day 5

100 days of code

<day 5>

Essential Tools for Coding


Before the bootcamp starts, we were instructed to install all of the programs and services we’ll be using throughout the course.  Here is the list they gave us:


LinkedIn
GitHub
StackOverflow
Slack
Google Chrome
Screencastify
Chrome Dev Tools
Visual Studio Code
Xcode
Git
Gitlab
Heroku Toolbelt
Homebrew
MAMP
Node.js
SSH Key


Some of these I know about and have used in the past, but several are new to me. 


LinkedIn is a web app for networking and showcasing your portfolio and it caters towards professionals from a variety of fields.  It’s a way for potential employers to find your resume and a way to find opportunities and jobs in your chosen field.  GitHub and StackOverflow are similar to LinkedIn but geared towards developers, web designers and software engineers.  It’s a way to showcase your code and find jobs in the tech field.  I have not used GitHub or StackOverflow yet, but I have signed up for an account.  


Github seems complicated and requires knowledge and experience of working with the terminal or command line.  They also have new words (to me) like “repositories” and “refactor” that make things seem more complicated than they are.  And I’m still trying to figure out why they do that.  I haven’t used Github yet, but just from reading about it, “repositories” is the place where you put your finished projects or code.  “Refactor” means to edit or make changes to your code.  “Commit” means to upload your code and that’s about all I know about GitHub.  My question is why not just say, “projects” or “edit” or “upload” instead of “repositories”, “refactor” or “commit”.  Seems like it would make it way easier and less intimidating to beginners.  There’s probably a logical reason as to why they call it that and maybe it’s not even worth obsessing over, so moving on.  


Slack is a tool for communicating with our fellow students, TA’s and instructors.  It’s a way to stay up to date on projects and deadlines. It’s like Facebook Messenger, but fancier.  

​They recommended using Google Chrome as our browser, mainly for its developer tools.  Screencastify is a tool for making screen captures, so you can record what you’re viewing on the screen.  I usually use Quicktime for that, but this seems to have more options and features.  The Chrome Dev Tools is a new tool that I think I need to study and master.  They always mention Chrome dev tools in my Team Treehouse courses and I can see why it’s so useful.  It’s basically a way to see the code behind websites or apps.  Any website you view on Google Chrome, you can see the HTML and CSS behind it and edit or debug with the dev tools.  A friend of mine from high school told me was able to land a Python gig after only a year of self teaching and the way he did it was through debugging other people’s software and contributing to open source projects.  This is why I think Chrome dev tools is an important tool to master as it is very useful in debugging and playing around with code.

Visual Studio Code is just a text editor.  I’ve used Sublime Text in the past, but thought I’d download this so that I’ll be on the same page as everyone in the class.  A text editor is where you type your code and organize it into files.  I see it as the canvas and paintbrush of the digital world.  Xcode is another text editor and I think it was created by Apple.  I’m not sure why we’d need to use two text editors, but I’m excited to find out why.  

Git and Gitlab, I’m not sure about.  I think they’re similar to Github, but I don’t know.  Heroku is a way of deploying your finished app or web site.  I think it’s similar to GitHub, but I’m not sure.  The rest - Homebrew, MAMP, Node.js, and SSH Key, I’m still not sure what they’re all about, but hopefully they’ll become more clear as the weeks go by.