Live Q&A with Nick Pettit and Jason Seifer

[MUSIC] 0:00 Hi everybody, I'm Nick Pettit. 0:04 >> And I'm Jason Seifer 0:06 >> And you're watching a very special live workshop where 0:07 we are going to be answering your questions by phone. 0:11 So if you call 407-545-swag >> 7924. 0:15 Yes, so 4 0 7 5 4 5. 0:22 >> 7 9 2 4. 0:26 >> Then you will get us on Skype, and 0:28 we will answer your questions about web design, web development. 0:31 >> Life. 0:36 >> Hair products and so much more. 0:37 >> Yeah. 0:39 >> So, >> Personal relationships. 0:40 >> Relationship advice, yeah. 0:43 >> Basically, you know, whatever you want. 0:44 It's kinda like, it's kinda like a little fireside chat. 0:46 >> Well, hi everybody. 0:48 I'm Nick [UNKNOWN]. 0:49 I'm Jason. 0:50 [MUSIC] 0:50 >> Hello, you've got The Tree house Show with Jason and Nick. 0:55 How can I help you? 0:57 >> hi. 0:59 I was just, dialing [INAUDIBLE], of, the life, workshop. 1:00 >> Yeah. 1:07 >> Yep. 1:07 >> Yeah. 1:08 What can we help you with? 1:08 >> no. 1:10 I'm just, [INAUDIBLE] to see if I can [INAUDIBLE] 1:11 get some kind of video live stream directly, or. 1:14 Yeah, no. 1:18 We're, we're, we're live. 1:19 You're live on the air right now. 1:21 Do you have any questions about anything? 1:23 You know, life, web design, web development. 1:24 >> Hair products. 1:27 >> Yeah, whatever. 1:28 >> Oh, well, now that you I'm like well yeah, basically. 1:28 And it's well, I'm just wondering if if you're 1:34 willing to work on Drupal some time down the road. 1:38 Or Wordpress >> Yeah, Google and Wordpress. 1:41 Got it. 1:48 >> Drupal and Wordpress. 1:48 >> Oh, Drupal and Wordpress, sorry about that. 1:49 You're trying to learn Drupal and Wordpress. 1:52 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah, well we have courses on WordPress 1:54 at teamtreehouse.com which I recommend going to right now and subscribing. 2:01 >> [LAUGH] 2:06 >> Right, yeah, I have I have done that before. 2:08 >> Okay, you I mean you are already off to a great start. 2:12 How how is everything with you? 2:16 >> Well I'm brushing up my skills. 2:21 >> Yeah, you're working on your skills. 2:28 That's a good start. 2:30 Keep working on them. 2:32 Refine them. 2:33 Hone them. 2:34 >> Lag with the video and the conversation on the phone is lagging. 2:35 >> Oh, no, concentrate on the phone. 2:38 I mean maybe mute your computer's video and 2:40 audio so that you can concentrate on the phone. 2:44 Listen to the phone. 2:47 The phone is what gives you you know, instructions. 2:47 >> That's a good pro tip. 2:50 >> Listen listen to my voice. 2:51 >> Right that's right. 2:53 >> Well basically I have been working on the HP and design and 2:55 And WordPress I haven't worked before. 3:01 But it's an excellent platform. 3:05 >> WordPress is an excellent platform. 3:08 Lots of themes, lots of plug ins. 3:10 You can make, you know, wonderful websites. 3:12 >> Mm-hm. 3:14 >> Right. 3:15 Right. 3:16 Yeah, definitely. 3:16 >> In fact, I believe we just recently launched 3:19 a course on local WordPress development at at Treehouse. 3:21 >> Yeah, that's right. 3:25 I haven't tried it out. 3:26 But it looks looks very good. 3:28 Just because I've been doing other topics like HTML, CSS. 3:32 >> Very, very good. 3:39 PHP. 3:40 But yeah, but I, I think it's a, an excellent platform. 3:42 [UNKNOWN] And I was just wondering if PHP 3:49 has or Treehouse has this Nice 3:55 [INAUDIBLE] layouts on, other platforms, as far as WordPress. 4:00 Which, I, I haven't worked that much on Wordpress. 4:05 But I think [INAUDIBLE]. 4:07 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah. 4:10 We, we ha-, we have wonderful courses on a variety of topics. 4:11 You can learn HTML, CSS. 4:16 Design, business, mobile from IOS to Android development and, and so much more. 4:18 So if if you don't have any other 4:26 questions, just wanna thank you very much for calling. 4:27 >> Oh, [UNKNOWN] thank you for taking my call. 4:30 [UNKNOWN] 4:34 >> Yeah, you're live, we're all live, we're all in this together. 4:36 >> We're living this right now. 4:39 >> Living this right now. 4:40 Alright, have a good one. 4:42 Thanks. 4:43 >> Bye. 4:45 >> All right. 4:45 Well, if you're just joining us, we are doing a 4:47 very special workshop today where we are taking your calls live. 4:52 >> Live. 4:56 You can message us at four-oh-seven-five-four-five swag. 4:56 >> Or that's four oh seven-five-four-five-seven-nine-two-four. 5:00 >> Right. 5:04 >> Right. 5:04 >> That is a skype number I bought today. 5:05 And we will take your calls live and answer any 5:09 questions that you might have about web design, web development or 5:12 >> Anything, pretty much anything 5:16 >> Like, hair products, et cetera. 5:18 We had to stop and start the stream there briefly but I think we're good now. 5:21 >> Ask some questions There in our phone call. 5:26 >> Oh, we have, we have questions there in our phone calls. 5:29 Okay, go ahead. 5:31 >> Okay. 5:31 >> Go ahead, caller. 5:32 >> Yeah. 5:32 We're good. 5:33 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Okay 5:35 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah. 5:38 >> Yes. 5:40 >> Yeah, okay. 5:41 We're getting these questions slightly delayed, sort of live. 5:41 It's kind of live. 5:46 >> Yeah, kind of live. 5:47 I, I'm, it was it was worth the wait. 5:48 Molluck asks which is good to start app development, IOS or Android first? 5:52 >> Well I've done a little bit of iOS development at 5:59 this point and, I really like iOS a lot, although android 6:02 has gotten to be a much more mature platform in the 6:06 past couple years and it's Pretty good now, from what I understand. 6:09 I haven't done any android development personally, but I hear it's pretty good. 6:12 Ultimately, you're gonna need to support both platforms, really. 6:17 >> Okay. 6:20 >> I mean, if you're developing an app, like, let's 6:20 say you have a web app like Treehouse, for example, and 6:23 you released, you know, An iOS app, you probably want to 6:27 release an Android app as well, a companion app, you know? 6:31 So if you're doing an app for mobile, 6:34 you're gonna wanna target both platforms, so, yeah. 6:37 I'd, I'd just say learn both, really. 