<!-- This is a repost of my entry on the Camp Firebelly blog yesterday: thought I would share it here, since I had a lot of fun writing it. Tomorrow is the last day of the workshop, so I'll be sure to post a recap afterwards. -->
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<h1>Everything I Needed to Know (about coding), I Learned at Camp Firebelly</h1>
<p>When we received our assignments last week, I was really excited to be on the website team. Not only was it great to get to work with the others in my group and Jason Schwartz, among other guests, <!-- thanks for the coding help Raphael! --> but I was really looking forward to getting to help code the site. After an intense weekend crash-course-marathon-coding-event, I have come to one conclusion: <strong>Keith is Awesome</strong>. </p>
<p>Now, I don’t want to suggest that any of the other Camp Staff members are any <em>less</em> awesome than Keith… (A special thanks goes out to Dawn for having us, Will for helping/learning along with our team, Antonio for supplying a great stock of movies, and his girlfriend for the most delicious cupcakes in Chicago.) However, over the course of the past weekend, Keith has managed to accomplish what two semesters of web-design classes were never able to do in college: I now feel like I understand what I am doing. How did he accomplish such a miraculous feat? Why, with Four Mind-Blowing Revelations. I now present for your consideration the 4 MBR’s:</p>
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<li><strong>Crash Course/Ordered vs Unordered Lists</strong>
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The first night <!-- at 3:30am…insane, right? -->, Keith totally blew my mind by giving us a brief overview of the basics of laying out a website in code to get it ready for styling in css. Prominently featured was an explanation of Ordered vs Unordered Lists. Is the order of the items in your list necessary for understanding the list? For example <!-- courtesy of Keith -->, are you outlining the steps of assembling your own golf cart? Then use an Ordered List. Are the items in your list just listed in a certain order, but not necessarily <em>need</em> to be in that order? Use an Unordered List.</li>
<li><strong>The Subtle Art of Hiding Text</strong>
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Have an image with some text on it and think you don’t have to type that text in the html? <rude>Wrong!</rude> Including the copy in the html and then hiding it is <em>essential</em> for SEO and Accessibility. <!-- With family members who are visually impaired, I am all about accessibility issues…that, and google-bots are a good idea to please. --> To do this, Keith taught us his not-so-secret ways of subtly making said copy disappear. Magic!</li>
<li><strong>Image vs Image</strong>
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Much like the Ordered vs Unordered List revelation, Keith made the issue of Image versus Background Image easy as pie <!-- or cupcakes -->. It seems that if your image relates to the <em>content</em> of the page, then it needs to fit into an <em>image tag</em>. But, but! If your image relates to the <em>style</em> of the page, then it needs to be set as a <em>background</em> image. <!-- cue “A-ha” moment --> </li>
<li>…and last, but certainly not least, <strong>A Brief History of html, xml, and xhtml Languages</strong>
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Did you know that xhtml was created because the Powers That Be thought that coders were being too sloppy with their html? Or that xhtml is ultimately falling <em>out</em> of use because the browsers <em>themselves</em> are lazy? <!-- …reminds me of a college professor declaring how lazy I was for auditing his class… --> The future of html is looking pretty bright <!-- …bright, great… --> and HTML5 promises to be better than ever. How could it not be with a proposed <sarcasm> tag?? Here are a few that I would like to see: <rude><!-- I already used this one above -->, <giddy>, and <shockedandawed><!-- which would have come in handy when listening to Keith’s explanations... -->
<p>By this time, things were getting a bit loopy due to lack of sleep <!-- I believe 9 hours was the 3 day total at this point -->. Strange comments were known to have been overheard. <!-- "Zero apples is the same as zero ponies!” and “Small Mayo is the shit!” and even “Let’s stuff some tissue into this website’s bra.” --> I started making really bad analogies such as comparing the relationship between divs, margins, and padding to a padded white room. Finally, the coder hand-signs started getting busted out. And let me tell you, the site is looking pretty darn good: get excited…because we are. <!-- and that is NOT a <sarcasm> comment despite looking towards no sleep until the end of camp…I may be biased in favor of it, but you really will like it once it’s done. --> Off to go watch a movie and get my rock band on...even busy campers need a break.</p>
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1 response so far ↓
1 xgravity23 // Jul 5, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Fun!!
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