So, this is the start of my Codecamp sessions.

When I decided it was time to get into development I was crushed by the weight of choosing language/framework to start with. I mean, raising kids or fixing the credit crunch seems like nothing compared to getting into this three-lettered djungle that is in front of me.

Based on my past experiences and my current tech crush it was easy to figure out what and where i needed to dig in to get the most out of Codecamp:

The fundamentals of a web project

The behavior layer (5) Is executed on the client and defines how different elements behave when the user interacts with them (JavaScript or ActionScript for Flash sites).
The presentation layer (4) Is displayed on the client and is the look of the web page (CSS, imagery).
The structure layer (3) Is converted or displayed by the user agent. This is the markup defining what a certain text or media is (XHTML).
The content layer (2) Is stored on the server and consists of all the text, images, and multimedia content that are used on the site (XML, database, media assets).
The business logic layer/back end (1) Runs on the server and determines what is done with incoming data and what gets returned to the user.

In the past I have mostly worked with 2, 3 and 4. But 5 and 1 is my Achilles’ heal. So that is what I’m going to focus Codeplay around.

But still the question is, what language do I choose?

I had two “musts”, it had to be easy to learn so that I could get some fast results and it had to have a “future”. As an experienced developer you will say “what do you mean by future? … and who are you to decide what stuff has a future?”.

Well, I can in no way decide which language is best and what has the most potential future. I could easily go for PHP, .Net or something similar, but after asking a bunch of my experienced friends those languages have come to a “stale” meaning that they isn’t breaking new ground as fast as other newer languages.

So after some consideration I did go with JavaScript and Ruby on Rails/Merb. Why?

Ruby on Rails, as I have understood through research and a little testing is clean, simple, has a really low learning threshold. For me as a designer I really value quick results. Also the community surrounding RoR is providing the future with its fast development like Merb.

Javascript is maybe a strange choice but in my opinion it is one of the cornerstones when creating user experiences in a web project. Javascript also gives you a nice way into Flash/ActionScript, Air, AJAX, jQwery and such. But the main reason for choosing JS is that it can be used to script applications such as the Adobe CS. By choosing JS I will get a great language that is really good in web development but it will also let me create scripts and plugins for the desktop apps I’m using on a daily basis in my client projects. Once I got the JS going it’s no biggie digging deeper into JS “parent” language C and C++ … and that gives you a way into Xcode and native Mac application development … well maybe I’m getting a little bit ahead of things here but what the heck …

So from now on Codecamp will focus firstly on JS and secondly on RoR.

I’ve already spent about 30 hours with JS for the first Codecamp project. But I’ll get to that in a later post.

Take care!

[Update]: I’ve renamed the Codeplay project to Codecamp since there is a company in the UK named Codeplay. My mistake, didn’t mean to cause any copyright infringements.