In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about the basics of building a website — how to get started for beginners!

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Show Notes

04:20 - HTML

• HTML is the language you write to get text and elements to show up on the screen
• Elements can describe the content they contain
  • p
  • img
• Or be structural and describe the areas of the website
  • div
  • h
  • header, footer
• Listen to our ep on HTML elements to learn more about them: Syntax 354: The Surprisingly Exciting World of HTML Elements
• HTML elements have default styling applied to them before you write any CSS
  • This comes from the browser and can be manipulated
  • However, by default all elements are either block or inline-display

08:11 - CSS

• If HTML is the bones, CSS is the clothes and skin
• CSS dictates how a website looks
  • Without CSS, you have text on a blank page and images
• CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets (“cascading” being the key word)
• Adding CSS to a page
  • Link tag
  • Style tag
  • Inline styles
• Selectors
  • You can select an element on the page via element, class, id, attribute
  • Syntax is selector, brackets, property, value
• Property
  • A property is what you are changing (e.g. background-color)
• Value determines how the thing looks
  • background: red;
• Specificity
  • Specificity is a big part of the cascade. When you apply one style to something, you need to learn how to target things appropriately. This is a huge part of being good at CSS.
  • People develop systems like BEM to organize this
  • General rules - Use elements for base styling and classes for specific styling. Don’t use IDs for styling.
  • !important exists to override everything, but as a general rule, NEVER use it. Seriously.
• Some interaction
  • Most interaction is done in JavaScript, but CSS has some basics
    • hover, active, focus
• Pseudo selectors
• You’ll often see people reaching for libraries to make CSS easier and more consistent
  • Common examples are Bootstrap, Foundation, and TailwindCSS
  • For the most part you’ll want to avoid these until you have a good understanding of the cascade, how CSS works, and how to write good CSS.
• In addition to properties, you can now write your own custom properties for CSS.
  • While this could be seen as an advanced technique, I believe the new normal is CSS variables first.
  • CSS variables are indicated by —variableName: value; where variable name takes the place of a property.
  • You can then use the variable via var(—variableName) in place of a property. This allows for easy duplication of same values across your style sheet.

37:08 - JavaScript

• JavaScript is used to add interaction to a website
• It makes your website dynamic

JavaScript the Language

• We have a base programming language that has nothing to do with HTML
• It has things like:
  • Variables - ways to store things
  • Numbers + Math
  • Data Containers - Objects and Arrays
  • Functions - Code grouped together to achieve a certain purpose
• It also has a “Standard Lib” which means JavaScript comes with built-in support for doing common things:
  • Formatting time + money
  • Alerting the user
  • Logging a value to developer tools
  • Capitalizing things
  • Sorting lists of things
  • Round or randomize numbers
  • Fetch data
  • Talk to a sever
• Promises
  • Logic and flow control

JavaScript the DOM

• When the HTML is loaded, it’s parsed into something called the DOM (Document Object Model)
• Events
  • JavaScript is mostly event-driven - when something happens, do something else
  • When you click something and want something else to happen
  • There are lots of events
    • mouse, touch, pointer
    • Ready
    • Forms
      • Submit, change, keyboard, etc.
• Can be used to fetch data
  • fetch() - you’ll often hear it called Ajax, or XMLHttpRequest
• Can be used to make more HTML
  • Whole set of APIs for creating elements
• The DOM can be traversed

Links

• https://css-tricks.com/
• https://getbootstrap.com/
• https://get.foundation/
• https://tailwindcss.com/

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2
• Wes: Mini Split Air Conditioner

Shameless Plugs

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