One of the online resources I’ve been using is Codecademy. I like that it uses real, well-known sites as examples, and then helps you discover the coding behind it. I do feel as though I’m just copying someone else’s work though, [well, that is the idea, really!] and I like being able to apply the things that I’ve learned to something different, not just rebuilding the example. So I’ve decided to start a project, on my own, where I can play around and build something of my own. It’ll be an ongoing work in progress, which I’ll add to and modify as I continue learning.
Being a chef, I’ve visited a lot of restaurant websites; some of which are really swanky and match both the feel of the restaurant and the ethos of the chef. On the other hand, some were shockingly bad. It amazes me how much money someone will spend on a restaurant: the building and equipment, the staff, the bespoke stationery, the handmade crockery[!], the professional photographers they hire to show off the food and the restaurant- and then they feature those amazing [or not-so-amazing] pictures on a boring website! One of the first lessons on Codecademy had me make a page with HTML, and then apply CSS- what a difference! That HTML page, with the CSS removed, actually reminded me of some restaurant websites that I’ve seen; they just looked a bit, well… stripped bare.
Today I’ve been thinking about what I want to use to start making the website:
- HTML will be used for the content of the site, so I’ll be getting plenty of practice in that!
- I’ll style it with CSS.
- And I really liked Bootstrap, which was used in Codecademy, so I’ll be exploring that further and trying to find out new ways to use it.
I’m sure I’ll use more languages and tools to build the site, and I’ll be sure to mention them on the blog as I learn about and apply them.
I haven’t looked into hosting for my project yet- it’ll need to be free though (still no news on the job front, so I’m not letting myself pay for things like that right now.) Any suggestions that might be appropriate would be greatly appreciated!
Part Timer 
Tricky to not have autocorrect change it on ya when you type it out, but Codecademy is a fun place to learn to code. Or to relearn, as it was in my case…I had forgotten so much of what I learned in college, but their website really helped out! Going thru the code and then having their (I forget what they called it) internal code-checker review it was great!
It is great you are learning HTML first…it is a smarter way to go than to just use one of those do-it-yourself website makers. Look forward to reading about your progress!
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Thanks! I do find their code checker a little frustrating sometimes; when it tells you there’s a mistake or something missing but you can’t see where!
I remember learning the basics of HTML when we first got the internet (ah, fond memories of dial-up and floppy disks!) but that seems so long ago now.
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