6:41 One isn't necessarily better than the other or 6:44 easier to learn than the other, they're just Different. 6:46 >> Yeah, and start with whichever one you want to. 6:49 I mean, you're not gonna make a mistake 6:53 starting with the iOS platform or the Android platform. 6:55 If your potential target audience has more customers on one platform. 6:59 You know, maybe Android is the way to go if they have more customers. 7:03 Or, if you wanna target certain features That 7:07 may be IOS locks down, start with Android. 7:09 Or you know if you, if you really like IOS start with that. 7:12 We cant really tell you which ones a better platform to start because 7:15 kinda need to know more about the project, the audience and things like that. 7:18 Next up Grace asks what language would you recommend for a mobile game? 7:24 >> So I've been doing a little bit of game development on the side and, 7:30 >> He's trying to kick the habit, but, 7:36 >> Yeah. 7:37 Can't stop. 7:38 I played so many video games that I'm just laying my own train tracks now. 7:39 Basically there's a couple of different options with building mobile games. 7:44 >> That should be your Twitter bio. 7:47 >> [LAUGH] You could. 7:49 You could go with an HTML 5 game, that's kind of a A more convoluted 7:50 but interesting route, because it involves a number of different technologies. 7:57 It's gonna be a lot of JavaScript. 8:02 And you know, you're gonna have some technical hurdles there. 8:04 If you want to go for maximum performance, 8:07 it's probably best to code directly on those platforms. 8:11 So you would code in Objective C, on iOS and you would code in JAVA on Android. 8:15 However, there are some other options, for example, if you use the Unity Game Engine, 8:21 you can actually compile to, a multitude of different platforms including iOS 8:27 and Android I think several other game engines including the Unreal Engine 8:32 supports that as well, so you can go ahead and launch to those different platforms. 8:39 And it varies in difficulty but the idea in a lot 8:43 of these crossed platform engines is that you build the code. 8:48 Once and then you just make small tweaks for 8:51 each platform to kinda make it work across different devices. 8:54 If your, if you've never built a mobile game 9:00 before I would actually recommend starting with Just one particular 9:03 platform, probably iOS in this case because they actually just 9:09 released a game engine with iOS 7 called Sprite Kit. 9:13 And in Sprite Kit, you can make simple 2D games, and it 9:17 manages a lot of the complexity of the game engine for you. 9:21 So it's it's pretty good. 9:24 And that way, you'll actually get experience directly on the platform. 9:26 So if you wanna go to a cross-platform solution You'll know 9:29 about the nuances of each platform, a little bit more, so- 9:33 >> So it's, it's really interesting that so many of those game 9:36 engines were released lately for a multitude of people to develop on. 9:39 Unity has always had basically a consumer or indie level version for a relatively 9:44 low subscription fee, and then, we were 9:48 talking recently about how Unreal came out. 9:51 okay, it looks like we have another, another live caller. 9:54 We're gonna answer this Hello, you got the, 9:56 you've got Treehouse live with Nick and Jason. 9:58 How can we help you? 10:01 >> There, there's no way this is live right now. 10:03 >> This, this is 100% live, right now. 10:05 What's your name? 10:07 >> It's totally real. 10:07 >> Larry. 10:09 >> Larry. 10:10 Nice to meet you, Larry. 10:10 >> What's up Larry? 10:11 >> I was just wondering what was going 10:12 on with Jason's little hair, hair thing Right here? 10:14 This? 10:19 >> Yeah, I think I've got a little bit of a delay, but ah- 10:20 >> Okay. 10:22 Are you talking about the little, little Jheri curl that's like right in the front? 10:22 >> Yeah, the the Jheri curl. 10:25 >> dude, all the time. 10:27 I, I have no control over this. 10:29 My hair is actually frighteningly wavy. 10:30 it's, it's very supple. 10:33 And I, I require a lot of products. 10:35 To, to get this, even to this managable state. 10:38 It. 10:42 >> He's, he's very sensitive about it. 10:42 >> Yeah, it's, it's completely unmanageable, normally. 10:43 However, it does make me feel very 10:46 powerful when I'm wearing my superman onesie. 10:49 >> [LAUGH] It, 10:50 it's looking much better now. 10:54 >> Thank you. 10:56 Thank you Larry. 10:56 That, right here. 10:57 That's, that's where I feel that. 10:58 >> Well you, you guys are doing a great job, I just wanted to. 11:00 >> You're, you're doing a great job, Larry. 11:03 And I hope you look in the mirror every day 11:05 and tell yourself that at least six times over and over. 11:07 >> Daily affirmations. 11:10 >> I will. 11:11 >> Okay, thanks for calling Larry. 11:12 >> Thanks Larry. 11:13 >> Thank you. 11:14 >> Bye. 11:15 I like Larry. 11:15 >> Hm, yeah. 11:18 Wonder what Larry's doing right now. 11:19 >> Probably in disbelief that he was able to get us on the show. 11:22 >> Yep. 11:25 I think that's why nobody had called. 11:26 [LAUGH] I think they don't believe that we're actually doing this right now. 11:27 In fact we don't either. 11:32 >> Yeah. 11:33 >> Anyway I think we had a couple of more text questions. 11:34 >> Yeah. 11:37 >> We can answer. 11:37 Till we get another caller. 11:39 >> Andrew well wait we got another caller. 11:40 >> Hey, hey look at this. 11:42 >> You've got the tree house live show with Jason and Nick. 11:44 What's going on? 11:47 >> Hey guys, how's it going? 11:48 >> Hey. 11:49 It's great. 11:50 How's it going with you? 11:50 >> I'm doing really well. 11:52 Thanks for. 11:53 >> What's your name? 11:53 >> My name's Matt. 11:54 >> Matt. 11:55 What's going on Matt? 11:55 >> So, Thanks for taking my call. 11:57 I got a question for you guys. 11:58 >> Okay. 11:59 >> I've been doing [UNKNOWN] for about a year and 12:00 I'm feeling, you know, pretty good with the basic coding stuff. 12:03 I'm working on a website that has a lot of instructional videos. 12:07 >> Right. 