Building your First Web App

So you’ve done a few online tutorial projects and you know you basics (HTML5, CSS3, PHP, JavaScript) but you don’t know how to do things off the top of your head … should you be worried?

Nope.

Even the most experienced developers will be referring to videos, support forums and books to keep refreshing and building their skills. Yes, once you’ve done certain things a few times (ex: setting up an MVC framework like Laravel, designing databases) you will be able to do them without any help. But I can guarantee that other aspects of the project will send you researching!

… It’s the nature of development.

Experience makes you quicker

That said, as you continue to build more and more apps, you will be doing less research and more coding. You will also be able to build apps much more quickly, and even be able to research new things much more quickly.

… That’s why most of the time, it is cheaper (in the end) to pay an experienced developer a lot more than a junior. So you noobs just starting out, don’t be offended if you are making 1/4 of the what the top nerds are getting paid – they are worth it. But in time, you will be too.

Coding in the dark

I remember back in the day when I first starting coding, many times I would be writing code that I wasn’t exactly sure how it worked. My advice: just write the code and move on.

Eventually you will have the AHA! moment, and it will all make sense. Then in a few years, you will forget the basic syntax! 🙂

… But no worries, the principles of the code will stay with you.

In the end, what separates the good coders from the bad: a good understanding of the basic principles and techniques.

Hope that helps,

Stefan Mischook
Killerphp.com