Lambda School Precourse

Worked through some of Lambda School's precourse material today.

Notes:

A software engineer is someone who writes computer code in order to create and maintain software.

The greatest skill a software engineer must possess is being able to stay calm in the face of a complex problem, and using his or her own creativity (along with online resources) to find the solution.

Front end refers to everything you see when you open a web page or app (also referred to as 'presentation layer' or 'client'). The front end is built out of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Back end refers to what happens behind the scenes (also referred to as 'data access layer' or 'servers'). E.g. servers, databases, information processing, etc. The back end computes the data and content sent to the front end to be used and displayed by your browser. Back end server code can be written using JS, Ruby, Java, Python, etc. The database logic required in the backend often uses a database language such as SQL or MongoDB.

Frameworks are like add-ons to existing languages.

• Pros: utilizing code already written to solve a specific problem, less code you have to write, increased functionality.
• Cons: different syntax, increased learning curve, decreased customization.

Some unique challenges web developers face:

• Accessibility
• Load times
• Browser compatibility

If we think of a web app as a house, HTML is our raw materials, CSS is our paint and decorations, and JS is our electricity and plumbing.