12:10 >> And I've noticed that most the browsers 12:11 will support MP4 video but Mozilla doesn't, so 12:14 I'm just trying to find a workaround or 12:18 player that might be the same across all platforms. 12:20 I've noticed that, different, movie formats from 12:24 Mozilla can be a lot lower quality. 12:28 >> Okay. 12:31 >> I just wondered if you guys had any input. 12:31 >> Well, there are definitely different options 12:33 that you have with something like that. 12:35 I know some of them are gonna be more paid products. 12:37 Something that I know people use a lot is JW player. 12:42 They're not sponsoring the show but they do have different versions where you can 12:45 either start with HTML5 up front, which is gonna use the native browser format. 12:51 And then it will also fall back to 12:56 a Flash movie for older browsers or unsupported versions. 12:58 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Off hands, I don't know of Any, what do 13:02 we use, there's one we use on treehouse, I think it's mejs, or something like that? 13:08 >> Yeah, that's what I was trying to 13:13 figure out, I can't remember what we actually use 13:14 >> Yeah, it's, that's a great product though, 13:16 yeah, media element js, check that one out too. 13:19 >> Media Element js? 13:22 Yeah, and you can get to that at mediaelementjs.com. 13:24 >> Or mediaelementjs.com, I think that's how it's read, Jason. 13:29 >> Yeah, might be. 13:33 So it's got, you know, a lot, it's got 13:35 different plugins and for [UNKNOWN] HTML5 video and audio. 13:37 That's something that at this point in time, it's 13:42 probably best to let an external library handle for you. 13:45 Yeah, okay. 13:49 I've noticed, too. 13:50 [INAUDIBLE] ask as another quick follow up question... 13:51 >> Sure. 13:54 >> Cuz it might be solved in one of those players. 13:55 But I noticed when a Media Query takes place. 13:57 If the video is on automatic, like, autoplay. 14:00 And you wanna not have it display on the smaller screen. 14:04 That the video keep playing, even though the, you can't see it. 14:07 And there is no options in the CSS. 14:11 And there's all the options a natural the media. 14:14 And actual play options, so my guess is one of 14:18 these will probably have more control over that type of stuff. 14:21 >> More than likely, yeah. 14:25 I can't say for sure. 14:26 I've never encountered that specific issue. 14:27 Cool. 14:32 Well thanks for taking my call guys. 14:32 Appreciate it. 14:34 I'll check those out. 14:35 >> Thanks so much for calling. 14:35 >> Yeah. 14:37 Appreciate it. 14:38 Thanks guys. 14:38 >> Cheers. 14:39 Thanks. 14:39 >> That was that was nice. 14:39 >> Uh-huh, yeah. 14:43 >> Okay James asks what jam would you recommend for multi-level access. 14:44 Now this is gonna be a Ruby and Rails question 14:50 and the jam that I would recommend is called pundit. 14:53 You can check that out on Get [INAUDIBLE]. 14:56 See if I can pull up a link here. 14:58 That one has recently seen a little bit more development. 15:03 This is based on I think an older plug 15:06 in, and it gives you a really nice policy framework. 15:10 I think we can go ahead and cut to This tab if you want to, okay, so pundit 15:13 cherm is focussed around the idea of policy classes 15:19 where you can actually write the different policies and code. 15:22 So, if you look at this class that is a 15:26 post policy right here, You set the user and the posts. 15:29 And then you can define the abilities and code right in the class. 15:33 Then you go through and you can check this in the controller. 15:39 >> [SOUND] Okay, looks like we got another call. 15:43 Gonna answer that. 15:45 Hello, you've got the Treehouse Show with Jason and Nick. 15:47 We're live. 15:49 Hey guys. 15:50 >> Hey, how's it going? 15:51 What's your name? 15:52 >> My name's Rick. 15:53 >> Hi, Rick. 15:54 >> Hi, Rick. 15:54 >> So I got a question with regards to gamifying things. 15:57 What is your biggest lesson about achievements and gamifying that's come out 16:00 of that whole push that you guys did for the million points. 16:05 >> Mm-hm. 16:09 I'm wondering, you know, what's, what lessons did you learn, 16:10 and what did it take to really make it work? 16:14 >> People will do anything for internet points. 16:17 [LAUGH] 16:20 >> That's the, the short version, certainly. 16:22 >> Yeah, well, the long version is that we've, we've learned 16:25 quite a few things from the whole point system with Treehouse. 16:29 One of the major things that we learned is you probably never really want 16:34 to take points away from people because 16:36 that's really discouraging and they earned them. 16:38 Now this might not seem to bad up front you know, 16:41 like hey what's, in what sort of situation would somebody lose points. 16:45 Well at least in the scenario of Treehouse We have different tracks, right, now 16:49 with a platform that's always evolving such 16:54 as Ruby on Rails with different versions. 16:57 You know, eventually, we need to update content on the site. 16:59 So you go through a course, you earn a certain number of points. 17:02 And then, what happens if we have to update that, you know? 17:04 We move some videos, move some stages around. 17:08 >> Right. 17:09 We don't wanna take those points away just because we updated the material. 17:10 And, another thing that we have where we 17:14 could take points away is our forum, you know. 17:16 People can up-vote and down-vote, different answers and if somebody got a 17:18 ton of down-votes, we don't wanna discourage them by taking away points. 17:22 We kinda just wanna award points for. 17:26 >> Yeah. 17:28 >> The up-votes. 17:28 >> It's not Reddit. 17:29 Yeah, exactly. 17:30 So in terms of gamification though, from a larger standpoint, I actually wrote 17:31 a a blog about this over on the Treehouse blog, I'll try to see if I can find that. 17:37 But let's see. 17:44 There we go, yeah it's called Hit the Reset Button on 17:46 Gamification and I have it up on [UNKNOWN] Screen right now. 17:49 One of the things to keep in mind about games in 17:53 general is that it's really just a series of interesting choices. 