One of the big trends of the past couple years, spurred the growing demand for programmers, is the rise of in-browser programming tutorials. Gone are the days when you’d have to buy a book and configure a development environment before you could get your hands dirty with a little code.
Maybe you want to start learning on your work computer and don’t have access to install a programming environment. Or maybe you want to get started right away and don’t want to deal with ordering books or installing software. Whatever your motivation, here are five places you can point your browser at right now to get started.
3. Khan Academy
4. Code School
Other courses cover Git, CSS, Ruby on Rails, Node.js and more.
The courses include videos followed by interactive exercises, along with artwork and themes. “Rails For Zombies,” the intro course on Ruby on Rails is shown above.
5. Code Avengers
Bonus 1: Programr
Programr, which we’ve covered before, doesn’t offer many in-browser lessons (though there are a few), but it provides a browser based space for learning and experimenting with different languages from within a browser without the need to install a programming language and development environment. It’s not the only browser based development environment – companies like Code9 IDE and Action are also making it possible to develop for the web from the web. But Programr is focused on learning and experimentation.
Bonus 2: Try Ruby
TryRuby is a web based Ruby tutorial created by the famous why a lucky stiff and now maintained by Andrew McElroy. It was one of the first ever in browser coding tutorials. I found it to be a bit buggy when I tried it a couple years ago (though apparently McElroy), and it’s been superseded by the cross-platform desktop app Hackety Hack.
from TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/21/5-ways-to-learn-code-from-the-comfort-of-your-own-browser/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29