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Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding (Interactively) Online

Posted by Harshad

Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding (Interactively) Online


Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding (Interactively) Online

Posted: 09 Jul 2013 08:01 AM PDT

Gone are the days when programming languages could only be mastered programmers like Bill Gates, who later got to dominate the world by storm. Now everyone holds the same potential, and the chance to learn and even master programming language easily. Today, we will show you 10 interactive websites that will help you do that.

interactive code learning site

That’s right, forget about complicated setups and black, cold command prompts that make you want to quit before you start, and say hi to 10 educational websites with instant and interactive lessons that teach you programming languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby and even iOS. Pick up tips, screencasts and even best practices from industry professionals.

Kickstart the beginning of your new path into programming today!

Codecademy

Codecademy is indisputably the most famous website to teach you to code interactively, thanks to its helpful interface and well-structured courses. Upon visiting the main page, you can already start tasting the programming right away, with its motivating on-screen console. Pick a course that Codecademy offers from Web Fundamentals, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Python, Ruby and APIs.

codecademy

Inside each lesson is a panel that explains necessary code and instruction. Another panel allows you to get your hands dirty by writing acceptable code, then checking if you are doing the right thing. Don’t worry about making mistakes, as both instruction and code panels will warn you of errors, and provide hints. It is as if there’s a kind teacher right beside you.

Code Avengers

Code Avengers is designed to make you love programming. Though it only offers HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript course for now, each of the courses is carefully designed to truly entertain you while leveling your programming skills painlessly. At the end of each lesson you also get to play a mini game to release your cumulated stress, and keep you going for longer.

code avengers

Code Avengers has a gradual approach to interactive learning. It does not explain too much knowledge that isn’t essential for beginners, just a bit of code and playful instruction, making things very easy to digest. You also get to play with the code, then see the impact of the changes immediately. It is carefully crafted with the beginner’s comfort in mind.

Code School

After you finished courses in Codecademy or Code Avengers, and you are ready to further expand your capabilities, Code School is the next quality website you should land on. Unlike most interactive learning sites, Code School offers more in-depth courses to train and turn you into an expert with the industry’s best practices.

Overall, the courses are categorized into 4 main paths, and they are

  • Ruby
  • JavaScript
  • HTML/CSS
  • iOS

code school

Almost all courses are aggressively polished with impressive design and informative screencasts, though the challenges after the screencast might bit a bit hard for amateurs. Luckily, there are hints and answers to refer to. While most of the offered courses are free, certain ones will require you to spend $25/month to access the entire course including all screencasts and challenges, and also all other courses in Code School.

Treehouse

Treehouse courses are more project-oriented than language-oriented, so they are perfect for novice programmer with a planned purpose, such as building a website, or an application. For example, the Websites course is all about building a responsive website, interactive website or even WordPress theme – a very practical and efficient way to master related languages. Nonetheless, they have released a plethora of foundation courses with a video-then-quiz approach.

treehouse

For Treehouse, every course is divided into different stages or modules, and beyond every first stage the learner will be invited to pay a monthly subscription fee of $25 to access all courses with 650+ videos, and an exclusive Treehouse Members Forum as a bonus. If you are serious about your programming future, you could subscribe the $49 monthly plan to obtain in-depth interviews with leading industry pros and cutting-edge workshops.

LearnStreet

If you are that kind of personnel who do not fancy playful design and prefer to deal with cold hard codes, LearnStreet is probably your thing. It currently offers JavaScript, Python and Ruby courses at beginner level. With a click on the ‘Start Course’ button you will start the lesson with an exercise, a code interpreter and a glossary panel (for new programming terms).

learnstreet

LearnStreet adopts command prompt-styled code interpreters with human language to explain function and encourage you whenever possible, the kind of command prompt you want for your own local machine. However, the code interpreter could be as rude as standard command prompt, as most of the times it requires you to type in the absolute same code and content it asks for.

Other than that, it’s truly friendly and enjoyable, and most importantly, free.