17:56 You want your web app, even though it's not a 18:02 video game, to react to the choices that somebody makes. 18:05 So if they go for You know, good form answers, or if they go for 18:09 maybe, you know, some sort of course, you want the app to react somehow to that. 18:16 But does that kind of answer your question? 18:21 >> Very much so, thank you guys. 18:24 >> Yeah. 18:25 >> You're welcome. 18:25 >> Thanks so much. 18:26 >> Okay, I'll call again in about ten minutes. 18:27 >> Alright, we'll ,we'll talk to you then. 18:29 >> We'll be ready. 18:30 >> Yeah. 18:31 [INAUDIBLE] >> Hey. 18:31 >> Hey. 18:34 >> Alright we we we missed a call due to call waiting on on that last, on that 18:35 last call we don't have a queue or anything 18:39 like that this is a pretty bare bones system. 18:41 >> Just goin' with Skype here. 18:44 >> Yeah, so so go ahead, go ahead and call back you know, if if you wanna. 18:45 Let's see did we miss any questions in the meantime? 18:52 Svetlana asks what programming language is better to start with, Php or Ruby? 18:56 >> Well, obviously, it's gonna be Ruby, 19:04 right, cuz, cuz you're a Ruby programmer, right? 19:08 Just, I don't wanna upset your feelings. 19:11 >> Yeah, well it's a complicated question, because Treehouse teaches both. 19:13 >> Right. 19:16 >> but, really, whatever you wanna start with. 19:17 If there's something that, you wanna build and you see 19:19 a project in PHP that looks good, start with that. 19:23 Wanna start with Ruby? 19:26 Start with that. 19:27 I don't have a, a good answer for you. 19:28 They're both great languages and you should learn both. 19:29 >> I will say that when I was first 19:33 getting started, Ruby on Rails wasn't really established yet. 19:35 It wasn't a thing. 19:39 It was still, you know, very Small 19:40 community, and just getting its, its start. 19:41 And I first learned how to do backend web development using PHP, and I 19:46 thought that was actually a, kinda wonderful 19:52 experience, because it was very similar to the. 19:54 Instant gratification that you get with something like HTML 19:57 or CSS where once you have a php server running 20:01 you can just type in some php code directly into 20:04 a php file and see the result on the screen. 20:07 If you want to print out a variable or like a 20:10 really classic example is changing the copyright date at the bottom. 20:13 >> Right. 20:17 >> Of a webpage where you Just print out, you know, the current year, 20:17 and that way you don't have to update your html files when the year changes. 20:20 So I thought that was kind of a nice introduction to back end programming. 20:25 ' Cause PHP is very robust and powerful. 20:29 You can take it way further than that, obviously, there's lots 20:32 of great frameworks, but I then started using Ruby On Rails. 20:35 I just found it to be a lot a lot cleaner, it made a lot more sense 20:41 to me personally but, I almost think at 20:45 this point it's kind of a personal preference thing. 20:47 Both languages are pretty mature and really good frameworks around them. 20:50 >> Yeah learn both but start with Ruby. 20:54 Alright looks like we got another call coming in. 20:56 You've got the tree house live with Jason and Nick, what can we do for you? 20:59 >> Yeah, hi Jason, hi Nick, my name is 21:05 Scott and I'm calling from Scotland from the UK. 21:07 >> Scott from Scotland >> That's easy to remember. 21:10 Yeah Scott from Scotland So, how, how are you doing? 21:12 >> I am doing ok. 21:15 >> Doing well, how are you? 21:16 >> Hanging in there. 21:18 >> Yeah yeah yeah I'm great, great. 21:18 [INAUDIBLE] 21:20 >> Yeah, definitely I agree. 21:27 >> Also [INAUDIBLE] 21:30 [INAUDIBLE] 21:35 >> Well I, I, I recommend uh,checking out Teentreehouse.com for her. 21:42 >> I mean, Treehouse is a great way to start. 21:47 Are you on Treehouse with her? 21:49 >> [INAUDIBLE] 21:50 >> Alright I think we're having some 21:55 technical difficulties with this call so I'm very 21:56 sorry that, sorry that i'm going to appear rude and click the hang up button. 21:59 >> Oh, nope, nope, nope hold on. 22:02 >> Op 22:03 >> Oh wait and you're back, and you're back, this things on. 22:03 Hello. 22:06 This is, it's a live show guys. 22:08 >> So did you have a question for us? 22:10 Yeah I was [UNKNOWN] help me just [UNKNOWN] 22:11 >> Mm-hm. 22:16 >> [UNKNOWN] a bit I can give her a shout out, her name's Kayla. 22:17 >> Well we'd like to give a shoutout to Kayla. 22:26 We're gon, we're gonna do that again in a little bit though. 22:32 [LAUGH] So that, so that you'll see it. 22:34 How about that? 22:37 >> Cool. 22:37 Thanks [UNKNOWN] 22:38 >> All right, thanks so much for calling, Scott from Scotland. 22:40 >> No problem. 22:43 Thanks, guys, thank you. 22:44 >> See you later. 22:45 >> Bye. 22:46 [SOUND] >> That was lovely. 22:46 >> That was lovely. 22:48 >> I enjoyed that quite a lot. 22:49 >> Alright, Scott asks, what programming language was teentreehouse.com written in? 22:51 That was written in an early version of BASIC, 22:57 and then recently ported over to Ruby on Rails. 23:01 >> Thank goodness for that. 23:04 >> Yeah. 23:05 >> Yeah it was really tough. 23:06 >> It was a little faster, though, when we had the BASIC version running. 23:07 >> Yeah, it was pretty optimized. 23:10 We needed so many fewer servers. 23:11 No teamtreehouse.com is written in a mixture of ruby on 23:15 rails, no JS, basically all the cool programming languages you hear about. 23:20 They're all integrated in some way or another into Treehouse. 23:26 >> Our blog runs on WordPress, which of course 23:30 is built in PHP, so there is yet another language. 23:32 We, we use a lot of different languages to create Treehouse. 23:36 Basically we just try to use the best tool for the job, really. 23:39 >> Right. 23:42 You know, whatever it is that we're trying to accomplish, we do that. 23:43 We have, we have, an iPad app out. 23:46 Of course, that's written in objective C, for iOS, so be sure and check that out. 23:51 But that's yet another language that we use. 23:55 So it's really, a mixture of things. 23:57 >> Yeah. 23:59 Internal projects we have written in various languages. 