Saturday 22 February 2014

In this section of my blog I would like to point out some useful sites for any person with an interest in programming or web development. You might already know of these websites due to the popularity each site has gained respectively but nonetheless  I would like to give my feedback on using these sites and where I thought the site was particularly useful.

Tutorials Point:


The first site I will address is "Tutorials Point", I find myself coming back to this site over and over again if ever I feel in need of refreshing my knowledge in a particular area like remembering how to use a Where Clause in MySql, or the syntax for declaring an Array in Java for instance. 

The site is very easy to navigate, due to the simplistic layout of the website. Following the usual formula of a tab bar of the main subjects such as Java, MySql and HTML located at the top of the page for easy navigation. The left hand column is used for dissecting the main topics of the subject you have selected, listed from the basics to the more advanced topics in the selected subject. The simplistic layout gives a lot of functionality to users well versed with using the site. I can at this stage locate the information I need in a couple of seconds judging by how advanced I think the information I need is.





















As you can see from the image above the left column of the page is housed by individual topics of the current subject making it really easy to navigate to a particular section you wish to view. The structure of the information should also be credited as the web-master has ordered the information like chapters in a book, starting with an Overview of the subject and later moving on to the more advanced aspects of that subject. 

This brings me on to the actual information on display for the users, I believe each topic is broken down and described in enough detail but also in a way that won't leave a person shell-shocked or confused by the material they have read. In my opinion this is because the site balances the heavy information with useful and easy to understand examples. I remember having trouble grasping the concept of Polymorphism after a lecture but after looking through the examples on Tutorials Point I was a lot more comfortable with the concept. Some of the more advanced examples can be copied and pasted in to a  virtual machine so you can get a feel of what the code actual does, and can further modify it yourself.



Above is an example on how to use a Where Clause in SQL the tutorial gives detailed information on what the function does, the syntax of using the function and proceeds to give a detailed working example of what a Where Clause does and what you should see after inputting the query. I can't stress how important it is to have a good working example of the type of theory you are trying to explain, it is much easier to learn from working examples and trying these examples yourself over just reading the information and I credit Tutorials Point for having a balance between the both. 

I urge anyone that wants to learn something new or sharpen their knowledge on programming, web development or database management to give this site a look.

Here's the link provided again to save you scrolling up again.


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