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Resources and Tools

These are some of the resources and tools that I use regularly.

  • Mozilla Developer Network which is a documentation site which aims to centralize web development documentation for standard technologies.
  • For a basic code editor with advanced plugins available, I recommend Visual Studio Code. If you want a full Integrated Development Environment, then it's WebStorm that I personally use.
  • Open Courseware. This is an awesome initiative by higher-education to release their course materials and even recordings of the lectures online for free viewing. I recommend going through MIT's Introduction to Computer Science and Programming course to get started.
  • Here are some blogs and people that I follow
    • HTML5Rocks is an amazing resource for detailed blog posts on the technical aspects of HTML5 features. The why and how of the specs are discussed and what the best way to go about doing things is. An oldie but goodie here is How browsers work which is a must-read. 
    • Smashing Magazine is a great blog for design-related things. 
    • CSS Tricks is a great place to go for neat things that CSS can do for you. Also plenty of articles in the archives on not just what, but how and why on some of the CSS internals as well.
  • I recommend learning about IPv6, so here are some things for that.
    • IPv6 certification from Hurrican Electric is an awesome starting point. I still haven't finished this course myself, but many others have and it does give you a good basic understanding of v6 and how to implement it.
    • NewCircle Training recorded an excellent small talk followed by a Q&A on IPv6. It is titled Introduction to IPv6 on YouTube.
  • JavaScript (ECMAScript by the standard name) is the programming language of the web, so this is a must-learn for any programmers.
    • The Crockford on JavaScript series on YouTube is an awesome starting point, at least the first video is to get going.
    • Once that video is watched, read JS the Good Parts written by Douglas Crockford.
    • Now that the book is done, go finish the YouTube series Crockford on JavaScript from the first bullet point of this list.
    • Ok, so it has been a long few days for you, but those are done. Now pick up JavaScript the Definitive Guide and peruse it (Extra credit challenge, read it from cover to cover. No prizes given for completion except holy knowledge bestowed upon completer.)
  • Online code sharing tools are useful. Even more useful are the ones that let you run code.
    • If you want to share your creative side, look no further than Codepen. Chris Coyier (the myth behind CSS Tricks) is one of the authors of Codepen. It has a very nice community of designers and developers sharing their creativity (even some great mind-bender samples.)
  • Misc stuff:
    • Content Security Policy. This is an awesome technology that can help prevent XSS attack against your site, among other things. Probably the best reason to use this besides the defense from attacks, is it enforcing better coding styles. Since you need to remove all scripting and styling from your HTML. Knock out two birds with one stone today and look into enabling this on your site.
      • Mike West has a good talk on this topic. Slides are also on his site below the video.
      • HTML5 Rocks has a good introductory tutorial on the topic. Written by the aforementioned Mike West.
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