23:59 It's pretty much whatever. 24:02 Is the best tool for the job. 24:04 Alright this is a question for Nick. 24:07 Grace asks what do you guys think about Adobe Dreamweaver for coding websites? 24:09 >> so, I'll be honest. 24:15 I started out making websites when I 24:17 was eleven years old using Microsoft Front Page. 24:20 >> [LAUGH] I'm so judging you right now. 24:23 >> I dragged out the table tool and just dragged out a table, and I realized 24:26 That was a really great way for me to lay out text and images on a web page. 24:31 Of course, that's considered bad practice now and I 24:37 don't think Microsoft Frontpage even is a thing anymore. 24:41 Who knows, maybe it is. 24:44 I, I don't know. 24:45 Google it. 24:45 But but then I graduated to Dreamweaver, so It was like a, a half step up. 24:46 But not really. 24:52 Generally those kinds of wissy wig applications by, 24:54 are kind of looked down upon by professional developers. 24:58 A lot of people have very strong preferences for text editors. 25:01 Like Vim or Sublime. 25:05 Adam, or, of course, work spaces from Treehouse. 25:07 >> Mm. 25:10 >> so. 25:11 The reason for that, is, a lot of those [UNKNOWN] or what you see is what you 25:12 get programs will write a lot of code for you that's, may or may not be good code. 25:19 And sometimes it can be difficult to kind of modify that for your own purposes. 25:25 So generally I don't see it used professionally much at all actually. 25:29 >> Me neither. 25:35 I haven't seen Dreamweaver used in, in quite some time. 25:36 I would say. 25:40 To learn to code websites by hand. 25:42 And then if you like Dreamweaver after that, continue to use it. 25:44 Or maybe play around with it at first just to 25:50 get something up and running until you get more power. 25:52 >> Yeah. 25:54 >> Once again this is a, live, call in show. 25:55 If you'd like to talk to us, you can call 407-545-SWAG. 25:58 Once again, that's 407 545-7924, if you'd like to talk to Nick and myself, live. 26:03 >> It is April Fool's day, but we will really pick up. 26:11 >> At some point. 26:15 >> Mm. 26:16 >> Zachary asks, what factors do you consider 26:17 when choosing a back end for your web application? 26:19 Really, I think about what the application needs 26:25 to do, and I think about you know what 26:28 frameworks are going to allow me to do 26:32 that, so you know that's just something really simple. 26:34 I might use a very bare bones rubric framework or maybe just do 26:39 it in straight up PHP or whatever again cuz it's just that instant gratification. 26:43 But if it's something more robust, yeah, you might go with Ruby on Rails or 26:48 you might go with no JS, it really depends on what you need to do. 26:51 >> Yeah, the functionality of the application is what's really 26:56 gonna drive your decision when choosing a back end framework. 26:59 No JS example, if you need to do some real time communications between. 27:03 The client and the server no JS might be the right choice. 27:08 Regular old crud app. 27:13 You know, create, read, update, destroy. 27:15 That's a great fit for rails application. 27:17 But an even bigger thing to consider is what 27:21 is right for a team you will be working with. 27:25 >> That's a good point. 27:28 >> If you have a large application that's already written in PHP, 27:29 Maybe choosing Ruby on Rails to rewrite it is not the best idea. 27:34 And the same goes for vice versa. 27:38 So. 27:40 >> In fact, that was the case at Facebook, they started writing 27:40 Facebook in PHP and they used PHP for a long time and 27:43 at that point, you know, they had so many human resources invested 27:48 into PHP that It would be impossible for them to switch languages. 27:53 So what they did was they actually rewrote PHP and made their own 27:58 languages, and their own frameworks so that 28:02 it would work with their existing team. 28:05 Which is a, kind of a crazy endeavor, but Facebook is 28:08 a big enough company that they could do something like that. 28:11 >> Yeah, that, So really pick the right tool for the job. 28:14 >> Mm-hm. 28:17 >> Matt Spill asks, did Nick just say wussy wig? 28:18 I thought it was pronounced, wizzy wig. 28:21 Matt spill is wrong. 28:24 He also has no forum on which to respond to that. 28:27 >> Omar asks, how does Javascript server side rendering work? 28:31 I know it's kind of stupid, but. 28:36 Is there any way that we can use Server Side with JQuery? 28:39 >> So Java Script server side rendering is an interesting 28:45 topic there not completely sure what, Omar means in this context. 28:49 But for server side rendering generally what that means is, 28:54 the server is going to render the HTML that it 28:58 is sending back to the browser rtather than sending back 29:01 an object, such as, JSON data to be rendered client-side. 29:04 So, you know, let's say you are generating an 29:09 unordered list, with the host of the Treehouse show. 29:12 The server responds with Nick and Jason. 29:17 If you're using a client side library, it's going 29:19 to generate the unordered list and then a list item. 29:21 Using the json that comes back with our names, it's 29:25 gonna go through, generate domain elements in the client web browser. 29:28 If you do this server side, that works gonna be done on the server. 29:32 Then the rendered HTML will be pushed to the client. 29:36 Now, you can use jQuery in 29:39 some node.js applications, there's definitely plugins available, 29:41 pretty sure there are grunt and [UNKNOWN] libraries for getting all of that working. 29:44 so, yeah, generally, you know, it depends 29:50 on the application, client side rendering's gonna be. 29:52 Kind of the preferred method these days. 29:55 >> Mmm-hm, yeah it's gonna be pretty challenging, otherwise. 29:57 >> Yeah, unless you use rails, their doing a lot of server side stuff these days. 30:00 >> Shameless plug. 30:05 >> Yeah. 30:06 Alex asks, typical college grads would use an internship to get their. 30:06 "Foot in the door" for a job. 30:11 After using Treehouse, would you recommend internships, or is it 30:13 better to look for jobs or work on personal projects? 