Udacity

Udacity is the unification of insightful video lectures and improved quizzes to achieve the interactive feel for students, so it’s ideal for those who don’t like to read but rather get explanations from industry professionals such as Google employees.

udacity

You will be given a screencast from pros discussing the topics and instructions, then you will take either logic or programming quizzes to strengthen your understanding or forge it into a skill. The good thing about Udacity is it provides more videos than any other site, and the instructors are either real-life professors or industry veterans.

The only pitfall here is most courses are not much related to each other, so Udacity is probably not your starting point, but a virtual university to further your study.

CodeHS

At this point all websites you read here are mainly dedicated to web development and computer science, but CodeHS is one with simple and fun game programming lessons that involve problem solving, JavaScript, animation, data structures, game design and puzzle challenges.

codehs

The advantage of CodeHS is it teaches you to think, and solve a problem like a programmer with its first course, Programming with Karel. The lessons are fun as you will learn how to use the code to move the dog, Karel to complete given tasks and puzzles like picking up ball and building a towel. It plants a solid concept of programming and the way it solves the problem systematically in your mind.

Other than the course mentioned above, you must sign up first with $25 per month to continue your learning journey, but it’s a perfect site to learn basic game programming effectively.

Khan Academy

Although Khan Academy’s courses are not as structured as CodeHS, it serves as an open playground for both novice and amateurs particularly interested in learning drawing, animation and user interaction with code. It does not preach any specific programming language, but the code pattern it adopts can be applied anywhere, as a majority of languages share the similar programming pattern.

khan academy

You can first join the Programming Basics course to watch and learn basic concepts, then explore the given code after the video tutorial to validate your doubts. With Khan Academy, you can save your modification as a Spin-Off for everyone to enjoy and customize. There have been hundreds of spin-offs just from one lesson in one course, so imagine the community size, and the lesson’s effectiveness.

Scratch 2.0

Think CodeHS and Khan Academy are still too hardcore for your child, who has no comprehension beyond basic English? No worries, there is something even easier for your aspiring next-gen programmer, and it’s called Scratch. Previously an offline software that allow kids to create, upload and share their projects proudly, Scratch is now fully online with its 2.0 successor.

scratch 2.0

It’s not about programming though, but a combination of visual blocks of commands that tell assigned objects how to behave, such as telling the cat to move 10 steps, or yell ‘meow’ when it touches the owner’s leg. By using this visual programming method, the young programmers will form a habit of breaking a problem into smaller blocks, and solve them one by one logically.

SQLZOO

Structured Query Language (SQL) is just a language purely designed to store and retrieve data from a database, so imagine the boredom you will experience when programming a warehouse. Yet SQLZOO wants you to learn SQL happily with its interactive interface and smileys.

sqlzoo

Since there is really nothing too deep to explain for a straightforward language like SQL, the site will only ask you to replace the variables like city names or population number, and raise the difficulty from that level. One huge let-down will be the shortage of hints, answers and forum, so you are probably doomed if you fail to solve any one of the quizzes, just like old times.

Comparison Chart

Here’s a comparison chart for you to get a bird’s eye view of all these awesome places to learn how to code.

Website Course Feature Pricing Difficulty
Codecademy HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Ruby, Python, API Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Forum Free Easy – Intermediate
Code Avengers HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Note Free Easy
Code School HTML5, CSS, CSS3, jQuery, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, iOS Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Forum Free, $25/month Intermediate – Hard
Treehouse HTML, CSS, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, iOS, Android, UX, Database Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Project, Forum Free, $25/month, $49/month Easy – Hard
LearnStreet HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Forum Free Easy
Udacity Web Development, HTML5, Python, Java, Computer Science, Algorithm, AI Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Forum Free Intermediate – Nightmare
CodeHS Problem Solving, JavaScript, Animation, Game Programming Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver Free, $25/month, $75/month Easy – Intermediate
Khan Academy Programming Basics, Canvas Drawing, Animation, User Interaction Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Project, Discussion Free Easy – Intermediate
Scratch 2.0 Visual Programming Visual Editor, Project, Forum Free Easy
SQLZOO SQL Code Interpreter Free Easy – Hard

Have you studied at any website we showcased above? How’s the experience? Or have we missed certain interactive learning sites with rich assets for budding programmers? Let us share our experiences and resources to help and inspire each other then!

