WashU Campus Card Services WashU Campus Card Services WashU Campus Card Services

Introduction

This is a single.

Relevant Coursework

  • CSE 131 Intro to CS – never hurts to get a solid foundation in programming. Web development comes easier once you understand the basics of how a computer wants you to “code.” Variables, data types, conditional statements, loops, maps, RECURSION, and all together efficient programming is found at every level.
  • CSE 207 Web Development – long-dive into HTML, CSS, and introduction to JavaScript. Conclusion of the course is a simple ReactJS app, brief focus on APIs.
  • CSE 330 Rapid Prototype Development – a notoriously time-consuming course, nonetheless extremely helpful to build a good basis for full-stack web development. You’ll gloss right over HTML, CSS, and focus on front-end and back-end JavaScript, learning Linux command line, light management of your own free AWS(Amazon Web Services) “instance” or server, PHP, Apache, ReactJS, NodeJS, Socket, databases like MySQL and NoSQL(MongoDB), and creating and using your own API.

“What do you code in? What languages are used?”

This is a really dumb question. Never ask a computer science student this if you want to seem intelligent. Any “coder” worth their weight knows that the language itself does not matter. Rather, its the concepts and applications of each language and how they communicate with one another that count. Here is a brief overview of languages used in web development:

  • HTML – Hypertext Markup Language is the “skeleton” of any web page
  • CSS – The “flesh” you attach to your HTML to make it look NOT like utter garbage. Can handle simple interaction like hoverable elements, as well as complex animations, and control styling for both a desktop or mobile version of your site.
  • JavaScript(‘front-end’) – The most basic “programmatic” language in web development. JS can get the current timestamp, ask the user for their location, and “listen” for interactions with webpages called “events.” Events can be clicks on buttons and objects in our HTML structure, a person “tabbing” through links, scroll position, among other events.
  • PHP & Apache – In review, we can write our HTML documents in PHP, a recursive programmatic language, that allows us to manage HTML blocks more easily. “Session variables” allow us to register, sign in, and sign out users easily, let each user have their content and permissions.
  • Python – often used for intense mathematical commutations, machine learning, and data visualization.
  • JavaScript(‘back-end’) frameworks – PHP is great, but JavaScript frameworks are gaining popularity. ReactJS is very valuable to learn.
  • Databases – Where the website’s content is stored. When we load a page, by PHP or JavaScript, we “fetch” or “request” data from the database and display it. Databases are structured like a smarter Excel document, allowing for better “filtering” or information.
  • APIs – APIs are authenticated connections between two computers who send information to one another. To get information from your database, we use an API ‘fetch.’ Very useful, very easy once you get the hang of it. APIs follow a standard called “CRUD” or “Create, Read, Update, Delete,” four very popular actions that you instruct an API to complete.

Here is a brief introduction of each language’s conceptional achievements:

  • HTML – The biggest task with HTML is developing an eye for consistent design no matter the content.
  • CSS – Big question: How do I make this look exactly how I want in the fewest lines possible? Also, concept of specificity: the most specific you are when you style, the more important the computer will interpret your instructions.
  • JavaScript(‘front-end’) – Pseudo-introduction to concurrent programming…we need to have the code “wait” until HTML and CSS have loaded, before we can have it operate on that code. This is very common when we consider a “click-able” menu, that makes our pages more dynamic.
  • PHP & Apache –
  • Python – Probability & statistics, machine learning
  • JavaScript(“back-end”) – A master-class in efficient programming & algorithmic theory. How do we optimize how this page loads to reduce buffering times.
  • Databases –
  • APIs – More advanced concepts of concurrent programming called “asynchronous.” Basically, our PHP or JavaScript sends a message out called a “promise” that is responded to after a short wait. We need to be careful that we don’t execute code before that promise returns.

HTML

!DOCTYPE
<html>

<head></head>

<body>
     <header>
     </header>
     <div id="content">
          <div class="wrapper">
               <div class="column"></div>
               <div class="column"></div>
               <div class="column"></div>
          </div>
     </div>
     <footer>
     </footer>
</body>
</html>