30:16 << Ooh, that's a. 30:20 << Yes. 30:20 << Yes to all. 30:21 << All of the above. 30:22 Do all of that. 30:24 << That's, that's a really good, question. 30:25 So, right now, it's a hotly debated topic, right? 30:28 Should you go to college? 30:31 Or, should you, just try to educate yourself, either by, trying to do client 30:33 work using a service like Treehouse, etcerera 30:40 and just [NOISE] jump into the industry immediately? 30:43 >> Oh, I missed. 30:47 We just missed a call. 30:47 >> Uh-oh. 30:48 >> I'ma try calling back. 30:49 >> We will, we will get back to that question. 30:50 >> Thank you for calling the city of [UNKNOWN]. 30:53 Please say the first and last name of 30:56 the person, department, or service you wish to reach. 30:58 You can also enter an extension number if known. 31:01 To speak with a customer service representative, say service. 31:05 This is Nick and Jason from the Treehouse Live show. 31:10 >> I didn't get that. 31:14 >> Nick and Jason from the Treehouse Live show. 31:15 >> Sorry. 31:20 I'm not sure I understood what you said. 31:21 >> We're just talking, we're talking about- 31:23 >> Your call is being transferred to the operator for assistance. 31:24 >> Okay. 31:27 >> Okay I think that was that was a wrong number. 31:27 >> Yeah. 31:29 Didn't work out. 31:30 Kinda sad. 31:32 But anyway yeah, it's a highly debated topic should you go to college or not? 31:32 I would actually err on the side of of not going to 31:36 college if you want to get a job in web design development. 31:40 If you just want to do freelance immediately go ahead and jump right into 31:44 it, especially if you already have some skills in that area if you've, you know. 31:49 Already built up some experience. 31:53 >> The more experience you have, the better off you'll be at 31:55 the end of the day when you really do start applying for jobs. 31:58 >> Exactly. 32:01 A lot of companies do pay attention to college degrees 32:01 and that's still a value that's very important to them. 32:05 A lot of other companies, though, don't really hold that in high esteem. 32:09 At all. 32:14 And, they really look at experience above all else. 32:15 So, for example, if you're applying to a design or development position at 32:18 Treehouse, you know we're gonna wanna look 32:23 at your portfolio, code you've written etc. 32:25 And actually see what you can do right 32:29 now regardless of how you gleaned that experience. 32:31 Once again, this is a live call in show. 32:35 Oh, here, here we are! 32:38 >> Here we go. 32:39 >> Hi. 32:40 You've got Nick and Jason from, from Treehouse. 32:40 We're talking to you live. 32:43 >> Hi, guys. 32:43 >> Hey. 32:46 >> How's it going? 32:46 >> It's Rick. 32:46 >> Hey, Rick. 32:47 How are you? 32:47 >> Hey, Rick. 32:48 >> We missed you. 32:48 >> Yeah. 32:49 I missed you too. 32:50 We're do you guys see things developing as far as mobile platforms and 32:52 Teaching, you know, MOOC kind of things with videos in third world countries. 32:58 >> Well, as they get more access to 33:05 technology, they will have more access to Treehouse. 33:06 >> Right. 33:10 I mean, that's, that's an interesting question. 33:12 I can't really speak to, the latter portion of your question, about. 33:14 It's spreading to third world countries. 33:19 But what I will say is that, you know, we want to change the world. 33:22 At Trials, we want to spread Trials as much as possible. 33:28 And, you know, right now, we're an English only site but, 33:32 obviously, we'd want to Try to expand that at some point in the future. 33:37 We don't have anything to announce at this time. 33:42 But you know, we want to get it in as many places as we can, so that's something that 33:44 we'll have to address at some point and it's probably 33:51 something that every Online education outlet we'll have to address. 33:54 There's gonna be various strategies to do that. 34:01 Again, I can't speak specifically for Treehouse. 34:03 But, you know? 34:06 It's gonna spread in a number of different ways. 34:08 On, you, you mentioned mobile devices. 34:11 I mean, that's probably a really great route to go. 34:14 Because, Often in a lot of countries that's a more popular 34:17 consumption device then an actual computer so paying attention to mobile will be. 34:24 Pretty important as a piece of that, but does that kind 34:29 of answer your question or is that kind of a non answer? 34:32 >> Well I, I think you kinda highlighted 34:37 it, but i'm wondering you know, what kind of 34:39 things are you guys starting to put into 34:42 place to kind of roll over into that model. 34:44 We're not really allowed to comment 34:48 on future developments for Treehouse, unfortunately. 34:50 >> There's nothing concrete at this time, anyway. 34:54 I mean, it's just something that we're talking about internally and 34:56 eventually, you know, we'd love to make it happen but Yeah. 35:00 Nothing to say right now. 35:03 >> So you haven't done anything in the past 35:06 in order to try and, and target the platform? 35:08 >> Not specifically, no. 35:10 >> We target as many platforms as we can. 35:11 >> That's fair. 35:15 >> Alright, thank so much for calling, Rick. 35:16 >> Thanks guys. 35:18 >> Bye. 35:19 >> Later. 35:19 Alright, once again we are live and you can call us at 407-545-7924. 35:21 >> That's 407-5, what was the middle one? 35:28 >> 5, 545. 35:33 >> 407-545-SWAG. 35:34 >> Swag. 35:35 Jinx 35:38 >> [LAUGHS] Rob asks, what's your preferred 35:38 way of uploading files to a server? 35:41 Through Sublime, doing it manually with FileZilla, etc. 35:43 ? 35:47 >> First of all, I did not know that 35:47 you could do that directly through Sublime, but That's interesting. 35:49 I assume that there's a plugin or something, or maybe it's built in? 35:53 >> Sublime Text has just a ton of plugins. 35:55 >> Sure. 35:58 >> I prefer to upload files using some sort of secure copy mechanism. 35:59 generally, that'll be done through SSH. 36:04 >> Mm-hm. 36:06 >> FTP is pretty insecure because you 36:07 can see anything that's transmitted, through each server. 