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In this episode, we are going to dive into a few of our recent favorite community forum posts. I can’t say it enough, our community is such a friendly and safe place to get answers, feedback and advice on your coding journey. We’re going to talk about building projects, the mobile application development landscape, and the exciting possibility of an online Treehouse Store. You know you want a hoodie.
• Guil's Progressive Web Apps Workshop
• Dev Team Show Alternatives to Native Development
From the Community:
• "Is it better to build projects first OR take courses first?”
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Welcome to the Treehouse Show.
0:00
The Treehouse Show is our weekly
conversation with the Treehouse community.
0:01
[SOUND] In this episode,
we're gonna dive in to a few
0:04
of our recent favorite
community forum posts.
0:08
I can't say it enough,
our community is such a friendly and
0:13
safe place to get answers, feedback,
and advice on your coding journey.
0:16
We're gonna talk about building projects,
the mobile application
0:21
development landscape, and the exciting
possibility of an online Treehouse store.
0:24
You know you want this hoodie.
0:28
Adam Acree asks, is it better to build
projects first or take courses first?
0:29
I love this question, because this is the
chicken and egg question about learning.
0:35
And the answer is yes, you should do both.
0:38
You should build projects and
take courses.
0:41
And that anxiety about beginning that
you talk about Adam is so super common.
0:44
Treehouse student, Aaron Goodrow
suggests working on courses first and
0:49
making sure that your foundational
skills are rock solid.
0:53
Great advice Aaron.
0:56
Another student,
0:58
Rachel Campbell suggests that it's
helpful to build projects as you learn.
0:59
Now she points out,
that as you build a project,
1:03
you'll find problems that you don't yet
have the skills to solve, and
1:05
then you can focus your
learning on the missing parts.
1:09
Rachel also encourages Adam to try it,
and see if it feels right for him.
1:12
Now that's excellent advice, Rachel.
1:15
There is no universal right
way to go about this.
1:17
It's a matter of how you divide and
spend your time.
1:20
Now, courses are going to help
give you a basic understanding of
1:23
how something is done.
1:26
But, until you try to create
something on your own,
1:28
you may not fully understand the why of
the content presented in the courses.
1:31
It's putting that practice to work that
helps really make sure that you got it.
1:35
And don't worry, you'll feel it.
1:39
You'll be watching something and
you'll want to make something.
1:42
Now follow that impulse,
that's what the course is for.
1:45
When you run into something that you can't
do, try to learn that specific thing.
1:48
And when you build it,
you most certainly will be hooked.
1:51
I've been chasing that impulse for
decades now.
1:55
David Holmes asks a great question here
about mobile application development.
1:57
Now this is a hard question and
David is not alone in his pondering here,
2:01
making this a great question
to feature on the show.
2:06
If you have an opinion or thoughts,
please jump in to this convo.
2:09
This is gonna get a little weird.
2:13
Now you can tell by just looking at the
title here that there is a lot going on.
2:15
Now if you aren't aware, there are two big
camps in mobile application development,
2:19
mainly because of
the Smartphone market share.
2:24
You usually either develop for
Apple products, also known as iOS or for
2:27
the Android platform.
2:31
Now, after the two big camps,
Apple and Android,
2:32
you then have four popular options for
building mobile apps.
2:34
By the way, Treehouse teacher Amitt
goes into more detail about this
2:38
on a dev team show episode, Alternatives
to Native Mobile App Development.
2:41
Four popular options for
2:45
mobile development are these,
Native Development in the Native Language.
2:46
So using Swift or
2:51
Objective C to build iPhone apps, or
Java and Kotlin to build Android apps.
2:52
This is the traditional path that we teach
here at Treehouse, and that most employers
2:56
are looking for when they are looking
to hire a mobile developer.
3:00
Web wrappers let you create mobile apps
using HTML and CSS and JavaScript.
3:03
So you could be building apps
by learning basic web design.
3:08
However, these web wrapper
apps are a little limited and
3:12
can't take advantage of all the features
that the native languages do.
3:15
Cross-compilers like Xamarin, Ruby Motion,
Kivy, React Native, or NativeScript.
