I am seriously thinking of Joining CodeAcademy. I like the self contained environment as it provides as it cuts to the chase and removes the initial barrier involved in learning a new language.
However, after jumping around and taking a few lessons here and there, as well as reading reviews on other sites, I am a bit worried that CS may not be for me.
Let me explain: I have been coding for 20 years, but I have been more of a troubleshooter than a code monkey.
I know enough to edit and modify existing code for my own purposes but I have never built a complete applications. I have been part of teams where I spec’d the application, the programmers made the building blocks and I guided it through completion, but I have never built one by myself.
In the 90’s /early 2000 I worked with a .com company, later, after a health related “retirement” I started working with Open Source software, in lieu of the team I no longer had.
All of this allowed me to make a living and focus on what I do best, hiring programmers as necessary, etc. but I feel like I am handicapped by my ignorance about building something from scratch.
CA looks great for a classroom environment or for an experienced programmer to learn the syntax for a new language, but I am afraid that for me it may not be enough.
I’d like to hear from other “singletons” that have learned coding on CA and how they approached this issue.
Is there a point in these courses when a student leaves the “gated community” inside CA behind and can take a class on how to solve a real life problem using the skills learned therein?
By the way, I have to say that I really appreciate the format of CA, insofar as most of the classes (all of the ones I looked at so far) had written instructions. I am really tired of listening to the video rambling of some guy with an accent other than mine (and trust me: My Italian accent makes me sound like Father Guido Sarducci) and continuously have to skip backwards and forward to learn some concept I didn’t get the first time around. Very refreshing.