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JavaScript Build a Simple Dynamic Site with Node.js Handling Routes in Node.js Home Route

this course is a little bit confusing, I can`t understand everything

hard to get

Tony Brackins
Tony Brackins
28,766 Points

Yea, It's pretty confusing. I think that's because Node.js is confusing. It will probably sink in around the 2nd or 3rd time you go through the course.

I agree with Tony B. It was over my head the first time around. Now I am starting to understand it more my second time. I would recommend all users do the "extra credit" at the end of Node.js Basics. Those few extra projects helped me understand the first portion of this course more.

Scott McInnis
Scott McInnis
8,758 Points

Still super confusing in 2019...I've created node apps with complete routing before and thought this course would really cement my understanding of node, but unfortunately Andrew's teaching approach makes things so much more confusing than they need to be. He tells you what to do, but doesn't explain why you're doing it.

I learned Node through the Odin Project. This course REALLY needs to be updated for 2019 standards.

14 Answers

Marcio Mello
Marcio Mello
7,861 Points

Ive completed the Front-End Development Track and now moved to the JavaScript Full Stack track, particulary right into the Node.JS courses (because the previous ones overlap with FED), and I can say these courses on NODE are extremely confusing. mainly because its basically a step-by-step tutorial with little to none explanation.

tutorials I can find online for free, specially if using the DOCS example. I Pay $25 USD a month so I can get a much better explained material, class-like material.

I am extremely disappointed with Andrews Courses. Might not renovate my subscription.

Couldn't agree more. I wish they would remake the lessons Andrew taught with Dave McFarland or another instructor. Very hard to learn anything from Andrews courses.

Marcio Mello
Marcio Mello
7,861 Points

Ok. To be more specific, what this and other Andrew's courses lack is an explanation to create a Mental Model in our head. We first have to understand what are we going to tackle before going into the How To`s. The brief points in Node Basic does not provide that.

I had to go over UDEMY to find something that could prepare me for this course. Unfortunately this is not only here in Treehouse. I went over to Lynda and the tuts were even worse.

Karl Taylor
Karl Taylor
4,043 Points

Thanks for the heads up about Lynda, was thinking about that for a second! I'll try Udemy.

I agree. This course is mainly comprised of videos, very few code challenges, no small projects to implement any of what you have been taught. If you see new methods used there is no explanation of what these methods do, nor any other bits of code we've never seen before. For example, "\n" placed at the end of a string, Andrew only mentions it when he's deleting something before it to replace that with a date function.

writeHead, I still don't know what that is exactly and to find that out I'd need to google it. To be honest I am perfectly capable of doing that and I sort of like that it requires us to find things out for ourselves because that is a necessity as a coder but the problem is TreeHouse claims to be an all-in-one solution for learning to code, and it has been for the most part in the javascript full stack and the front end development one, so it lulls you into a false sense of security that they are covering everything you need to know, then out of no where it just takes the stabalisers off your bike and expects you to keep pedaling without any sympathy if you crash. Which as I said - I sort of like it, it's certainly more challenging, but I can understand where people are coming from when they express their confusion over these things, it makes you question yourself because there is no warning with this ramp up in difficulty, you feel like a caveman that's just woke up in the modern age and can't help but feel that everyone else has been given time to adjust and learn, like you specifically have missed out on something that bridges the gap. Just a heads up would've been nice, or a pointer to some learning material we could go over prior to this course, just something that makes us think they have thought about someone who's coding journey has been taken primarily through TreeHouse as that's what it claims to do.

Adarsh Prabhu
Adarsh Prabhu
15,394 Points

I suspected someone would bring this up. There is very little learning here if all we do is follow the teacher's code. I was expecting greater introspection of the technical and architectural structure of node.js. It would certainly help contextualize the code we are writing.

Can't agree more. I loved all the previous courses but this time I have no clue what I'm doing other than mechanically repeating tutor's steps. Hopefully it will sink eventually.

Glad to see this thread exists and I'm not the only one. I know there are alot of new concepts to take on, It seems quite overwhelming moreso than other subjects.

Amrinder Dhindsa
Amrinder Dhindsa
11,204 Points

This is the most confusing course I have taken on Treehouse so far. Everything made perfect sense until I got to the Node.js course - too many ad hoc (new concepts), lack of structure/flow, and a coherent narrative.

Every other course has been pretty good and I hope the future courses will be the same.

Irena B.
Irena B.
8,713 Points

Nothing changed in 2018... This particular course has really lack of explanation and makes good experience of Full Stack Track be gone.

I think this course is pretty good. Maybe you just need to take a look on the basic and core concept of Node.js, especially the non-blocking, single thread and event-driven callback nature as comparing to the traditional sequential way of thinking. I recommend you take his "Node.js Basic" course.

Ben Schroeder
Ben Schroeder
22,818 Points

I agree. I think I'm going to pause my Node progress here and wait until Treehouse delivers a better course.

Codecademy has a more in-depth course on this subject for anyone interested.

Lanre TH
Lanre TH
1,037 Points

Hello guys, I am using my command prompt on Windows but I don't know how to launch my port I'm kinda not getting it here

This Andrew guy is a total disappointment, so unpractical, can't understand anything he teaches. Would be glad if someone would redo his courses, I might cancel my subscription, I'm so unsatisfied..

David Leacock
David Leacock
8,532 Points

What in particular are you having difficulty with? You'll have to be more specific.