In my last blog post, I talked about the exciting opportunities that Python offers. I am sure after looking up and researching Python, you are very eager to start writing some code and creating some awesome web applications in Django! Let us take a step back for a second though and talk about installing Python 3 and setting up your local environment. In this post, I will be covering how to start developing in Python for Windows 10. Hopefully, this list of steps will help you quickly and efficiently set up Python for local development. If you are more interested in Python web development or prefer working in a Linux environment, I recommend this document Microsoft Python Web-Frameworks, and these documents on setting up WSL2 Visual Studio WSL Tutorial, Microsoft Install WSL and WSL2.
Let me start off by saying that I think Ruby and Ruby on Rails is great. It’s a nice object-oriented language with easy-to-read syntax. But sometimes it stops working for me. It’s not the language that gives me trouble, but the actual installation of Ruby and Rails that is the culprit. I am still figuring out if it is my OS (yes, I am a Windows user running Ruby), a WSL2 issue, plain bad luck, or all the above. Sometimes my commands stop working and I get strange errors like “You need to install Ruby” followed by “You already have the latest version of Ruby.” So, after the most recent snafu in my Ruby development, I decided to take a break and try out a new language. I wanted to learn a well-documented language with similar syntax to Ruby and, as a bonus, was also named after a famous comedy troupe. Luckily, there is a language that meets all of those requirements: Python.
My Developer Goals of 2021
My time as a Flatiron student is coming to an end, but my career as a software developer is just beginning. This transition has made me think about my career goals and what I personally want to achieve as a software developer. I will soon post a blog about my computer science goals for 2021, but for now I want to reflect on my workflow and how I can improve it for maximum productivity. Let me share with you my process of frontend setup with “An Animator’s Dozen” and what I learned about my initial workflow.
When I started learning to code, I was told that after your first language, other languages come much more easily. After spending almost a year on Ruby, I thought I would pick up JavaScript with relative ease. However, it turns out that each language has its quirks, and learning a new language is more difficult than I anticipated. I was disappointed that JavaScript did not automatically “click.” I wanted it to be Ruby, but it’s not Ruby. I wanted it to be fully object-oriented, but it’s not quite that either. JS is the most popular front-end programming language. I knew I needed to learn JavaScript. It was the necessary path and that path led me to appreciate JS more and that I should embrace new languages.