The purpose of this repo is to have a starting point for Techlahoma community members who are new to coding. There are a few common questions that tend to be repeated, so the aim is to have a centralized place to find that information. This is a collaborative effort so please feel free to provide feedback and contribute.
NOTE: Any content in this repo should not discourage you from asking questions in the Techlahoma Slack Channel.
This repo merely serves as a reference point. The path to becoming a software developer is not an easy one - there is a lot to learn and every experience and path is unique. Hopefully, this repo can help alleviate some of the stress associated with this process and provide guidance for what the next step should be in your own unique journey.
This repo is intended to provide the following for Code Newbies:
- Answers to commonly asked questions
- Links to helpful resources
- A place to practice working with Git, creating pull requests, and contributing to a collaborative project
- Note: Please take a look at the contribution guidelines. These help keep the repo organized and will provide more information about how this process works.
- A place to share your unique experiences on your journey to becoming a software developer
This repo is intended to go beyond "just now learning" and become a valuable resource for everybody who is learning or trying to improve themselves and/or their career.
Therefore, you can consider yourself part of the target audience if you meet either of the following criteria:
- Learning a new progamming language or framework
- Learning a skill related to a career in software development including, but not limited to:
- Career development skills such as writing effective resumes, searching for a software development job, and networking
- Building and showcasing a portfolio
- Writing efficient code
- Troubleshooting bugs
- Proficiency with tools that developers use such as IDEs, devtools, package managers, etc.
Since a career in software development is such a broad topic, this criteria is meant to be broad enough to include anybody that might need help navigating the path to becoming a software developer or improving their skillset.
The Techlahoma Code Newbies Slack Channel lists its description as:
- For new people who are just now learning what coding is and for the more experienced mentors to help them on their journey.
For the purposes of this repo, a code newbie is broadly defined as a person who is completely new to programming.
An Early Career Developer is a person who has advanced to the point that they are no longer considered a complete newbie.
This definition is intentionally vague, and it should make more sense after reading the following section.
The main reason for making this distinction is due to the way Techlahoma and its slack are structured. This distinction is an effort to provide complete newcomers a safe place to ask questions.
The #code-newbies channel is meant to be a landing point for those who are completely new and are looking for direction, while more specific channels such as #jobs-talk and #javascript are meant to field technical questions.
IMPORTANT: The two are NOT mutually exclusive. This is merely an attempt to separate broad, general information from more specific, technical information.
Refer to Slack Etiquette for more details