#112 overall
JavaScript and jQuery
Codecademy
4 recommenders · 4 threads · recommended in 4 years, 2012–2025 · score 3.8
Codecademy's interactive course covering JavaScript and jQuery for building interactive pages in the browser. Lessons alternate short explanations with exercises that show results immediately in a built-in browser preview.
Commenters cite its hands-on format, where you see the results of each exercise right away, as a practical way to learn JavaScript and jQuery for web work.
Web & Mobile Developmentbeginnerfreeinteractive MOOC#javascript#jquery#web development#interactive exercises#codecademy
Recommendations by year
20062026
I see programming as a means to an end. For me, that end is creating interactive websites. For this reason, I found Eloquent JavaScript to be very boring. Most of the book talks about using the language to solve contrived, silly problems like keeping track of your aunt's cats. It got interesting only towards the end, when it started explaining how JavaScript can be used to actually DO things in the browser.
I would recommend Codecademy instead. I like it a lot because the courses consist of short parts where it first describes what you are going to do and why, and then makes you do it. You then see the fruits of your efforts on the mini-browser immediately. For me that was huge, because it is much easier to put the stuff you learn into context when you are seeing the results right away.
Eloquent JavaScript would be great if you want to get down to the knitty-gritty details of the language. But I would argue that not everyone needs that level of detail at the beginning.
edit: not sure why I'm being downvoted...
Sounds like you may not be ready to read this tutorial just yet. Maybe get more experience in the terminal, and read docs on specific languages (elixir has good ones, for instance) or take a hands-on course (like Codecademy Javascript, etc).
Then, once you have more experience, you can go back to that tutorial and try reading it with more polished eyes.
What you've posted is the equivalent of me taking a new interest in cooking but applying to culinary school. If I haven't cooked in a real (production, high volume) kitchen, it's all gonna be Greek, overwhelming, and turn me off.
The way I taught myself web development was: 1) The excellent Udacity courses (might not be free anymore, but they offer 50% back if you don't find a job). 2) Codeacademy for Javascript and jQuery. 3) Then, you need to build a project front to back. Choose a project that there is a similar one online that you can learn from. My first webapp is: http://sudokuisland.com 4) Google + StackOverflow
It took many months of work, but I definitely know enough to pick up whatever I need now for projects.
I'm still a student myself and won't pretend to know which is best, but I can share the resources I've been using.
There are two great interactive courses on Udacity.com that will be helpful if you choose Python. The first course teaches you how to build a basic search engine while learning the Python language. Sergey Brin even makes an appearance. The second course is on how to create a web app using Python taught by a co-founder of Reddit (Steve Huffman). Both are totally free and incredibly high quality.
Codecademy.com will teach you Javascript for free. The Javascript tutorial is really great, but the jQuery tutorial has mixed reviews.
Finally, the de facto place to learn Ruby on Rails is railstutorial.org. The content is freely available as HTML, but the PDFs and screencasts are well worth the money.
Good luck!