Resources
En français
Salesforce
- Salesforce Trailhead online training - interactive online lessons
- Women Code Heroes - tutorial blog, probably the best out there for admins who want to learn to develop (even if just a little bit)
- SFDC99 - tutorial blog, also geared at admins who want to learn to develop
- Advanced Apex Programming - best-practice tips for writing stored procedures and triggers against Salesforce databases. Salesforce is quirky. If you think you know Java, and you’ve been told to program Salesforce, you need this book.
- .NET Framework Regular Expressions cheat sheet (DOCX file) - useful if you use DemandTools’s MassImpact module
Python
- Practical Business Python - tutorial blog
- Real Python - tutorial blog
- Repl.it - online Python code editor (do not enter your corporate data into this!)
- CodeBunk - online Python code editor (do not enter your corporate data into this!)
- Anaconda - installable software that makes your computer able to execute Python code and includes a Python code editor called Spyder (you may use sensitive data in code you write with this, but learn about security if you start writing any code that involves typing passwords or login-session IDs into your code for communicating with 3rd-party services over the internet)
- Every Python “Pandas” command - official documenation for Pandas, the most useful “module” (plugin … sort of) for Python when it comes to dealing with spreadsheets and other table-like data
- Python command cheat sheet (PDF) for lists, dictionaries, sets, and tuples
- The Mode Analytics blog - tutorial blog (SQL, Python, & R)
- Learn Python from Mode Analytics - online lessons
SQL
- Learn SQL from Mode Analytics - online lessons
- Learn SQL from Simple Analytical - online lessons
- The Mode Analytics blog - tutorial blog (SQL, Python, & R)
- DB-Fiddle - online SQL code editor (do not enter your corporate data into this!)
- Oracle Live SQL - online SQL code editor (do not enter your corporate data into this!)
Oracle PL/SQL & other database deep-dives
- Starter Guide to Databases - a few quick TL/DR gorgeous illustrations about databases
- Everything You Need To Know About Relational Databases - this long blog post is just about my “Database 101” semester-long class in a single long evening of reading. Marvelous.
- Database Administration: The Complete Guide to Practices and Procedures - this book goes into the weeds pretty fast, but the first few chapters do a marvelous overview of what different careers in relational database technology spend their days doing
- Quick recap of what PL/SQL is
- Beginning PL/SQL: From Novice to Professional - a lighthearted, easy read that holds your hand, uses humor to increase memorization, and presents the “why” before the “how”
- Oracle certification prep study guide for 1Z0-144: Oracle Database 11g: program with PL/SQL - a relatively short “lightning review” that makes a great companion to Donald Bales’s book if you’re already a computer programmer, helping you get “off to the races” faster. It’s about an out-of-date version of Oracle, but the fundamentals haven’t changed enough to avoid reading a well-written book.
- The official Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference
Unix / Linux
- Introduction to Unix and Shell Programming - I tried and failed so many times to “get” Unix/Linux until I found this book.
It gives great context to questions like “why so many variants?” and increases your patience with frustrating features of the operating system if you come from a point-and-click background with explanations like this:
Almost all the Unix commands are cryptic. For example,
catstands for concatenation,lsstands for listing, and so on. Unix commands were developed to be cryptic because it was developed by researchers for researchers and the early computer systems were very slow which demanded more time for typing, editing, and executing long commands.” - 101 Bash Commands and Tips for Beginners to Experts
- Basic Unix Commands
JavaScript
- Free Code Camp - unable to take a sabbatical for an immersion web programming bootcamp, but have self-paced spare time and self-discipline? This web site does an amazing job
- Eloquent Javascript - what many people tell folks who want to attend a web programming bootcamp to start with
- The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript - a gentle transition if you were first trained in object-oriented programming
- A Software engineer Learns HTML5, JavaScript, and JQuery - front-end web site programming, for people who already have general-purpose programming training
Object-Oriented Programming
- Objects First with Java (PDF here) - it, and the “BlueJ” IDE it teaches with, were, I believe, written for middle schoolers. Like the Scratch programming language makes it easy to learn while loops and such, the beginning of this book (and doing its exercises in BlueJ) makes learning object-oriented programming much easier than it is through many other texts. That said, I got bored with it halfway through and switched to other Java books. Always meant to finish it out; never did.
- The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript - a gentle transition if you were first trained in object-oriented programming
Data Structures
- Java Foundations: Introduction to Program Design & Data Structures - the end of this book has some great content on implementing classic computer science data structures like lists & trees in code. At least, the 2nd edition did.
I don’t typically hand-implement data structures, making do with those built into modern programming languages, but I keep it at my desk in case I ever have to. - Python command cheat sheet (PDF) for lists, dictionaries, sets, and tuples
Math
- Ones and Zeros : Understanding Boolean Algebra, Digital Circuits, and the Logic of Sets - one of my favorite computer books 😍
- Essence of Linear Algebra (videos) – I might not have dropped out of Linear Algebra if I’d watched this first
Writing
- Handbook of Technical Writing - I read the 10th edition & enjoyed its spiral format. Read it particularly if you didn’t pick up everything in 9th-grade English class, or if you’re not a native speaker of American English.
General “how computers work”
- Operating Systems Essentials
- Structured Computer Organization - found this at a book giveaway right before I started formally studying programming. It’s all about how computers work at a low level. I read the 4th edition; can’t speak to any earlier editions. It’s up to 6th, now, so 4th would save you plenty of money, used.
Miscellaneous
- Excel formulas cheat sheet (PDF) - went around LinkedIn in early 2019
- Excel keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet (PDF) - went around LinkedIn in early 2019
- GitLab’s 2-page Git cheat sheet (PDF)
- Harvard University’s computer science 101 series (videos) – found this to catch up a friend’s daughter who felt that her high school computer science teacher hadn’t conveyed principles well enough to feel like she’d truly learned anything. You don’t have to be able to get into Harvard to follow along. It’s extremely beginner-friendly.
- Breaking In: A Practical Guide to Starting a Career in Information Security - know a little hacker wannabe? Have no idea what to tell them about doing it for a living? Interested in the field and unsure what to study? Get this book.
The author also runs a podcast, of which I thought these 3 episodes were great and cover a wide range of personalities: 1, 2, 3. - Secure the Infosec Bag: Six Figure Career Guide for Women in Security - haven’t read, but looks promising
- dev.to - a blogging platform, like medium.com, where a lot of programmers write. Only this community seems to have gravitated towards helping each other, best-practice trading, tutorials, & “explain it like I’m five” posts.
