web development guide

I know the title of this post sounds a bit highfalutin, but it is actually just notes from a YouTube video on the state of web development in 2019 done by Brad Traversy of Traversy Media. I’m just going to list out my notes, since that seems to be my style in Markdown.

• Basic tools: No big secrets here.
  • Text editor (I use Atom though Brad prefers VSCode);
  • web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.);
  • design & mockup (XD, Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, etc.);
  • 3rd party terminal (Git Bash, WSL, iTerm2, Hyper, etc.)
• What to learn: Elements of HTML & CSS (the first thing to learn)
  • Semantic HTML5 elements;
  • basic CSS (positioning, box model, etc.);
  • flexbox & CSS grid;
  • CSS variables (custom properties);
  • browser dev tools.
• Responsive layout: A modern necessity in web development for different devices
  • set viewport;
  • fluid widths;
  • media queries;
  • rem instead of px;
  • mobile first, stacked columns.
• Basic deployment: Learn how to deploy a static website
  • Register a domain name (Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.);
  • Managed shared hosting or VPS (Inmotion, Hostgator, Bluehost, etc.);
  • FTP, SFTP file upload (Filezilla, Cyberduck, etc.);
  • Static hosting (Netlify, GitHub Pages, etc.)
    • Need to know Git with these options.
• SASS pre-processor: Recommended, but not mandatory.
• Vanilla JavaScript: Learn the language without libraries or frameworks.

All of this leads one to becoming a basic front-end developer, ready for an entry-level job or a freelancing gig.

What’s next? Moving toward full fledged front-end development.

• HTML/CSS frameworks (Bootstrap, Tachyons, Foundation, etc.);
• Git and tooling (NPM, Gulp, Webpack, etc.);
• Front-end JS frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, etc.);
• State management (Redux, VueX, etc.).

Then, moving on to back-end development.

• Server-side languages and databases (Node.js, Python, PHP, etc.);
• Server-side frameworks
  • Node.js: Express, Koa, Adonis
  • Python: Django, Flask
  • PHP: Laravel, Symfony
• Databases: Learn a few databases
  • Relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.);
  • NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Couchbase, etc.);
  • Cloud databases (Firebase, AWS, etc.);
  • Lightweight databases (SQLite, Redis, etc.).
• Content Management Systems: Wordpress is the king. There are others such as Drupal, but Wordpress really covers a lot.
• DevOps, Deployment & More:
  • Deployment: Linux, SSH, Git, etc.
  • Platforms: Digital Ocean, AWS, Heroku, Azure, etc.
  • Virtualization: Docker, Vagrant, etc.
  • Testing: Jest, Mocha, etc.

There are a few more topics Brad covered such as machine learning, TypeScript, web assembly, blockchain technologies, etc., but I think I’ll stop with the regular old full-stack stuff. This is quite a bit to chew on as it is. I have to say that I have touched on quite a bit of this, though I always feel as if I am starting from scratch where JavaScript and Node are concerned. The idea is to keep moving forward, I guess.