Dave Stewart is a freelance Software Developer who learned to code without a Computer Science degree. Dave studied Animation but has been able to make a successful career as a Software Developer specialising in the Vue framework.
Hey, so can you introduce yourself?
Hi I'm Dave, I'm a Lead Vue Developer based in London, UK.
Why did you learn to code?
I had recently completed my degree in Visual Communication Design at Ravensbourne Uni, specialising in Moving Image Design, focusing primarily on 3D Animation using 3dsmax and After Effects. During the months after finishing I wanted to collate my animations in some kind of online portfolio, likely a website.
At the time CD-ROMs were the main way people viewed interactive content on computers because modems were so slow, so building web pages using HTML and laying out designs in DreamWeaver felt very “bare metal” indeed.
I knew what code was, as my course had an Interaction Design stream, but I had never done it. I didn’t know what the DOM was, or why a site that ran fine on IE would fail so spectacularly in Netscape!
Later I knew 3dsmax could be programmed, so I had a crack at that. That lead to trying Flash (pre-ActionScript), then ActionScript, then later PHP, JavaScript, VB Script (Office), Node, TypeScript, and all kinds of extensions for different frameworks and packages.
Once you pop, you can’t stop!
