Abraham - Coding All-in-One For Dummies

Coding All-in-One For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Media and software compilation copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935595

ISBN 978-1-119-36302-6 (pbk); 978-1-119-36303-3 (epub); 978-1-119-36305-7 (epdf)

1. Table of Contents

The ability to read, write, and understand code has never been more important, useful, or lucrative than it is today. Computer code has forever changed our lives. Many people cant even make it through the day without interacting with something built with code. Even so, for many people, the world of coding seems complex and inaccessible. Maybe you participated in a tech-related business meeting and did not fully understand the conversation. Perhaps you tried to build a web page for your family and friends, but ran into problems displaying pictures or aligning text. Maybe youre even intimidated by the unrecognizable words on the covers of books about coding, words such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, or Ruby.

If youve previously been in these situations, then Coding All-in-One For Dummies is for you. This book explains basic concepts so you can participate in technical conversations and ask the right questions, and it goes even further than Coding For Dummies by covering additional topics in data science, machine learning, and coding careers. Dont worry this book assumes youre starting with little to no previous coding knowledge, and I havent tried to cram every possible coding concept into these pages. Additionally, I encourage you here to learn by doing and by actually creating your own programs. Instead of a website, imagine that you want to build a house. You could spend eight years studying to be an architect, or you could start today by learning a little bit about foundations and framing. This book kick-starts your coding journey today.

The importance of coding is ever-increasing. As author and technologist Douglas Rushkoff famously said, program or be programmed. When humans invented languages and then the alphabet, people learned to listen and speak, and then read and write. In our increasingly digital world, its important to learn not just how to use programs but also how to make them. For example, observe this transition in music. For over a century, music labels decided what songs the public could listen to and purchase. In 2005, three coders created YouTube, which allowed anyone to release songs. Today more songs have been uploaded to YouTube than have been released by all the record labels combined in the past century.

Accompanying this book are examples at www.codecademy.com , whose exercises are one of the easiest ways to learn how to code without installing or downloading anything. The Codecademy website includes examples and exercises from this book, along with projects and examples for additional practice.

This book is designed for readers with little to no coding experience, and gives an overview of programming to non-programmers. In plain English, you learn how code is used to create web programs, who makes those programs, and the processes they use. The topics covered include

• Explaining what coding is and answering the common questions related to code
• Building basic websites using the three most common languages: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Surveying other programming languages such as Python
• Creating an application using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Analyzing data using machine learning algorithms and techniques
• Exploring coding careers paths and different ways to learn how to code

As you read this book, keep the following in mind:

• The book can be read from beginning to end, but feel free to skip around if you like. If a topic interests you, start there. You can always return to the previous chapters, if necessary.
• At some point, you will get stuck, and the code you write will not work as intended. Do not fear! There are many resources to help you, including support forums, others on the Internet, and me! Using Twitter, you can send me a public message at @nikhilgabraham with the hashtag #codingFD . Additionally, you can sign up for book updates and explanations for changes to programming language commands by visiting