SEARCH
Learning to Code
Posted in: Blog, Markup & Coding by Skellie on May 21, 2009
Photo by atomicjeep.
As I mentioned in a recent Skelliewag post, I’m beginning to learn CSS & HTML. The scary thing is, this process started back in the year 2000! I puzzled my way through a series called ‘HTML 101′. Most of what I learned then was extremely basic, and much of that is outdated now.
What I know of CSS was learnt only by trial-and-error tinkering in Wordpress and, from a while back, Blogger. I changed numbers and hex values, reloaded the site and waited to see if it changed what I wanted. If not, I’d restore the old value and change something else. This process allowed me to make small customizations to my blogs over several hours that would take a web developer a few minutes. Not very efficient, but I did eventually learn a few things about CSS.
My knowledge is still extremely basic, but I find myself tinkering with Wordpress so often that it really is time I learned how to do it properly!
Whenever I decide to learn a new skill my first stop is Amazon.com (though lately I’ve been using The Book Depository). I’ll buy a small stack of beginner books on the subject and resolve to work my way through them. When they arrive, I flick through them, then shelve them with the intent to pick them up when I’ve got time. Needless to say, there are a lot of very new looking ‘how to’ books in my bookshelf!
(I’ll go through them eventually… honest)
My small stack of books on HTML and CSS looks like this:
- Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML & CSS (currently reading)
- CSS: The Missing Manual
- The Ultimate CSS Reference
Since I mainly want to design and code Wordpress themes, I’m going to need to pick up a book on PHP as well. Any recommendations?
Tinkering with blog design is one of my favorite things to do. I’m wondering if I’ll enjoy it even more when I can actually code (in which case I’ll need to drop everything and become a designer!) - or if the opposite will be true. It might be that I enjoy the challenge of trying to achieve a result when I have no idea what I’m doing.
As I learn more, I’ll share my progress here. But for now, I’ll let my experts handle the real coding!
Comments
Hello Skellie.
Looks like more and more people are starting to learn CSS and coding. I started it last month, and so far i have managed to only change the core color combination and typography of my blog.
Its fun to see how few lines of tags and code can change entire look of your web page. and how one misplaced code can screw it up.
Comment by Sunil Pathak on May 21, 2009 at 5:44 am