Hey @rrhoover: the author is @alexpcoleman - I'm sure he'd be willing to jump in here and answer questions for people interested in building their first web app.
Hey everyone, author here! I'm passionate about helping others in this space learn how to code so they can build and create things of their own on the web.
The book contains a complete guide for beginners that walks you through building your very own web app, step by step, teaching you all of the core concepts of web development along the way.
I'm happy to answer any and all questions!
@alexpcoleman Very cool of you to jump on here and take questions.
Here's my question: With all the educational materials, ebooks, university courses, "how tos", blogs, etc etc etc.. why did you decide to write 'another' book on how to build web apps?
@narekk Great question.
The short answer is because I felt like the right answer for beginners just did not exist.
As you mentioned, there are a ton of resources already available, but I feel that: 1) they're scattered and generally focused on a single technical topic (e.g. "learn HTML" or "learn JS"); 2) they don't go in-depth nearly enough regarding *how* things actually function; and 3) they don't address the big picture.
There are a ton of courses that walk you through different coding exercises without doing a good job of explaining how the code you're writing is actually functioning behind-the-scenes. And I strongly feel that it's crucial to truly understand how your code is working, as well as how everything fits together, in the grand scheme of things.
And that's why I decided to write this book. It provides you with a strong foundational knowledge of all core web development concepts *while* walking you through the creation of a web app, explaining how everything fits together along the way.
I hope that helps!
Interesting take on the learning to code space, being a student myself. I'm just wary about the high upfront cost. I know there's the sample chapter as well. Perhaps it's just my being conditioned to the subscription based models (which I prefer) vs plunking down a large chunk of coin on something I'm not so sure about. Are there plans to try a subscription model like Learn Rails, Treehouse, Code School etc?
@will_lam I have a lot of thoughts on potentially doing something subscription-based for a future project, but the book will likely remain single-cost. (Although it's content would likely be incorporated into any type of subscription-based offering I develop in the future.)
Transistor