    


26 Simple & Beautiful Single-Page WordPress Themes

Posted: 09 Jul 2013 06:01 AM PDT

WordPress is a great platform for blogs and websites with multiple pages, but what if don’t have the time or skills to create a multi-page WordPress site? Or if you need just the one as a landing page to promote a mobile app, or a simple portfolio or online resume to showcase skills and draw new clients. Well, the good news is WordPress has many attractive single-page WordPress themes available as well.

As expected, single-page themes display everything on 1 page, so there’s only one URL that you have to be concerned about. Many of these themes have different sections, all in the same page, that you can customize as desired. You will probably be impressed with the transition effects among other cool special effects.

This list of single page WordPress themes contains both minimalist and advanced themes. Some of these themes are basic and only take a few minutes to set up; others are a bit more complicated and feature-rich. Regardless of what you’re looking for, you’re sure to find something that catches your eye on this list.

Free WordPress Themes

OnePager – OnePager is a responsive portfolio theme with an integrated image slider, contact form, and theme options page. It’s really easy to customize; just fill in the desired information for each section and you’re done.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

onepager-wordpress-theme

Sugar Glider – Although a little dated, Sugar Glider is still a nice theme that would work great as a portfolio or landing page. There’s a contact form at the bottom of the page along with social media icons to help you connect with your visitors.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

sugar-glider-wordpress-theme

Appz – Appz is a beautiful, clean landing page theme that is specifically for app developers. You can use it to show off your new iPhone or Android app in style.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

appz-wordpress-theme

Launcher – A responsive “coming soon” theme that includes a Feedburner subscription box to keep your visitors updated on your site’s launch. You’ll also see a cool little launching effect when you scroll your mouse over the rocket.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

launcher-wordpress-theme

Solio – Solio is a surprisingly free portfolio theme built in HTML5 and CSS3, with great features like the ability to state if you’re available for hire. As you can see, this theme was designed with freelancers like designers, artists, photographers, and developers in mind.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

solio-wordpress-theme

Visiting Card – A very simple mini-site that can be used to display links to your social media sites. You can also add a picture and biography, along with your contact information. Unfortunately, a contact form is not included with the theme, but it shouldn’t be too hard to add one.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

visiting-card-wordpress-theme

Landis – Landis is a very basic “Coming Soon” page. Users can’t subscribe by email, but they can spread the word of your future launch on Twitter and/or Facebook.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

landis-wordpress-theme

Launch Effect – A responsive theme to help you build viral campaigns; it’s available as a free (lite) version or Premium version. With the free version you’ll get a customizable landing page (with different skins), viral referral engine with stats, and email integration.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

launch-effect-wordpress-theme

Retro – Retro is a colorful and unique retro-style portfolio theme, with an optional blog and an AJAX contact form at the bottom of the page. There’s a a nice fixed navigation bar at the top, a featured slider, and nice big noticeable sections that really stand out.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

retro-wordpress-theme

PhotoGrid – A stunning portfolio theme (100% AJAX) that is great for photographers and anyone else who wants to showcase their photos. There are a lot of cool effects going on with this theme, and you really have to view the demo to truly appreciate its unique features.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

photogrid-wordpress-theme

Leatherly – Leatherly is a beautifully detailed portfolio theme that is great for showcasing your skills and finding new clients. There’s a section to display photos, a section to showcase your skills and abilities, integrated social media icons and a contact form.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

leatherly-wordpress-theme

Elegant Resume – This is great if you’re looking to create professional looking online resume. You can display your name, tagline, contact information, social media profiles, location (via a map), education, sills, portfolio, and more.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

