't really say anything about that. You have to be comfortable with PHP regardless of which wordpress theme route you choose. A lot of plugins will need to be rewritten to work with the wordpress rest API for headless wordpress and if you are gonna built monolithic themes then PHP would be everywhere.
Thank you very. I will study more about this
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by NeneKelvin2019(m): 3:47pm On Dec 10, 2020
Languages or runtimes are just tools any developer needs to get his job done

My advice is this for newbies

Wrap your head around the basics, know the strength of each tool

3 Likes

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 4:04pm On Dec 10, 2020
NeneKelvin2019:
Languages or runtimes are just tools any developer needs to get his job done

My advice is this for newbies

Wrap your head around the basics, know the strength of each tool

This is extremely true but companies do not know this. Total is not going to employ someone who knows the basic as a SAP ABAP developer. I see all languages as the same anyways but it's just what it is.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Karleb(m): 6:47pm On Dec 10, 2020
I don't know how to react to the fact that a React developer doesn't like MERN or is it MARVEL stack. cheesy

React is dope man! It has jobs but I'm sticking with Vue.

My own issue is how our people think PHP is dying and there is nothing we can do to convince them its not true. Many of them don't even have don't even have a reason to back up such ridiculous claim.

If I can't convince you PHP is not dying, how can I convince you to learn Ruby for example?

1 Like

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Donpre(m): 6:52pm On Dec 10, 2020
Nice insights

but I don't think developing for those niches would be easy for a new developer who can't navigate documentations written for experienced developers

Most of the newbies rely on videos and books and apps like sololearn that basically spoon-feeds them programming. Throw them into python's documentation alone and see them abandon programming.

Also a newbie developer without a job/gigs to pay bills, spending months or even years developing for a specify niche whose payout isn't sure is terrible advice in my opinion. The whole niche-ing down is something only an experienced developer can do

#MyOpinionThough

15 Likes

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 7:40pm On Dec 10, 2020
Donpre:
Nice insights

but I don't think developing for those niches would be easy for a new developer how can't navigate documentations written for experienced developers

Most of the newbies rely on videos and books and apps like sololearn that basically spoon-feeds them programming. Throw them into python's documentation alone and see them abandon programming.

Also a newbie developer without a job/gigs to pay bills, spending months or even years developing for a specify niche whose payout isn't sure is terrible advice in my opinion. The whole niche-ing down is something only an experienced developer can do

#MyOpinionThough
This is very true. There's hardly any videos out there for this specific sub niches. Presently building a headless CMS theme and it's shocking how much little information is out there. I have to go through documentation to get what I want. I don't think it takes years to learn a niche especially if one has already gotten the basics. Someone who knows PHP would learn Magento in like two months. Someone who knows ruby on rails will know everything about Shopify in a month. It's not bad to remain a generalist but in a world where everyone and their mama is learning MERN stack, it might be the right thing to do. Go on twitter and see MERN stack Devs begging to work for free. Men the startup founders have succeeded in deceiving everybody. MERN stack developers everywhere it's insane. grin grin

2 Likes 1 Share

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 7:42pm On Dec 10, 2020
Karleb:
I don't know how to react to the fact that a React developer doesn't like MERN or is it MARVEL stack. cheesy

React is dope man! It has jobs but I'm sticking with Vue.

My own issue is how our people think PHP is dying and there is nothing we can do to convince them its not true. Many of them don't even have don't even have a reason to back up such ridiculous claim.

If I can't convince you PHP is not dying, how can I convince you to learn Ruby for example?

I am curious though. How easy is it to work with Vue and other CMS. Is it possible to use Vue with wordpress and such kind of weird stuff like that. It's possible in angular but very hard to set up the development environment very hard.

1 Like

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Karleb(m): 8:23pm On Dec 10, 2020
tensazangetsu20:

I am curious though. How easy is it to work with Vue and other CMS. Is it possible to use Vue with wordpress and such kind of weird stuff like that. It's possible in angular but very hard to set up the development environment very hard.

