Baby steps to frontend

1 - What is front end?

First of all, we need to know what the front end really means. When we say front end, people tend to think it is only about the web. The truth is, front end is everywhere. When you say frontend you actually mean the interface of the app which users interact with. It could be a mobile app, it could be a web app, it could be a native app for your OS.

2 - Why should we learn front end first?

Programming concepts are generally intangible. Because of this reason, it can be difficult to learn programming purely by staying on the logical side. As a beginner, you should see the effects of the code you are writing. Front end gives you the chance to practice your coding skills and make them tangible enough for you to understand programming concepts. Besides that, it is fun to see what you have created in front of your eyes.

3 - What are HTML and CSS?

Early age of the internet people could only send pure text messages over the internet. There was no styling. After some years, people needed more complicated data transfers like graphics, scientific formulas, audio, etc. This is when the World Wide Web came into existence. After the World Wide Web, we got standards and protocols for data sharing via the internet. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is the basic building block of a web page. You can create a web page using only HTML. Yes, it will look ugly if you build a web page using only HTML. This is where CSS steps in. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet and it is used for styling a web page. It manipulates font size, background color, text color, borders, alignment, etc. You may ask what about other platforms' frontends. I can tell you that once you understand how markup languages create a web page it will be a lot easier for you to understand other platforms' front ends.

4 - What is after learning HTML and CSS?

Most of the people tend to skip right into Javascript before they really master and practice HTML and CSS. This is a mistake which I have made myself too. HTML and CSS are easy to learn and hard to master. You will get too much confusion if you rush it. You can practice your skills with some projects like a personal website, parallax website, creating a navbar, cloning some modern websites landing pages. You can also check codepen.io website which is an online code editor for web developers. On that site, you can see how people craft their websites. After you feel really comfortable with HTML and CSS, you can go for Javascript.