Web Development: The Final Frontier
</To eagerly learn what I have not done before>
Welcome to my first blog dedicated to my journey — learning how to become a web developer from scratch. I am currently enrolled in a part-time course at Austin Coding Academy and this is my first homework assignment! Tomorrow is our first day of class and I’m both excited and anxious to begin. We have been asked several questions and I will attempt to answer them (in some cases) to the best of my researching ability.
What excites you about coding? How do you think it can change the world? | Coding allows me to take an idea and creatively execute it into a tangible and usable medium. I’m good at visualizing designs but lack the artistic streak to be able to be a good painter or illustrator. Coding enables me to have an outlet to explore my creative side without being a “good artist.” As our world becomes digitized, it is becoming increasingly important that more of our population become fluent in these languages — it is a way for us to connect to other members of our global community and share information with each other.
What does doctype do at the top of your html file do? Why does this need to be specified? | It is a declaration used at the beginning of every html document that instructs the web browser of what version of html is being used in the file.
Explain how a browser determines what HTML Elements match a CSS selector. | The CSS engine searches through style rules until it finds a match. It evaluates each rule from right to left, going through each one and either discarding it or finding a match. The rightmost selector is called the “key.”
What’s the difference between and HTML Element and and HTML Tag? | An html tag defines the formatting of a web page and how content will be displayed (i.e. <head>, <body>). The tags come in opening and closing pairs. An element is the set of html tags and all the content in between including statements defining the attributes that the page will display.
In your own words, explain the Cascade of CSS? | The final appearance of the website “cascades, ” down from the most general point down to specific details as delineated in the code. One can override certain parts or default settings by setting attributes. If one has not been defined it will set it as whatever the “next step up,” was defined as (all the way up to the default browser setting).
Explain, to someone you know, the 3 ways to link/use CSS in an HTML file to style a web page. | External: An external style sheet is a stand alone file and can be used for multiple web pages to have the same attributes (like making the look of the Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack website look the same).| Internal: The CSS rules are put at the head of the html document (the part at the top that as a person visiting the site you can’t see) and applies to all tagged elements in the document. | Inline: This is a CSS rule that is applied to a specific element in the page (like making a login button a specific color).