Trideep Barik for Spectrum Club

Posted on Jul 25, 2020

Why do I love WebDev <3 ?

#beginners #webdev #html #javascript

Hello Everyone,

This post is for all the beginners or the newbies, who decided to start their journey in the IT world and still unaware or confused about various fields. In my point of view, you should explore every field and choose which one is your "Soul-FieldofInterest".
And for the ones who are already at a great level in WebDev, you might find this kind of a Nostalgic post.

So here I am, discussing about my " Soul-FieldofInterest " i.e. Web Development . I will try not use any technical word and for sure no code, for better understanding. And this is all about my point of view, some of you might find it conflicting.

The Beginning

Everyday you wake up to notifications from social media like Instagram, from shopping sites like Amazon, text from your crush (never happens I know) or (in this lock down) from online classes .

Ever wondered how all these things started? One day one person built a WEBSITE ( No, not your crush. Trust me you deserve better :p ). One day a person sitting in his hostel room decided to build a website to connect to friends; One day a person decided to make a website to sell books and now they are Facebook and Amazon.

Well, for me, all of these started with a startup idea, in my 1st year of my Btech. I was never curious about Web Development. But for that idea, I thought,"Let's give it a shot". And now here I am writing a post about my "Soul-FieldofInterest".

You all might have encountered with those registration information forms for joining a social media or those survey forms you get online or (the least expected one) the Google docs for class tests. Let's use that. Let me explain how things are interesting with WebDev; not just after you become a web developer but also while you are learning to be a Web Developer.

Note: The following things have alternatives. These are just to explain things.

HTML

Some of you might get a question,"Using which language we can code HTML?".

"HyperText Markup Language is the 
standard markup language for documents
designed to be displayed in a web 
browser."- Wikipedia

Ya, bla bla bla , you will learn about those terms someday.
So the answer to the previous question is "No, you don't code HTML. You build websites using HTML."

Well, whatever you see in the internet is HTML( more like hundreds of lines of HTML). If we compare this with our body, then HTML is like our skeletal system.

Let's go to the form.

Source : Codepen

See that's how your browser treats HTML file.
You get fields to fillup and then submit.
But that's it? Real world websites doesn't look like that? It's uglier than me .

CSS

Here comes CSS into play. He is the Genie for HTML aladdin.

"Cascading Style Sheets is a style 
sheet language used for describing 
the presentation of a document written 
in a markup language like HTML."- Wikipedia

Again, a bla bla bla
In simple words, that makes our HTML file..

Source : Codepen

...beautiful? or more than that?
Well, it's like a makeup kit. A kit with few lines of code.
Trust me that's the same HTML code with CSS. This might look like a huge change and a tough thing but it is hardly 15-20 lines of code. CSS is like muscles and organs for HTML.

That's why couples say,"You are the CSS to my HTML".

And now with CSS, HTML looks like me( my mom's version of me )

Cool, now we have the website. We are done here. That's all about Webdev. But, wait a minute, how will you know the data given in the form is valid? Someone might give an incorrect email address or some invalid phone number? How will you tackle that?

JAVASCRIPT

In the present world, "look sells" .
You and I as a customer will always look for something which is interactive.
This is where Javascript comes into play.

"JavaScript is most 
well-known as the scripting 
language for Web pages, many 
non-browser environments also 
use it". - MDN

Javascript helps us to validate data, make the interface user interactive, build a web app, build servers etc. etc. All those interactive animations in the websites are a gift from JS. It is like a soul for your body. I believe that's the part you find webdev a bit rough but once it's done you will love it.

Source:Freefrontend

This is where the Front-end work ends and Back-end work joins us.

Backend

(I chose PHP for the backend works, you have options )

Using the form, you collected the data but you need to process it and store it somewhere. This is the use of Backend.
It helps you reuse data collected. It helps you make a website dynamic(means to show different results under different situations). Ever wondered, do Facebook has different code for different users? There are millions of users and millions of code?
No, It uses one code which changes according to the user.

Backend includes a lot and lot of things like storing and using data from Database(like Mysql or Mongodb), creating services, dealing with server,"not just about making websites or web apps" and the list goes on. After this, you go deeper and explore frameworks, libraries etc. There is more but I won't like to extend this post.

But at this point, I realised "WebDev it is. 
That's fun.". <3 :)

You see the fun? where you learn things step by step. Every step makes you see and feel,that you have improved. Just like a mini-success before a huge success. Adding a CSS to HTML feels like that childhood memory of try the Coloring book for the first time.

As I said earlier, try every field. I tried most of them but I never found them so connected.

Webdev is all about you and your creativity. It is all about how and what you think. This is the thing that can integrate with any other field. You can practice it in your free time and you won't feel bored. You can do freelancing and earn. That's the thing that don't need a degree. It lets you get into a huge community. And rest things are surprises or suspense things, which I don't wan't to spoil for you.

What else do you need as a developer?

I hope you get an idea about WebDevelopement. If you are a WebDeveloper, I would love to know why do you love this so much?