36:09 With something that is secure, you know SFTP, SCP, it's encrypted end to end. 36:14 So if you have any sensitive information it won't be leaked in transit. 36:20 >> If I'm just doing like a quick static HTML CSS website. 36:25 All just use SFTP and use some sorta client, like, FileZilla, or Cyberdock. 36:30 Something that nature. 36:36 >> Yeah, I like Transmit. 36:38 >> Yeah, Transmit is good as well. 36:39 >> Transmit's a good one, and they're not sponsoring the show, just FYI. 36:41 Grace asks, is Adobe Flash an obsolete choice for making mobile games these days. 36:45 >> Yes, because I don't know of any mobile platform that actually runs Flash. 36:51 Maybe Android does, I don't know, I don't think it does though. 36:56 >> Don't hold me to this but I think Newer versions of Flash might be able to 36:59 export to the iPhone, but I'm not sure, I 37:04 haven't looked at Flash in a really long time. 37:07 And when I say Flash, I mean Adobe Flash, not, the DC superhero, the Flash. 37:09 >> It's good to make that distinction. 37:14 >> Yeah, Barry Allen Flash obviously, not Wally West. 37:15 >> People could get confused. 37:18 Zachary says, a lot of people say responsive web design. 37:20 Isn't the end all of multi display development. 37:24 If not responsive development then what? 37:29 Well this is an ongoing debate on the internet, You 37:32 could just make a responsive website that is gonna work. 37:36 On a multitude of different resolutions, so it will work on, 37:39 you know, a mobile phone, a tablet, desktop, and so on. 37:45 But, there, there's this other alternative, which is 37:49 making separate websites for each one of those platforms. 37:53 So, which should you do? 37:56 Generally, I'm gonna err on the side 37:58 of response web design, just because it's easier. 38:00 You have one code base to maintain. 38:03 And it's really just simpler, it's less to worry about. 38:05 It' kind of a little bit complex upfront to learn some of the nuances, but when 38:09 you break it down, it's actually quite simple, especially after you learn it. 38:15 It's easy to do it anytime you're building a new site. 38:19 But- 38:23 >> Also, the, the variance is kinda where we started With the whole. 38:23 >> Yeah. 38:27 >> Multi display. 38:28 >> Mm-hm. 38:30 >> Output. 38:31 So people would make different versions for their phones. 38:32 I don't know if you've ever seen any 38:34 websites recently that, when the iPhone first came 38:36 out, in like 2007, they were designed to 38:38 look like the iPhone interface at the time. 38:41 You can still see some of 'em these days. 38:45 And that would be an example of making a site that uses 38:47 a different version for the main Desktop site and a mobile version. 38:50 >> Yeah. 38:54 It's, I mean, it's an interesting strategy, but 38:55 you're actually seeing that less and less these days. 38:59 A lot of big name website that did have 39:01 separate desktop and mobile sites, are actually just going responsive. 39:05 And just doing away with their, their mobile sites. 39:08 You have to have A very, very specific 39:11 use case where your mobile site truly has different 39:15 functionality than your desktop website, but it's really 39:18 hard to think of any exam, examples of that. 39:23 I mean, it's it's kind of an unusual case. 39:26 >> Yeah, also I think, you know, what we're gonna see is 39:30 not something, oh, we're gonna develop 39:32 this way, instead of doing it responsively. 39:34 I think what we'll see is the techniques for 39:37 responsive design are going to evolve as the web evolves. 39:39 >> Mm-hm. 39:43 >> I mean we've already go situations today where we're 39:43 loading different versions of images depending on what device you're on. 39:46 You know, different versions of the HTML 5 spec. 39:53 >> Mm-hm. 39:55 >> Are there specifically for that reason. 39:55 So we're getting new elements all the time for 39:58 responsive development since we are in a multi-device world. 40:01 Alright, so our next question comes from Dale, and Dale says I 40:05 am learning css and html and I am cruising through the WordPress courses. 40:09 Is there a recommendation for a course that eventually 40:15 links how developers can intertwine WordPress with html css. 40:18 In PHP. 40:24 There probably already is a course like that. 40:27 << I'm sure there is. 40:29 << On Treehouse, we have a lot of 40:31 WordPress courses, so if you, just go onto teamtreehouse.com, 40:33 and hit the library, you can look in the 40:38 WordPress category and see all of our WordPress categories. 40:41 I think Jason is. 40:46 Tempting to pull up right now. 40:48 >> Don't remember my password. 40:50 >> Uh-oh. 40:52 >> Nick, NickPetit12345 isn't working for me. 40:53 >> Okay, let me try it on mine then. 40:56 >> My usual password. 40:58 Jason so yeah if you just go into our library here and you click on Wordpress 41:00 you can see all of our Wordpress courses 41:04 we teach Wordpress admin settings, we talk about Buddypress. 41:06 There's how to build great Wordpress.com websites. 41:12 So if you don't want to do it you know, using WordPress.org and their 41:15 open source platform, you can just jump onto WordPress.com and have it hosted. 41:22 Right here, building a WordPress theme with foundation five is 41:27 probably, More so, the kinda thing that you're looking for. 41:32 So, yeah, whether you wanna customize WordPress 41:36 using PHP or you wanna get into template 41:39 design with the HTML and CSS there's 41:41 certainly a lot of different stuff On Treehouse. 41:45 Here's how to build a Wordpress theme and so on. 41:49 A lot of Wordpress courses, wow. 41:52 >> Yeah. 41:53 >> And we're adding more all the time. 41:53 >> Jacob asks, when should I learn sass? 41:56 What CSS slash HTML level should I be at before taking it on? 41:59 >> Really sass is pretty useful Almost immediately after you learned CSS. 42:04 I do still recommend learning CSS first, before jumping straight into sass. 42:09 A lot of people will look at sass, and say, oh, I"m just going 42:15 to be writing that anyway, I should just learn SAS, Why bother with CSS? 42:18 Or same with JavaScript and jQuery. 42:22 People oftentimes will think, I should just learn jQuery. 