So, just recently I realised that my skillset was getting a little old. I’ve dabbled with web coding using languages such as PHP for about 20 years, but this has always been as a necessity of my work. I learned what I needed for the task at hand, and that was all.
The code I’ve been working with for the last couple of decades was put together under pressures of time and and a need to just “make it work”, leading to a script that worked but wasn’t easily understandable many years later.
Every update of PHP and MySQL/MariaDB necessitated an update to the PHP scripts, a requirement that became more and more difficult as the years went by. It took an upgrade to PHP8 in 2021 for me to realise that the existing code couldn’t continue in the haphazard manner it had become.
At first I spent many long hours, days, and weeks to update the code in my own time. Many long days and isolated nights separating out much of the confusing mess into more easily-relatable functions and modules, all the time updating the code to PHP8 and the MySQL code to suit MariaDB & PDO, and anything else that had changed over the years.
This overhaul took several months, with more than one sleepless night due to bug-fixing. Once the code become more easily understandable, I decided it would be even more useable if I switched from the old procedural method of coding and to tidier OOP (Object Oriented Programming) method. After a number of months spending more time than was sane to update the code to this method, it then became apparent that the coding I’d been updating wouldn’t be used going forward.
So, what to do with all of the new things I’d learned with coding? How to make what I’d learned relevant in today’s world?
Today’s world, and the landscape going forward, seems to be predominantly about “Apps”. Using what I already know, adapting it, and “upskilling” to code my own Apps seemed to be a good use of the knowledge and experience littering my head.
Going into App-coding as a “newbie” is like wading into a mire of not knowing what to expect. Would my web-coding really be useful when it came to Apps? How to find out…
Searching the Internet, as a newbie is wont to do, I immediately fell upon Apple’s own coding IDE – Xcode. Fine, but how to use it? What’s the best way to learn?
It wasn’t long before I discovered codewithchris.com. I watched his introductory video, and then started the free 14-day Beginner’s Challenge. It may seem challenging at first, to be told that you will have created an App by the end of the course, but it is something you WILL achieve. Moreover, if you’ve taken in what you’ve learned during the course, you’ll actually end up with two different Apps that you can put on your iPhone and show to your friends and family.
The “Beginner’s Course” gives you adequate understanding of whether becoming an App Developer is for you or not, before you commit yourself by paying for anything. By the end of the course, I was hooked…
I will be posting here after most lessons which I hope will provide me with some reassurance that, when learning is difficult, I have overcome hurdles before. I’ll be able to look back and see how far I’ve come and that will give me the inspiration and motivation to continue.
Above all, my goal is to LearnNewStuff.