Yes. Vue is as easy as React.

Whatever you can do with React, you can do with Vue.

As opposed to Next.js or Gatsby, Vue has Gridsome and Nuxt.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by MrJavaS: 11:59am On Dec 11, 2020
As someone else pointed a newbie cannot navigate through a huge documentation. Also the readily available tutorials are what most beginners utilize.

There's a lot of tutorials on JavaScript stacks like MEVN or MERN or whatever.

The problem is that what people learn isn't what gives money.

3 Likes

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Sirchino: 9:48pm On Dec 11, 2020
Nicely written by the Op.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by haybhi1(m): 3:52am On Dec 17, 2020
tensazangetsu20

Like two/three months back when I first came across you on here, I've done everything, I mean every single thing, within the sphere of online possibility, to get your positive attention, but I continue to get unnoticed, it's fine, boss.
Abeg dude, there's no way I'm going to hold you back or down, I'm just another fella out there struggling to get mentored from the best brains in the realm of programming, since the ocean of info is saturating and I get drowned after all these my futile researches. My laptop has been almost useless, save for its reading function I utilize.

How will I pay you or be of benefit?
It's hard to even think I'll be able to pay you back. What do I have?
I don't have money, baba, but I'll be loyal to the core. I can help you handle petty gigs. I don't mind, baba, as far as it's in line with decency and tolerance.

Will I not slow you down or impact you negatively?
No! This will be on your terms, baba, and I'll dance to your tunes.
I am shrewd and versatile, I'll flow with your vibes easily.

My studying strength?
I'm a very fast learner and I don't joke with my zeal.

Baba, abeg gimme your WhatsApp contact abeg, if you no fit release am, my own na...

Help a surviving soul, abeg.

May you never lack mercy the rest of your life.

7 Likes

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Anonime1105(m): 2:16am On Dec 18, 2020
Op good job!
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Nobody: 6:09pm On Dec 26, 2020
MrJavaS:
As someone else pointed a newbie cannot navigate through a huge documentation. Also the readily available tutorials are what most beginners utilize.

There's a lot of tutorials on JavaScript stacks like MEVN or MERN or whatever.

The problem is that what people learn isn't[b] what gives money.[/b]
Then what will?

1 Like

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by talk2hb1(m): 7:56pm On Dec 26, 2020
Nice
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by MrJavaS: 10:51pm On Dec 26, 2020
SageX1444:
Then what will?

Stuff that have rare tutorials
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Nobody: 10:06pm On Dec 27, 2020
MrJavaS:


Stuff that have rare tutorials
I am a newbie and which would you suggest?

1 Like

Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Wartsnigeria: 11:14pm On Dec 27, 2020
Karleb:
I don't know how to react to the fact that a React developer doesn't like MERN or is it MARVEL stack. cheesy

React is dope man! It has jobs but I'm sticking with Vue.

My own issue is how our people think PHP is dying and there is nothing we can do to convince them its not true. Many of them don't even have don't even have a reason to back up such ridiculous claim.

If I can't convince you PHP is not dying, how can I convince you to learn Ruby for example?


Like it or not, no top programmer will argue with you on this, php is dying dead and gone. It is what it is.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by Karleb(m): 1:58am On Dec 28, 2020
Wartsnigeria:


Like it or not, no top programmer will argue with you on this, php is dying dead and gone. It is what it is.


gringrin
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by bvmloveme: 7:22am On Dec 30, 2020
Nice insight. May I also add learning vanilla JavaScript along will give a better understanding of how frameworks.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by CalebLebsco56(m): 4:19pm On Mar 07, 2021
tensazangetsu20:
I have had a few mentions from some people asking for advice on how they would go about learning web development.

If I was to start learning to code today precisely web development this is exactly how I would go about it

I would learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and then React. React is a JavaScript framework which makes your live a lot easier. Once I am done learning react I would pick up Gatsby and Nextjs both React frameworks. Don't worry it's very easy to pick up once you know React. The thing is plain React is absolutely ridiculous for SEO. So if you intend to get your website found by Google, use Gatsby or Nextjs.

