In my quest to forge a path in learning to code by browsing the courses available from CodeWithChris, I came across some courses created by Big Mountain Studio.
The first course on this journey is SwiftUI Views Specialist Course. On the surface, this appears to take us over old ground that Chris has already covered but, in the hope of cementing my knowledge from previous courses, I started this new course.
I was in for a big surprise.
The course is taught by Mark Moeykens from Big Mountain Studio, and he presents the courses in a fun style with lots of enthusiasm. His more laid-back approach is kind of infectious and you instinctively believe that you can do whatever it is he’s telling you about.
The course is structured in lessons, similar to previous CodeWithChris courses, with challenges. Each “challenge” comes with a reward. It appears as though these were previously managed by an “unlock key” through Big Mountain Studio‘s forum but, here, they’re presented as just part of the course with nothing to unlock.
Mark’s approach to the lessons is to create a series of “view blueprints” – an arsenal of layouts created from views and shapes, ultimately leading up to amassing a library of “starting points” for future projects.
Yes, a lot of the early lessons and modules in this course do retread old ground, but it’s kind of helpful and reassuring to know that much of what he’s teaching has sunk in. Knowing this makes it easier and quicker to progress through the lessons and onto the next one.
I’m glad I decided to take a peek into this course shortly after starting my own first app because it is a bit of a hurdle to try and visualise what you want your app to look like. I believe that working on this “arsenal of blueprints” will give me plenty of ideas and thoughts on that score. That this is proving to be such an enjoyable course, thanks to Mark’s presentation style, is a massive bonus.
