Coding on a Chromebook? The ideal experience for a beginner

Coding on an R11 is a moblle beginner's dream (for me)

Like most of the people in this country, you may find yourself in one of two positions:

1) Working from home OR

2) Waiting to go back to work.

(For some of us, it could even be a combination of both.)

Now, with that in mind, you may find yourself with a lot of free time on your hands. As rough of a time as this may be, it is a perfect opportunity to brush up on some skills or to even learn some new ones. For me, I decided to put all of my focus and time (at least what my 8-month-old will let me) into learning web development. Now, I have been dabbling in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for over a year now, but I had never actually dove all of the way in...until now.

On top of the thrill (and frustration) of learning a new skill, I also had one other hurdle to overcome: my primary computer. Now, I have a solid Windows PC that I had used for 10 years now that is equipped with everything I need: lots of RAM, an SSD, larger screen, and a plethora of programs. The problem is that it is a 10-year-old laptop with roughly 2-3 hours of battery per charge; I primarily keep it stationary as my photo and video editing machine. For my day to day surfing, writing, et cetera, I use an Acer R11....Chromebook. It is a nice machine that does everything I need it to do, especially with my Google-centric life. For coding, however, it may not be the most practical situation, but for the sake of this experiment, I was determined to make it work.

So, here is my experience so far.

Now, in all honesty, I know that I could install Linux apps and run Code Studio. However, I wanted the base Chrome OS set up to get a true experience. After trying a few apps, I finally settled on using Caret (along with Chrome for testing) to full bang out a webpage. So far, it is a little of a mixed bag.

On the bright side, Caret is an excellent text editor that supports HTML, CSS, and JS. Using the presets, it will do various tasks such as auto-indenting, adding closing tasks, and allowing custom user preferences. It works flawlessly on my R11 which is the whole point and takes up very little space.

However, there are certainly some downsides to coding on Chrome with this set-up. Firstly, unlike some other editors (such as Visual Studio), Caret does not have a built-in tester (that I have found) meaning you have to keep Chrome open to verify everything is working correctly, and, because I am using my R11, I cannot split screen comfortably if I want an accurate rendering. I could bypass this limitation by casting to my TV, but that would ruin the experience.

Additionally, because I am using my Chromebook, my default save location is Drive which makes ensuring accurate file paths to link the files can be troublesome. Now, I have easily gotten around that by leaving the current project I am on saved to a local folder, but it does require changing my defaults.

Is coding on a Chromebook difficult? For a beginner, it is not difficult at all. Yes, it required me to modify some defaults, but outside of that, it has been a pretty smooth experience. Now, for a more experience professional that codes for living, this could be a difficult time. As the quantity of files adds up and the complexity of projects increases, it may require switching to a more robust set-up. However, for the budding coder looking for some flexibility, this is the ideal experience. A lightweight device that I can take anywhere (like trying to get 5 minutes away from a mobile 8-month-old) is the perfect device for me to learn on, and I would highly recommend for anyone trying to get their start.