Web Design Training Blog: May 2014

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

How to learn to love your Text Editor

Type in HTML text editor in Google and you'll get about 175,000,000 hits. I plan to list each one in this post and quiz you shortly after. Not! There are a ton of text editors out there and much like dating you need to try a few until you find the one you want to marry or partner with or co-habitate with....

The exercise today is to choose a text editor. This exercise is broken into 4 challenges designed to help you find the perfect text editor to suit your style. I've used TextWrangler for other projects in the past and it is pretty much all I need at this time. When we get into CSS this may change.

TextWrangler is a text editor for use on Mac Intel computers running OSX 10.6.8 or later and can be used for Html. If you venture forth into other programming adventure TextWrangler can also be used forXHTML, XML, PHP, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Java, ANSI C, C++, Objective-C. When using TextWrangler it will finish the tag for you, color tags and also tell you of errors while you are marking up your webpage.

Now the 3 exercise wants us to recreate the "Hello World" page using our new found friend for life the Text Editor. Below is how my version of yellow world looks in TextWrangler.

Here it is as displayed in Safari

So there you have it. I choose TextWrangler to join me down this road of HTML discovery. Hand in hand we stroll into the sunset...Aww crap I can't even take the crude that comes out of my mouth.

Good luck until exercise 4

Friday, May 9, 2014

On to Challenge #2 - Write html code by hand

I stand before you triumphant over the first task. Our next tasks to do the ever present "Hello World!" challenge that every training regiment has you complete, but with a twist. Raises eyebrow and laughs maniacally. Well, maybe a giggle because I like my apartment and I think an evil laugh may be terms for evection.
OK, the twist is you have to do it by hand on a sheet of paper. What kind of torture do these "Peers" wish to inflict upon my person? Don't they know that in the 43 years since I learned how to write the alphabet my handwriting has morphed into some kind of secret language. The NSA would have a hard time deciphering my meager scribble. The workshop provides a template that we are to copy and memorize with the option of making it our own. After we have completed pour rosetta tablet we are to post it to our blog.

So I now present to the world my version of the ground breaking html file :Hello World! (cue background music from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Bear witness to the glory of the millenniums!! It is a crappy piece of Walmart brand printing paper with the writings of a poet.

I enjoyed this exercise a lot and I am throughly embarrassed by my lack of hand writing skills. My only complaint, and I am sure it will be addressed soon, is that I would like to see an explanation for each line. I understand <head> means the header at the top of the page but things like <meta chaset="utf-8"> should be noted. I looked it up and got the following answer:

UTF-8 is a variable width Unicode format that is compatible with ASCII or plain text for the basic alphanumeric characters.

It would have been nice to have a link to explain that.

Well, I think I am done for the night and will continue this tomorrow unless I stay up too late to watch Formula 1.

P2PU Webcraft course

Today is the first day towards a new Lawfulevil. I have taken it upon myself to learn a new skill and that skill is Web Design. There are many free resources on the internet that allow you to undertake such endeavors. The training tool I have decided to start with is P2PU or Peer 2 Peer Users which provides high quality, low-cost education. I can hopefully comment on that in a few days.

The course work I will follow is the Web Craft course backed by Mozilla. This is broken down into Webmaking 101 challenges. The first challenge is to create a blog and post an introduction, what course you are taking, what you hope to achieve by finishing it and a witty introduction designed to dazzle your fellow peers who are also taking this challenege.

Webmaking 101 - So far it seems there are 7 challanges that are designed to teach you how to Webmake? and as you complete them you post your assignment so your peers and possibly a mentor can view them. I have no idea if your graded, patted on the back or publicly mocked in the discussions but I look forward to the process. I do enjoy the fact that they want you to create a blog and document your progress. This will be a helpful reminder in days to come and could possibly help others.
I recently lost the sight in my right eye. My current job requires that I work with Hi-speed robotically controlled machines in a dangerous environment. I hope that by taking this course and further study will allow me to work out of my house or in an office. I plan on offering friends, family, companies I know and any non-profit business free services until I build a nice sized portfolio.
My real name isn't lawfulevil, Duh! Allow me to introduce myself...My name is Mark. I am a father of 2, a 14yo and a 25yo who will not leave the nest no matter how hard the parent birds push. I enjoy computer games, playing with photoshop, long walks on the beach and I am an Aquarian. I once read that more Aquarian's are locked up in institutions then any other sign, so take that as you will. The nick name lawfulevil is a joke because my wife says I always root for the bad guy in the gangster movies, yet I would hurt a fly.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and feel free to contact me at my junk mail Email address

lawfulevil666@gmail.com