Note to self: The educational video studio Socratica has some of the best (and most amusing, in a wry way) videos about Python.
Tag: learn
Beginner JavaScript Resources
Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd edition (2018), by Marijn Haverbeke: This free online book is available as a PDF, EPUB or MOBI (Kindle) download. I recommend it highly (as do many others).
I urge you to seek out resources at Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) and NOT at W3schools. Here are some great MDN resources for finding answers about JavaScript:
- JavaScript basics
- JavaScript First Steps (variables, basic math, other basics)
- JavaScript building blocks (functions and more advanced beginner skills)
- Data types and objects (more advanced)
The excellent book series You Don’t Know JS is fully available online to read for free.
These two recently updated Codecademy courses are interactive, hands-on, and really great for beginners:
If you learned jQuery back when it was truly necessary, you might (like me) appreciate this resource for doing all those things using pure vanilla JavaScript instead: plainJS – The Vanilla JavaScript Repository
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Python 3.x for the win
Good news, I think.
“Today, there are very few libraries that do not support Python 3. Python 3 Readiness shows that 342 of the 360 top packages for Python support 3.x.” (Read more. A link-filled resource.)
I learned Python from Zed Shaw’s Learn Python the Hard Way, which predisposed me to use Python 2.x. Also, as a Mac OS user, I already have Python 2.x without downloading or installing anything. Little by little, though, I’ve started to do all new projects in Python 3.x.
Advice for starting to learn to code
Start learning HTML and CSS here:
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-css
Free interactive exercises at Dash/General Assembly:
https://dash.generalassemb.ly/
Supplement your HTML and CSS learning:
http://htmldog.com/guides/
Best first website host for students and faculty:
Reclaim Hosting
Your first domain name registration is free.
Look stuff up and get good answers: HTML
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML
Look stuff up and get good answers: CSS
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS
Anything from W3schools — DON’T USE IT!
Do not confuse the bad W3schools with the good, proper W3C —
https://www.w3.org/standards/
After you feel comfortable with HTML and CSS, start learning JavaScript.
NOT JAVA! That is a completely different language.
JavaScript makes the web interactive.
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/introduction-to-javascript
Best book for learners — new edition will be published in February 2018:
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Web-Design-Beginners-JavaScript/dp/1491960205
A good book for learning JavaScript and jQuery:
https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647
Where to write your code
The best code editor is ATOM (Mac and Windows):
https://atom.io/
NOT DREAMWEAVER — never Dreamweaver!
Play with code interactively here:
Links updated Nov 9, 2017
UF Data Science and Informatics
UF DSI is a student organization that spans multiple disciplines and colleges at the University of Florida. They have a website and a Facebook group. They have a large, active board and are devoted to helping students advance their skills.
To that end, they offer free workshops throughout the academic year. Workshops cover Python, R, SQL, and data visualization. Links to DSI GitHub repos for each workshop series can be found on the website, and dates and times for workshops come through the Facebook group.