elegant-resume-wordpress-theme

vCard – If you want to create your own online business card, the vCard theme is perfect. It’s a simple theme that lets you add a picture, a short introduction or biography, your resume, and your contact information. vCard makes it easy to network and connect with anyone on the Web.
[ Features | Demo | Download ]

vcard-wordpress-theme

Premium WordPress Themes

907 – A responsive parallax theme with 4 types of sliders (full screen, Revolution, Flex, Cute 3D), custom widgets, shortcodes, sticky navigation, AJAX contact form, unlimited sections, unlimited background color options etc.
[ Features | Demo | $45 ]

907-wordpress-theme

Disillusion – Disillusion is a responsive theme that comes in two different styles: clean and simple & full color and advance. Plus it includes an impressive visual composer for creating unique, stylish pages with ease.
[ Features | Demo | $30 ]

disillusion-wordpress-theme

SimpleKey – Smooth scrolling, unlimited colors and backgrounds, shortcodes, and advanced theme options. Plus, it includes a stylish pricing chart, contact form, location map and your latest tweets.
[ Features | Demo | $30 ]

simplekey-wordpress-theme

Appify – Appify is a responsive landing page theme for iPhone and Android app developers. There’s support for Features and Testimonials by WooThemes.
[ Features | Demo | $40 ]

appify-wordpress-theme

GridFolio – GridFolio is a minimalistic grid-based theme that includes both a light and dark theme style. There’s a built-in contact form, portfolio sliders, and a custom background.
[ Features | Demo | $35 ]

gridfolio-wordpress-theme

Viewpoint – Viewpoint is a responsive portfolio theme, complete with an optional blog and parallax effects. There are many built-in shortcodes for slideshows, lightbox images, social icons, and more.
[ Features | Demo | $40 ]

viewpoint-wordpress-theme

Mercurial – Mercurial is an awesome responsive parallax theme that is optimized for retina display devices. It has liquid scrolling, custom fonts, unlimited colors and background, shortcodes, and more.
[ Features | Demos | $40 ]

murcurial-wordpress-theme

Spark – A beautiful responsive HTML5 theme that loads quickly, it was designed with performance as top priority. Includes a pricing table, tabbed information widgets, and a contact form (including a map) at the bottom of the page.
[ Features | Demo | $35 ]

spark-wordpress-theme

Launch – A clean and simple “coming soon” theme that includes an email subscription box, Twitter feed integration, a place for news and updates, and a contact form.
[ Features | Demo | $25 ]

launch-wordpress-theme

Rhino – Built in HTML5 and CSS3, Rhino features unlimited sections and great flexibility, you can give every section a unique look and style.
[ Features | Demo | $40 ]

rhino-wordpress-theme

Elevetis - Here’s a responsive, retina-ready theme with a stylish “meet the team” section with social integration, slider, three templates, shortcodes, and many other unique features.
[ Features | Demo | $30 ]

elevetis-wordpress-theme

MyResume – A clean, customizable and stylish WordPress theme that lets you display your picture, contact info, experience, social media icons, portfolio, and more.
[ Features | Demo | $39 ]

myresume-wordpress-theme

BusinessCard – The BusinessCard theme can be used a virtual business card or portfolio, to display your latest photos or designers with the integrated gallery.
[ Features | Demo | $39 ]

businesscard-wordpress-theme

Do you have a favorite single page WordPress theme that you’re using or want to use in the future? Let us know in the comments.

    


Organize Your Social Media Events With Sunrise Calendar App

Posted: 09 Jul 2013 03:01 AM PDT

The calendar app in smartphones signifies the death of the planner. To seal the deal, you can now sync your events and schedules between desktop and mobile device, keeping the data readily available anywhere. The only problem is assembling all of your events into a single form for easy digestion.

intro image

That’s where Sunrise Calendar comes in. It is an iOS calendar app which provides a lot more features than the iOS native calendar app, namely integration with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Foursquare. Let’s take a look at how Sunrise fairs when it comes to getting all your events aggregated.