Once you are done with this you should have covered the frontend track. With this technologies and a few projects to your portfolio you should be able to apply to frontend developer jobs.

Now the backend is where it gets very tricky. A lot of people would recommend Nodejs which is a JavaScript runtime that enables you to run JavaScript outside the browser. For a beginner avoid Nodejs, I feel the hype for nodejs is created by startup founders to flood the market with Nodejs developers so they could be spoilt for choice when it comes to hiring. I have seen a lot of MERN, MEAN and MEVN stack developers on twitter looking to even work for free to gain experience. Some companies even feel it's not possible for a junior developer to be a MERN stack or whatever JavaScript full stack technology developer. I feel it's a very bad choice for beginners.

I would recommend a beginner to instead pick a platform. Learn the language that powers that platform. If you wanna be an expert at WordPress and Magento development then PHP Is your go to language. If you want to be a Shopify developer then ruby on rails should be your go to language. Shopify uses liquid which is an offshoot version of Ruby on rails. If you wanna be a salesforce developer then java and c# should be the languages you learn. Salesforce uses apex which is java on steroids. There's another platform called sap which uses abap as it's own programming language.

Why a platform? It's better to niche down early. A lot of bootcamps, training centres, self learners et al are all learning the MERN stack or whatever other stupid JavaScript full stack technology. They are all going to copy the same projects and then they will all apply to the same jobs with the same projects. Web development is so freaking wide. So many aspects are untouched and overlooked.

Aside getting a high paying job easily as an expert in this platforms, this platforms are largely distributed and they can enable you to make money on your own as a developer. For instance , on Shopify the average Shopify theme goes for 200 USD and everyone familiar with Shopify knows how ugly the themes on the Shopify store are. Imagine building a much better looking theme and putting it up there and you even sell just 3 themes a month. That's more than what 70 percent of developers in Nigeria make. There's also the Shopify app store which you can build apps that make E commerce easy and you can charge users on an annual or on a monthly basis. You don't even need to worry about distribution as Shopify already takes care of that. The same thing with Shopify also applied to Magento and salesforce. Magento has very few themes in the marketplace. If you check envato marketplace you would find a Magento theme that has done over 1 million USD in sales. The least sales from one Magento theme there is around 20000 USD. So many people fit no see this kind money for their life for naija till them die.

Salesforce is filled with enterprise level applications. Applications that are used by big companies think ExxonMobil, Chevron, KPMG, Deloitte. It cost 2500 USD to list an app on the Salesforce store but the average revenue from each paid app on the store is over 1 million USD. Some apps from the salesforce store have become billion dollar companies. Companies like docusign started as salesforce apps then you have sap. You can check the sap app store. The lease annual subscription for an app is around 5000 USD a year. I have seen 20000 USD in annual subscription for an app. Anyone who works in any of the IT departments of any of the big multinationals must have seen sap.

So in summary, learn the basics and niche down. Most of this platforms also have certifications which employers use for hiring. Those certifications alone immediately set you apart from everyone else. No one is gonna hire a generalist web developer as a Salesforce developer.
so how can I learn as a beginner..can you coach me through whatsapp
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by easy34(m): 7:03pm On Mar 08, 2021
I need a personal tutor in Ibadan on web development. Front End. Whatsapp me on 08169264953
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 6:25pm On Apr 23, 2021
Mukina can this be moved to the FrontPage. So many people have asked me so many times about everything I have outlined here.
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by syluck(m): 5:28am On Apr 24, 2021
Didn't see anything python op. Feel bad already for starting with python undecided
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by wealthyhenry(m): 8:29am On Apr 24, 2021
Please what are the limitations and strengths of starting with Python...
Re: How I Recommend A Newbie Goes About Learning Web Development. by tensazangetsu20(m): 8:36am On Apr 24, 2021
wealthyhenry:
Please what are the limitations and strengths of starting with Python...
Python unfortunately is useless for web development. There's just not much jobs or opportunitoes out there for it.

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