Different realms of computing

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Different realms of computing

Web / cloud
Web / cloud

Web / cloud

Web development is split into 2 topics

Front-end (how the website/app looks. The user interface)

Javascript with React is the industry standard and also most intuitive way to learn.

Back-end (storing data in the cloud, connecting users to information and files, connecting users to each other)

Javascript, Python, C#, Go, and Java are popular options.

SQL, GraphQL, and related languages for storing and retrieving data from a database

Coding languages for students to learn

Javascript

Typescript (it’s Javascript with some additional things to make it harder to make mistakes but less simple to get started. Anywhere Javascript works, Typescript also works.)

Important libraries to learn

Front-end

React (to create UI elements for websites/apps. Learning this, students will automatically learn HTML and CSS. Those don't need to be explicitly taught)

Important concepts for high school students to learn

How to fetch data from third party APIs and data sources

This data is usually in JSON format

How to interpret data and filter only the information that you need

How to write a function that runs in a cloud server

How to make a persistent connection for chatting or realtime collaboration (like Google docs)

How to make a website/app UI that is attractive

How to make a website/app UI that updates when new data is available (ex load new images for a photo gallery, or new news articles when the user scrolls)

Event-driven programming (callbacks, promises).

Ex “run this code once you get the data from the cloud. You can do other stuff in the meantime”

Important tools used in industry

Cloud service to host files and run code

Amazon Web Services

Most commonly used. So many options that it becomes confusing for new learners. Documentation isn't great, but a lot of third-party tutorials.

Google Cloud Platform

Easier to use than AWS but a lot of similar confusion for novices. Documentation is better in some places and worse in others. Fewer online examples

Microsoft Azure

Somewhere in between AWS and Google Cloud Platform.

Cloudflare (Workers)

Some features of Cloudflare are confusing to think about

BUT Cloudflare Workers (their platform to run code in the cloud) is really easy well-documented, has a lot of good examples by Cloudflare, and can be tested in the browser, so it's potentially easier to teach students.

All platforms have good free tiers for students but Cloudflare’s is especially generous

Apps to write code

VS Code is really popular

Some other editors like Atom and Brackets exist but they're really similar and less popular.

Replit. A purely web-based editor, so you don’t need to install anything on your local computer. Coders still need to learn how to use the command line / terminal. Replit can also host apps and run the code

Apps to design products

Figma is now the industry standard for designing app mockups. It is free to use in education and can run in the browser.

Web / cloudWeb / cloud