42:25 We're gonna get back to that question. 42:27 >> Got another call. 42:29 >> Got another call. 42:30 >> This is the Treehouse live. 42:31 Live show with Jason and Nick. 42:33 What's going on? 42:34 >> Hey. 42:35 What collaboration tools do you recommend? 42:36 >> Oh boy, there's tons of collaboration tools. 42:39 For source control I recommend Git. 42:41 For communication, we use HipChat in the company, as well as custom software. 42:45 Project management, lots of people use Basecamp. 42:50 >> Mm-hm. 42:53 >> For sharing code, GitHub, that's a, that's a pretty popular one. 42:54 >> In the past, we've used things like Asana and Trello for task management. 42:58 Both were pretty good. 43:04 I, I liked both of 'em a lot. 43:06 They, they had their merits. 43:07 We use all sorts of stuff to collaborate and really it just 43:10 comes down to whatever it is that we're trying to collaborate on. 43:14 These days we've gotten kind of such a specific structure to 43:18 our company that we actually have custom tools just for that. 43:23 But yeah. 43:28 That's, that's kinda a smattering of different stuff. 43:30 Does that kinda answer your question? 43:33 >> Yeah, some of it. 43:36 What about for the wire framing, design revisions kind 43:37 of passing stuff back and forth with marked up. 43:40 >> So I like to use Balsamic mock ups, >> Yeah, Balsamic is wonderful. 43:44 >> Only because I've been using it since like forever. 43:48 I, I really like Balsamic a lot. 43:51 There's also Omnigrapple, I know a lot of people use that 43:53 to wire frame, there's there's a bunch of them out there, but 43:57 to pass them back and forth at treehouse, we started out using drop 44:01 box, to make interactive wire frames We've been using envision app. 44:07 And I think there's a new one out that does something 44:13 similar to that I can't think of, of the name of it. 44:16 But we've been using invasion app and basically you can take an array of screen 44:18 shots and kinda highlight different portions of 44:22 the screenshots sot it should be a button. 44:25 Or a drop down menu and so on, and then you can link to other 44:27 screen shots to kind of make a, 44:31 a pseudo interactive mock-up, and that's pretty cool. 44:33 But since using Drop Box, we've actually, I 44:36 think, switched everything over to Google drive, and I, 44:39 I think we're using that these days to collaborate, 44:43 and that's another tool that we use a lot. 44:46 We use Google docs, Google spreadsheets, and all of 44:47 those Google tools to kinda Collaborate in the company. 44:50 >> And not really a collaboration thing, but there's a OS Ten app that I 44:54 really like called Monosnap, which let's you 44:59 take screen shots really easily and annotate images. 45:02 It's kinda like Skitch, if you remember that. 45:06 But, that program became pretty useless after Evernote took it over. 45:08 So, I, I switched to Monosnap. 45:13 >> What about brainstorming? 45:16 >> We tend to not do much of that here. 45:18 We basically just start working immediately. 45:21 >> We don't think at all. 45:24 >> Yeah. 45:25 >> Yeah. 45:25 >> No. 45:26 Just kidding. 45:26 We, I don't have any good brainstorming apps. 45:27 >> Yeah, I don't actually have any, 45:30 Apps that I use for brainstorming, specifically. 45:33 Usually for me that's just pen and paper. 45:35 I mean, we'll chat a lot on Hip Chat, just because of the immediacy of 45:38 the medium, or if we need to hash out an idea, we'll kind of talk over 45:41 >> Google hangouts. 45:46 >> Yeah, Google hangouts, we've actually started using Hip 45:47 Chat's video chat feature which was just released pretty recently, 45:50 and that's kinda interesting, but Yeah, for brainstorming, you 45:53 know, it's again, kind of a, a mixture of things. 45:56 No specific app that we use. 45:59 Does that kind of answer your question? 46:02 >> Absolutely. 46:04 >> Cool. 46:05 >> Alright, cool. 46:05 Thanks a lot Rick. 46:06 [NOISE] Alright, we also wanted to give a shout out to Kayla. 46:06 >> Mm-hm. 46:10 >> How you doing, Kayla? 46:10 Alright. 46:13 Salvatore says I'm thinking of switching careers 46:14 into web design, development or user experience design. 46:16 Any advice on preparing a portfolio? 46:20 >> yeah, I think you know it's important 46:24 to pare down your portfolio as much as possible. 46:27 There's a big temptation to put everything you've ever done in your portfolio. 46:30 But that's almost always a mistake, you wanna really present your best work. 46:34 And you know, that could be maybe like four or five items or maybe just like 46:40 three really good case studies where you say, 46:46 you know, for this company They had these 46:49 needs and you know, here's the initial sketches 46:51 I started out with, here's the final product 46:54 and you know, here's their testimonial with it 46:56 and you put together like a nice case study. 46:58 So if you don't have a whole lot of work to present, that could be a good way to 47:00 kind of emphasize how much detail and work you put into each individual project. 47:04 So You know, I, I think, with portfolios 47:12 the, the biggest rule is that less is more, 47:16 and you want to present your best work 47:19 above all else, so go for quality over quantity. 47:22 >> That is great advice. 47:26 I don't have anything to add to that. 47:27 Cause Nick you nailed it. 47:29 >> Thank you Jason. 47:31 >> So that is that's the last question that we have for today. 47:31 Thanks everybody for calling in. 47:35 I'd like you know, if you don't already watch the tree house show. 47:37 I recommend checking today's episode. 47:41 We have some very fascinating, hard hitting stories in that episode. 47:43 >> You could check out our YouTube channel at Youtube.com/gotreehouse. 47:47 And just look for the Treehouse Show. 47:52 We're also on iTunes, again, you can just search for the Treehouse Show. 47:54 >> Yeah, and leave us, leave us a, a rating, if you are so inclined. 47:57 Nick, who are you on Twitter? 48:01 >> I am @nickrp >> And I am @jseifer. 48:02 We wanna thank everybody for tuning in to this 48:04 live stream, and we will see you next time. 48:06