Learn by doing
Mar. 28th, 2013 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carene_watermanConcurrently with studying JavaScript and jQuery in the abstract, I decided to do a project to help me put the things I know into skills I've actually used.
Make things less abstract, in other words, or the exact opposite of what programming is all about.
I set up Git locally, made a set of files for a webpage--I like to use Geany to edit HTML and CSS files and display the result in Firefox so I can use the Web Developer tools to mess about without having to edit and re-edit the code file.
I'm making a basic website with a couple of pages with hand-coded HTML and CSS. I have a design idea of what the site does--display some images and text and link to an archive of previous sets.
The plan is to set it up so it works, thereby getting some practical HTML and CSS experience that isn't skinning an existing site like DW styles do.
Next up, I'll redo it with Twitter Bootstrap to learn it and LESS in a real way.
Somewhere in there I'll put in some JS or JQ effects.
At that point I really hope to be able to do it again using Rails to make the site. We'll see.
So far, it seems a bit silly to be committing small changes in a very simple set of four files, but the Git practice is really helping make Git real, and I'm learning the parts of HTML that I've never needed before.
Additionally, it is so, so ,so ,so to ifinity nice to have HTML that I've coded, that has rational and simple class names and isn't bloated with extra divs.
DW's code is very, very good, but it has a lot of built-in flexibility and therefore complexity that it's nice to dispose of.
This is a great project I would recommend to anyone who wants to improve their skills beyond tweaks and skins.
You know what you need? A browser and a text file editor--which you already have.
Make your HTML file, link your CSS file and load the HTML file from your browser's File menu. Boom, you're developing. In the browser--the way you'll learn the best.
Make things less abstract, in other words, or the exact opposite of what programming is all about.
I set up Git locally, made a set of files for a webpage--I like to use Geany to edit HTML and CSS files and display the result in Firefox so I can use the Web Developer tools to mess about without having to edit and re-edit the code file.
I'm making a basic website with a couple of pages with hand-coded HTML and CSS. I have a design idea of what the site does--display some images and text and link to an archive of previous sets.
The plan is to set it up so it works, thereby getting some practical HTML and CSS experience that isn't skinning an existing site like DW styles do.
Next up, I'll redo it with Twitter Bootstrap to learn it and LESS in a real way.
Somewhere in there I'll put in some JS or JQ effects.
At that point I really hope to be able to do it again using Rails to make the site. We'll see.
So far, it seems a bit silly to be committing small changes in a very simple set of four files, but the Git practice is really helping make Git real, and I'm learning the parts of HTML that I've never needed before.
Additionally, it is so, so ,so ,so to ifinity nice to have HTML that I've coded, that has rational and simple class names and isn't bloated with extra divs.
DW's code is very, very good, but it has a lot of built-in flexibility and therefore complexity that it's nice to dispose of.
This is a great project I would recommend to anyone who wants to improve their skills beyond tweaks and skins.
You know what you need? A browser and a text file editor--which you already have.
Make your HTML file, link your CSS file and load the HTML file from your browser's File menu. Boom, you're developing. In the browser--the way you'll learn the best.
