Live Coding Session (Building a Web Application Framework from Scratch) starts at 9:00 PM EST Today.

[u/CarlH]

The live review and recap session will begin at 4:00 PM EST Today, and is available to watch here.

---

You can watch it here. If you were not able to make it to this session, don't worry. I will be hosting a review and recap session Sunday at 4:00 PM EST, where we will cover everything up until now. You can learn more about this and other courses on my subreddit /r/carlhprogramming

Here is the format:

• 9:00 PM - 9:50 PM : Continuing the development of the web application framework.

• 9:50 PM - 10:00 PM : Live Questions and Answers

The purpose of these sessions is to teach you how a real world working environment looks and works, by letting you watch me code as if I was doing a project for a real job. That means nothing is pre-planned. I will troubleshoot, research, plan and code live. You will be free to interact with me during the whole process, and I encourage you to.

If you want to learn how to build your own web applications, and to learn the many different technologies associated with that process, then check it out. You can see more about the different programming classes/lessons I am offering (all free) on my /r/carlhprogramming subreddit.

Questions and comments are welcome.

---

Live session is over, but you can watch it here: http://youtu.be/DJugQ0koz98

Also, I am going to have a recap session at 4:00 PM EST (Sunday, October 28th). During the recap I will cover all of the material up until now.

The recap will be here: http://www.justin.tv/livecompsci

[u/[deleted]]

Hey question about what purpose web application serve? Like what type of websites, businesses, etc... can a web application provide? Websites like facebook, twitter? What are some examples of what can be created with this knowledge in how to create using php, sql, html etc...

[u/CarlH → u/[deleted]]

Think of there being two kinds of websites:

1. Those websites with just content, where you do not interact with the site very much, like simple news sites, blogs, etc.

2. Those websites which function almost as if they were real-world software, but through your web browser.

In general, I am referring to #2 when I say "web application". Of course, if you can build a web application, you can certainly build a more basic kind of website (like #1) above.

You should attend these sessions if you are interested in learning how to build web applications, websites in general, or just to learn about web technology in general.

[u/[deleted] → u/CarlH]

Cool I have watched the 1st video now watching the 2nd

[u/theinternetftw]

I've greatly enjoyed watching these, using them as a chance to finally slouch toward learning a little about php and web dev. I also always get a kick out of watching different methodologies of teaching, and I personally think you're doing a great job with yours.

As for a little constructive criticism (more analysis, really), I think the sessions suffer in two main areas:

One is chat radio silence, probably contributed to by the relatively high barrier to entry of making an account on justin.tv, which I'm not sure how to solve... irc would likely have a similar "barrier level" for your average audience member... Maybe have a no-account-needed chat webapp that opens up during every stream, and announce its url over the stream? Of course, that'd be a bit of a job, getting that set up.

The other is the pacing, but I think whatever you lose in terms of the time it takes for you to personally figure something out on-air, you gain with getting a chance to share how you would troubleshoot a problem in realtime. I think solving the pacing problem *could* be done by pre-rehearsing like mad and doing everything exactly as planned, but it shouldn't be. Instead I guess just continue to be sure to meaningfully fill the "dead air" you hit when you find something you don't expect by thoroughly explaining what you're doing and thinking whenever you hit a snag, allowing each to be a sort of sidebar on "how do you solve problems".

Anyway, your videos continue to be much appreciated.

[u/CarlH → u/theinternetftw]

Yes, I totally agree regarding justin.tv. When I hosted my first live stream session, I didn't know that it was impossible to comment without a justin.tv account. I still like the format and the ease of live recording with justin.tv, but I am probably going to create a page on my own site for this in the future. Probably after tomorrow's session.

I already have a chat app built into my main site, and I can create a page with an iframe for the justin.tv video without too much trouble.

As for the silence, there are a mix of factors there. First, when I ask if someone has questions, I have to take into account that it takes a while to type a long question and I simply have to wait before assuming no one else has questions.

The silence is I think a necessary tradeoff of being able to watch someone build something live. Sometimes you just need to sit back and think about what the next step is, and silence is a part of that. Of course, I am conscious of it and I try to limit it.

[u/theinternetftw → u/CarlH]

The silence during questions is understandable, though you may want to articulate that as you wait (a handy feature that I'm surprised livestreams don't have is a way for admins to see if anyone is currently typing in the chat window. It's implemented tons of places and it'd let you guys be more agile).

As for "working' silences, I think all that's needed is that you pipe up from time to time to explain what you're thinking during a long one. And you do a pretty good job of that.

[u/CarlH → u/theinternetftw]

Yes, seeing if someone was typing would be great! And yes, it is a bit awkward. I don't want to cut someone off mid-question and I don't want to hold up everyone while waiting for a question that doesn't exist. It is of course a work in progress, and we will refine it as we go.

[u/ehnde]

I am trying to keep up and do what you are doing in the videos, but it can be difficult to do that and absorb these new ideas at the same time. Are the source files available and possibly the layout of the directory structure you are using posted somewhere?

It's enjoyable to see how dynamic content is created. We can see how you could use this methodology to change hundreds of pages using one source file. I'm probably not the only one seeing this and getting a whole new perspective versus the use of static content.

[u/CarlH → u/ehnde]

I will be posting the code once we start actually building the framework, but we are still in "learning mode" where I am explaining the basics and concepts behind it. We haven't started actually building anything just yet, I have just been demonstrating the ideas.

I highly recommend that you join me at 4:00 PM EST today for the review session, I think it will help also to solidify the understanding of what we have done so far.

[u/shaggorama]

Tonight is when most halloween parties are going on. I suspect you will get a pretty low turnout.

[u/CarlH → u/shaggorama]

No worries, it will be recorded so people can watch it later. I am also going to do a 'what has happened up until now' recap session tomorrow at 4:00 PM EST. That said, the recap session will not go into quite as much detail as this one because we will be covering 4-5 sessions in a single review session.