This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.

Pre-Flight Checklist


Self-assessment and introduction

Welcome! This is the first "serious" programming challenge in the Webcraft 101 series, and is meant to take you through some important and exciting web programming concepts.

Like all challenges, this challenge is not meant to teach you what you need to complete it, but rather to provide a means for you to demonstrate (and practice) important skills through guided exercises. Some people have already picked up these skills, while others are using the challenge to guide their peer-based or personal study. It's all up to you. 

You can take as long as you like to complete the challenges. But keep in mind that research shows it helps to set aside dedicated time when learning new things, and to keep a consistent pace.  An exciting side-effect is that often, a fuzzy kind of virtual cohort emerges when several people are actively involved in the challenge. Who knows, you might find yourself being swept along in the excitement :). 

To complete this first task, introduce yourself, say a few things about your background ("total n00b" is just fine!), and feel free to share any fears or questions you have about taking the challenge. 

Welcome to Programming with APIs!

Task Discussion


  • chinnan said:

    I have done few layouts with HTML and CSS. Form art backgound,.

    on July 6, 2012, 2:31 a.m.
  • manu1990 said:

    yea..m total noob.. :P

    on July 4, 2012, 4:53 a.m.
  • mdmanimal said:

    Hi everyone. I have zero experience in programming. I tried taking a class to learn Java but got pretty frustrated with it because the teacher couldn't think faster than her mouth could move and was completely worthless. I want to learn how to script and write programs in multiple languages and I would like to use that to become a white or gray hat.

    on June 28, 2012, 12:51 a.m.
  • Tushar Sharma said:

    Hello, World! I am Tushar Shama from India. I am an ardent follower of FOSS & also harbor interest in literature & anything that stimuli my grey matter. Though I am not a savvy programmer, but is willing to walk an extra mile to become one.

    on June 21, 2012, 12:18 p.m.
  • AlxRubio said:

    Hi everyone, I´m Alex from Mexico City 0 skills on programming, but i´ve been working with Gephi a network visualization platform so this is a step beyond using plug ins and got a deeper understanding. I´m also a musician and video maker. 

    on June 18, 2012, 10:55 a.m.
  • Will C. said:

    Hello, my name is Will.

    I am new to programming, and have only a little knowledge of programming in general.  I've looked over a few tutorials and none helped me.

    I have only really messed with PHP, and HTML.  I know this is completely different, but it said to give background lol.

    The main thing I am concerned about is that I am visually impaired, and hope I am able to complete this learning module.

    on June 17, 2012, 8:05 p.m.

    Jessy Kate Schingler said:

    hi will! please let me know if there is anything on the site that causes you any problems. i have a direct line to the dev team :) and we'll do whatever we can to make sure things work for you!

    on June 18, 2012, 1:33 p.m. in reply to Will C.

    Will C. said:

    Thank you.  I will do that.

    I appreciate you being willing to help

    on June 18, 2012, 1:47 p.m. in reply to Jessy Kate Schingler
  • Will C. said:

    Hello, my name is Will.  I am Visually impaired and live in West Virginia.

    I am excited to be working on this challenge.

    on June 17, 2012, 8:01 p.m.
  • JustTrombonin said:

    Hi, I'm a college student majoring in Information Systems/Management, and wanted to be more familiar wth programming and databases.

    on June 8, 2012, 8:28 p.m.
  • dumpa said:

    Hi everybody, just found out about this great p2pu. I'm from Colombia. I hope we can learn a lot together. Have fun!

    on June 5, 2012, 5:13 p.m.
  • dplante said:

    Hi, I'm a developer wanting to get more familiar with the Twitter API!

    on June 5, 2012, 2:44 a.m.
  • Doori said:

    hi all,

    i started taking Computer Science courses last year, and would like to learn more! i hope i learn a lot from this community :)

    on June 3, 2012, 3:32 p.m.
  • Nero said:

    Hi ,

    I am Nifad . I really want to learn programming . And my level is now 0 in programming ,that means right now I know nothing about programming. So I am looking forward to learn what ever and where ever I get infos about programming.

    on June 1, 2012, 7:27 p.m.
  • manicphase said:

    Hi, my name's David. This is my first thing on P2PU. I'd say I'm ok at python and I have experimented with the twitter API before. The idea of getting a badge for it sounds too cool to pass up though. I look forward to learning from you guys and hopefully will make some discoveries and share them with you along the way.

    on June 1, 2012, 5:51 p.m.
  • Daniel said:

    i am 16 and i am trying to start to learn how to be a programmer

    on May 31, 2012, 7:24 p.m.
  • Al Jigong Billings said:

    Hello. Career computer guy (QA mostly) but not much of a programmer. I've started working on my python and looking at Twitter seemed interesting.

    on May 25, 2012, 8:20 p.m.
  • alex said:

    I am alex, a young man form asia ,eager to learn sth new and interesting

    on May 23, 2012, 6:29 a.m.
  • Alex said:

    Hi, all! My name is Alex. I've been a visual artist and musical composer / sound designer / sound engineer (as well as a prolific author) for 20+ years. Now I've decided to learn computer programming. I started with courses from Udacity and Coursera, as well as video lectures from Khan Academy, Youtube, Caltech, Yale, Harvard.. My goal is to someday become an engineer. I realize I will have to go back to University for that, so in the meantime I'm taking as many courses online as I can in order to prepare myself. Hope you are well!

    on May 22, 2012, 5:03 p.m.
  • Pierre Rudloff said:

    I live in Strasbourg (France). I am studying localization at the university and am also a web developer.

    on May 22, 2012, 4:26 a.m.
  • Robin said:

     

    My name is Robin (Robin).  I am a web developer with experience developing PHP applications.  I would like to learn to use web services technology and the Twitter API to display content from Twitter on a website.  I am providing the technical support for a conference website.  I would like to use the knowledge I gain from this course to display the site's Twitter content on the site.

    on May 19, 2012, 9:52 a.m.
  • Rajul said:

    I have done quite a bit of programming since I was 10. I have programmed in C/C++, Java, Python, Ruby.

    I have done web development in Django and PHP and have also experimented a bit with Rails. I have also done research projects in machine learning, complex networks and sensor networks and done significant programming for them and for my class assignments. I am also involved in open source development and am at present developing for Network Time Foundation in the Google Summer of Code program.

    As for the API world goes I build this Emergency notification app where we used Google Maps, Yahoo!'s FireEagle and also Twitter API, but most of the stuff there was like cut-copy-paste kind of thing by looking it up over the internet. I suppose it shall be fun to learn about the Twitter here more formally and thoroughly.

    on May 19, 2012, 5:03 a.m.