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I need help getting back into development (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/programming

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A little background: Through my teens in the 90's I did a lot of the things you may expect. I was a script kiddie on mIRC, made a tank game in Unreal Engine, and did some Quake modding. From 2002-2004 I landed a job doing Java web dev, SQL, and overall database administration because my father's friend needed someone that could do that. I was ok at the job, but not great. Being young, my hobby that turned into a 9-5 made me want to stab my eyes out and I quit.

With that said, I can understand a lot of what's going on, but it doesn't "click" anymore. I spent 20 years as a career machinist, but I physically can't do that anymore. Here's the rub - my twin brother is a brittle diabetic and can't work (lots of other stuff going on as well), and our mother is getting old (father passed this year). The only reasonable way forward that I can see in order to be able to support my brother is trying to get back into development.

When I stopped, subversion was what we used. I'm trying to understand Git, but it's a giant conceptual leap. I guess, what I'd like to hear from you all is a way to jump back in as quickly as possible in such a way that it may be a career.

Thanks

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I want you to understand how surreal this particular link is for me. Video edits are my hobby, and I've just recently started yet another play-through of Morrowind. I get the whole "do actual projects" thing and that's valid, but I've no clue where to start here. Should I finally learn C#? Is Rust the only way forward? Should I just try to catch back up on Java? I guess what I'm asking here is should I just try to find a FLOSS/OSS project and try to contribute or think of something new?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

All the cool kids right now are mostly on JavaScript/type script. It’s probably a good place to get started since you’ll need it on the front end.

I’m guessing most work on the U.S. side is react. You can probably pick up a bit of node/react native as you go for the backend and for native dev.

Java is the new COBOL. Big corps luuuuuuuuurve it. It’s not what I would expect a single dev to use. C# is similar but smaller, if you forget unity game dev. And you should forget unity game dev.

Rust is basically a less bad C. If you do things you used to do in C, learn rust. If not, don’t.

Python is also still a thing. If you like it you can probably use it for most things, but if not there are other options.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

If you do decide to go the web route, I recommend Build Responsive Real-World Websites with HTML and CSS and The Complete JavaScript Course 2024: From Zero to Expert! as a good starting point. Being Udemy, you don't have to pay full price. If they don't have a sale on now, they will fairly soon. The courses are worth full price though!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My heart belongs to Vue.js

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I like Vue better than react tbh.

My latest project is alpine.js. It’s not bad, it stays out of the way.

That said, I don’t do front end often enough to keep up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Mixing js and template like react does with jsx has always rubbed me wrong. I like how Vue separates everything.

{!found && <p>Not Found</p>} 😕

<p v-if=“!found”>Not Found</p> 🙂

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yes!

But I’ve learned that there are A LOT of people that are incredibly pritective of react, so I generally don’t wade out into that particular debate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I think for me it is because my background is in the web first, as opposed to having gone to school for general computer science and then entered web apps second. The idea of returning blocks of HTML with JSX makes more sense to them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You can either decide by what is currently in demand in the industry and then pick a project that you can exercise that language with or you can think of a project you'd like to do and then go by what the best language is for a given project.

In the end, languages are just like different wrenches. First you have to learn how to use a wrench, size or features don't matter much at this point (unless you already know that you want to become an expert with one particular wrench).

I think starting a new project is way easier than contributing to an existing one.