This was a great workshop from Girl Develop It that covered the basics of Git source control. We went over saving files and committing changes, viewing the Git log, viewing differences, pushing and pulling to GitHub and much more.

Here is a link to the slides from the presentation: http://gdichicago.com/courses/git-github/#/

https://www.meetup.com/Girl-Develop-It-Chicago-IL/events/238943686/

Free Code Camp

When I visited Girl Develop It, someone mentioned they were working on Free Code Camp. There are already like a million places to learn to code, but I figured I would check it out. This is one of the best resources I have found to bring a new person down a path to learn to code and it's absolutely FREE! I am using this to supplement my learning java which is more of a back end language and learning front end development with free code camp. I have realized learning to code is way more complicated than just learning java. I am still working on learning GitHub and my IDE among other things on a long to do list. This is why you now see two progress bars for learning to code when I originally only had one. Check out this great resource if you get a chance: https://www.freecodecamp.com.

Beginner Java Developer Meetup

Meetup #5: MIT Course Lesson 3 
Today we completed MIT Lesson 3 about loops and arrays. We also completed the assignment #3 called Marathon. I will be setting up a GitHub for our group to hold code in the future.

We will pick up on lesson 4 at the next meetup. 

Please review lesson 4 for the next meetup. We will start working on objects and classes.

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-092-introduction-to-programming-in-java-january-iap-2010/

https://www.meetup.com/Beginner-Java-Developer-Meetup/

CJUG Office Hours

I went to the CJUG office hours again and have been learning quite a bit. There are some great people there who are willing to help. I learned about iterating through arrays and how to compare array items to each other. I learned about using MIN and MAX value when trying to find the lowest or highest value of a set. Here's a link to their meetup if you are interested in finding out more:
https://www.meetup.com/ChicagoJUG/

Mongo DB with Node School Chicago

This was a nice introduction to Mongo DB. They had a representative from Mongo who gave a nice description of Mongo DB and what it does. Mongo reads and writes JSON data at webscale very fast. It is not a relational database but is optimized for speed so some data may be duplicated. BSON is the binary JSON type that is used by Mongo. The data is passed between a server and a listener which normally executes Javascript. Each action is completed on the primary server and then goes to an oplog that is then also written to the secondary. There is an upcoming Mongo conference in Chicago June 20-21 if you are interested in learning more about Mongo.

CJUG office hours

Here is a great new offering for those near Chicago trying to learn java. CJUG office hours.
Here, several experienced Java developers will help you work on a project or just code together. I met a bunch of great people. Unfortunately I did not have a project to work on yet, but I did work on a bunch of coding problems and get some great help. I look forward to attending more of these in the future.
https://www.meetup.com/ChicagoJUG/events/238116477/

Beginner Java Developer Meetup

Meetup #4: MIT Course Lesson 2

Today we finished going over the MIT Lesson 2 and activities about types, methods and conditionals. We found a few shortcuts to reuse code and make it more concise.

We will pick up on lesson 3 at the next meetup.

Please review lesson 3 for the next meetup. We will start working on loops and arrays.

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-092-introduction-to-programming-in-java-january-iap-2010/

Anita Borg Institute - Intro to Java

I attended this workshop "Intro to Java"  hosted by the Anita Borg Institute held at Coding Dojo.
This was a quick overview of the Java language with everything from character types to lambda expressions. This was a short two hour course that reinforced most of the main java concepts found in beginner java books. There was not much time to follow along since the instructors code was prepared ahead, but repetition of concepts definitely helps with understanding of the language in general.

Projects... Projects... Projects!!!

Now that I have attended a bunch of meetups and spoke with quite a few people regarding learning to code, I think it is time for me to refocus my efforts. I'm going to take bits learned from a bunch of places and put it back together to revamp my study efforts.

Projects... Projects... Projects!!!

Recommendations for learning to code have echoed the projects message over and over and this is one I cannot ignore. Recommendations have also included the importance of knowing JavaScript and HTML/CSS as well as database and Git.

Right now I am still working on the Google Study Jam for Android as well as the MIT course for Java. I plan to keep working on these until the Study Jam is over but then switch to 50% projects and 50% study work and tutorials. I do like following along with tutorials and working on practice problems so I do not want to eliminate this entirely.

I'm going to use the recommendation of 90min of focused study (no distractions) followed by 30min breaks. Also using the peak time of day when I am most focused for working on the projects.

I also have decided to make a list of subjects I am interested in learning and to visit only related meetups as to not waste time. I have visited a few boot camps curriculum and personalized my own list which includes Java, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Servlets, SQL, Git and more.

Coding Dojo - HTML and CSS

So I took HTML and CSS in college a few years ago, but how quickly we forget when not using a skill. I went to this free all day course to refresh my memory and use the info acquired to try to build my own website in the near future.

It was a great refresher. I won't go into details since it involved a lot of technical details of HTML and CSS, but I will add a link to W3schools where you can validate your code and find tutorials and explanations.
https://www.w3schools.com/

I did like the atmosphere of Coding Dojo. The teachers explained things in ways that were easy to understand. They have both an online and in person boot camp with several learning options with scholarships available.