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General Discussion

Posted by Daniel Gibson
Daniel Gibson
10,603 Points

Backend advise?

Yo Teamtreehouse...

I'm looking for some great advise from you experts.

I am not very experienced at programming. I have been learning to code for over a month now through various sources and in the past I used wordpress to make a couple of sites, so I already had some basic knowledge of html/css.
I stumbled across Team Treehouse a few weeks ago and I am really loving it. It has been the best site that I have used to far, and it is helping me a lot!

I have been trying to fit in at least 5 hours a day of practice and what I have found best for me is that by moving between different sources and front end languages (daily) I seem to retain more information, everything sinks in my brain a bit deeper and I don't find myself getting as frustrated with certain things e.g Javascript haha. I also feel that learning like that allows me to make connections between the languages so I can understand how they all work together and compliment each other.

But now I am getting to a point where my mind is curious about the backend languages. To be honest I do not really know to much about them and I feel like I should start digging into some basic backend stuff so I can begin to see the full picture and then I will have a better idea of what I should be aiming towards.

At the moment I am looking to build nice websites e.g. Blogs, music site and forums. And in the future work towards android apps.
Soooooo,... I was wondering which backend language you would advise me to look into first for basic website/app development? I don't want to be diving into anything to complex at the moment, just a language to help me get my feet wet so I can get a better understanding of the backend world.....

I have googled this question numerous time but each time I come away feeling more confused, haha....

I will look forward to hearing back from you peoples.

Thanks for your time...

Dan

2 Answers

Jesus Mendoza
Jesus Mendoza
23,289 Points
Jesus Mendoza
Jesus Mendoza
23,289 Points

Hey!

I'd say go for JavaScript using Node.js! That way you don't have to learn a new language and you will gain a better knowledge on how JavaScript works to use it on different front-end frameworks.

But if you want to learn a new language and something easy then go for Python and Django or Flask.

Daniel Gibson
Daniel Gibson
10,603 Points

Yo.

Thank you for your quick reply.. I appreciate it.

Yes I was thinking about Node.js a few days ago, so I did a bit of a research about it and the first few blogs that I stumbled across were basically writing about how much of a bad language it is, haha?. I can't remember all of their reasons but it put me off the language..... But seeing as you have advised it I will take a proper look into it.

I think it would be a good idea because I have still got a lot to learn and if it is going to help me sharpen up my javascript skills then it sounds like a great option!.

I will also have a look at Python and Django or Flask!.

Thanks again for your reply!

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

There are going to be tons of opinions out there - there really isn't a right answer. I'm kinda leaning with Jesus that Javascript and Node is an excellent choice. I will day, I don't think it's necessarily the easiest, but the syntax will at least be familiar.

Python I hear great things about. Ruby still holds a special place in my heart, it always will. Probably the lowest bar to get into, not because the language is the easiest, but because of the vast amount of resources available, especially geared towards beginners is PHP. PHP was my first server side language. I heard how "easy" it is, and remember thinking it's not easy. I know understand when someone said php is easy, they didn't mean it in the sense of it's simple, but just that there are resources for php littered all over the web.

TL:DR Do what you do now, jump around. Do a little sample platter of all the back end languages, and see if one really resonates with you well.

Daniel Gibson
Daniel Gibson
10,603 Points

Thank you for your reply...

Yer I have heard many good things about Ruby. That was my first choice. Do you think it would be to much for me to start learning some basic Ruby basics now?

I also thought about PHP because I read on treehouse that it was a good all round backend language and it was a easy language for beginners, but I will take your word for it!. haha.

And like i said on my previous post, I did think about Node.JS but when I looked into it I found quite a few people slating for various reasons it so it put me off..... But I suppose everyone has their own preferred languages.

I think I will look into Ruby and Node.js,

:)

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

You're welcome.

I don't see any reason why you can't jump into Ruby basics right now. You'll definitely learn some stuff you haven't seen before, but that's all part of the fun.

I wouldn't be too put off by any one language, I'll be honest, I read blogs too regularly where at best I just flat disagree with the opinion of the writer, and worst I question if they're knowledgeable enough to write about what they just wrote about.

You never know how warm the water is until you dip your own toe in there.

Happy coding!