Setting Up Sunrise Calendar

For new users of Sunrise Calendar, you can either sign in using a Facebook account or Google account. It will sync the account events and calendar under that account.

Adding a new event on Sunrise calendar is as easy as tapping on the plus button. The app is smart enough to detect the event title and select a suitable icon to represent the event. For example, we inserted ‘Cinema – World War Z’, and the app automatically use a ticket icon to label the event.

events icon

Sunrise will even display the weather forecast for the day so you can see what weather conditions are like during your event slot.

You will need to connect Sunrise Calendar to a Google account to add an event, but the good news is you can add more than one Google account. If you are using multiple Google accounts with different calendars you can add and view all of them on the Sunrise Calendar app.

add more account

More Features

You can get more out of the app by signing into Facebook, Foursquare and LinkedIn.

Signing In With Facebook

If you choose to sign in with your Facebook account the app also syncs all of your birthdays and events. This will ensure that you have all your scheduled events at hand to better cross-check for any overlaps of events.

account

With the Facebook account linked to the Sunrise Calendar, it is also easy to respond or interact with the events e.g. you can directly wish your friend’s birthday or respond to any Facebook invitations from the app itself.

facebook integration

Signing In With LinkedIn

Connecting LinkedIn with Sunrise allows you to view a contact’s entire profile right on the Sunrise app. When you set an appointment or an event with someone who has a LinkedIn profile, you can view their profiles from the Sunrise App once your contact email is connected with their LinkedIn profile.

Signing In With Foursquare

With Foursquare connected with Sunrise, check-ins at a Foursquare location will be automatically added into the Sunrise calendar. If an event has a location map set, tapping on the event will open the map on Apple Maps. There is however the option to change it to Google Maps in Settings.

foursquare integration

Limitations & Conclusion

There are some limitations and drawbacks from this calendar app, some of which are:

  • No integration with iCloud.
  • To add a new event on Sunrise calendar you need to connect it to a Google account first. Without the Google account, you can do anything else apart from adding events on the app.
  • If your Sunrise calendar is going to be your new main calendar app, know that your events won’t appear on the notification center. It’s best to still connect your Google account with the native iOS calendar app so it will sync from Sunrise to the iOS calendar app.
  • To a lesser extent, any interactions done via Sunrise onto your Facebook events will carry ‘via Sunrise’ below your post.
    


Adobe Edge Inspect – Quick Test Responsive Design On Mobile Devices

Posted: 09 Jul 2013 12:20 AM PDT

So you have built a responsive website and it is time to test it out. Generally, we can test responsive website by minimizing the browser window width or simply using a responsive bookmarklet.

But, there is actually no better substitute than to test the website directly in an actual mobile device. Browsers in mobile devices have slightly different quirks than the desktop versions, so you can find and investigate glitches that may occur only in mobile browsers.

Furthermore, if you implement particular features that use touch interaction on your webpage, you can also immediately see how it performs. In this post we will show you how to do it with Adobe Edge Inspect. Let’s check it out.

Install Adobe Edge Inspect

First you need to install the Adobe Edge Inspect application, which can be downloaded from Adobe Creative Cloud with an account.

After installing the App, open it and enter your Adobe Creative Cloud credentials. Then, install the Adobe Edge Inspect Extension for Google Chrome, and the App for mobile device, for iOS and Android device (at the time of this writing).

Connecting to Mobile Device

Once all the requirements have been set up, you can connect your Computer to your mobile device – in this example my iPhone. Ensure that your devices are in the same wireless connection, and the Chrome Extension is on the ON state. It will then detect your computer and give you a 6-digit passcode to connect.

Enter the passcode within the Chrome Extension.

Testing Website

Once the code has ben verified and the two devices are connected, every time you open a webpage in Google Chrome (when Adobe Edge Inspect is running), it will instantly be displayed on your connected mobile device. With a Adobe Cloud Creative Pro account you can connect to multiple devices.

    


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