3:18
Now, with a cross-compiler,
3:23
you leverage one language that
compiles into many native apps.
3:25
Now for example, you can leverage
your C# skills with Xamarin, or
3:29
your Ruby skills with Ruby Motion to
simultaneously build iOS and Android apps.
3:33
Progressive Web Apps.
3:38
Now, [LAUGH] one more wrench to toss into
your what should I learn problem space,
3:40
have you heard of PWAs or
Progressive Web Apps?
3:45
They're basically apps
that use web technology
3:49
that make a native app
experience possible.
3:52
It's kinda like a fresh take
on mobile first web design,
3:54
where you design your website
as a mobile app first.
3:58
You get little icons and everything.
4:00
Now, Gil talks about this in his
introducing progressing web apps workshop.
4:02
And while it may appear that the straight
forward way to learn how to make apps for
4:06
iPhones for example would mean learning
Swift and coding and X Code, what you
4:10
should take away from this is that it's
definitely not the only way to go.
4:14
You can build mobile apps with
almost any programming language,
4:18
mostly with some tradeoffs and
performance and features.
4:21
David also asks about mobile
development from a hiring perspective.
4:24
Is it expected that you know how
to create iOS and Android apps?
4:28
Now, this really depends on the job.
4:31
Most large companies have mobile teams for
each platform and
4:33
do not expect you to know both iOS and
Android.
4:37
However, as Jacob Mishkin points out,
React Native is also an option.
4:40
If you don't know about React Native,
it's a newish cross-compiler, and
4:45
much like Xamarin,
4:49
it allows you to write code that will
produce both native Android and iOS apps.
4:50
These React Native apps are similar
to what a React Native web
4:55
developer would create.
4:58
So sorry, it means you gotta
learn a little bit more.
5:00
However, companies might be slow
to embrace cross-compilers,
5:02
especially if they already
have apps in place.
5:06
Native app development isn't going
away any time soon, especially for
5:09
larger companies.
5:12
But, we are seeing an increasing
amount of job postings for
5:13
this cross-platform development, which,
in addition to student interest,
5:16
always helps drive content creation here.
5:20
And personally, I think that makes
sense from a business perspective.
5:23
If you don't need to maintain two code
bases and two teams of developers,
5:27
this cross-platform type of application
building makes a lot of sense.
5:31
The second part of David's question
revolves around freelancing and learning.
5:35
I do suggest that you learn a native
platform so you get a feeling for
5:39
what it's capable of.
5:43
It will help you to understand
these cross-compiler tools better.
5:44
So since you're already on the job of
Kotlin track and enjoying it, keep at it.
5:47
And remember, progressive web apps
are gaining in popularity and
5:52
might be enough for
what your freelancing clients need.
5:56
Make sure you check those out too.
5:59
Thanks for
asking such a great question David,
6:00
I know others are wondering
the same thing.
6:02
Eddie Aguilar asked a question I know
a lot of you have been wondering.
6:05
Where can I get that hoodie?
6:09
Now, you'll notice here that
Molly kinda trolled in, and
6:10
telling him how comfortable they were.
6:13
But then she went on to say,
there's going to be an online store.
6:16
Now this is the first time
I've ever heard of it.
6:19
Let me go do some spy work and see if
I can get some more deets about this.
6:21
[MUSIC]
6:25
Let's go see Molly.
6:26
She's right over here.
6:27
Hey, Molly.
6:30
>> Hey.
Hey, who is this?
6:32
Is this for the-
>> These are sweatshirts for
6:33
the online store.
6:35
>> The online store?
6:36
>> Mm-hmm.
6:37
>> That's so awesome, we're gonna do it.
6:38
>> Yeah, I think so, yeah.
6:41
>> You didn't seem very certain.
6:43
>> Well,
it's kind of up to Watson, not me.
6:45
>> Watson?
6:48
>> Yeah.
>> How certain are we that we're gonna do
6:49
this online store thing?
6:51
>> 95%.
>> 95%, you heard it here.
6:53
[MUSIC]
6:56
Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show.
6:57
To get in touch with the show,
reach out to me on Twitter or
7:01
email the show at show@teamtreehouse.com.
7:04
See you in the community.
7:06
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