Starting out ...

Hi, I'm just starting to learn HTML and CSS at the moment. Hopefully, I can turn design and web design into a full time job. I'm just after people's opinions on the best path-way to this. I'm using notepad and the minute and designing using a web browser. I'm wanting to learning coding from scratch. What are people opinions on this?I've heard lots of comments on 'beautiful coding' on different sites - Can anyone define this?I think that's it for now... I have an opportunity to build a website for a friend (a simple one-pager) to I want to the best job i can, and then move onto my own!Cheers
 
Hi Steve,
It's a great industry to get in and the benefits are great. To see something go from design to fully working in the browser was fantastic. It's certainly a great aspiration to consider putting it forward in to a full time job. It's something I do now and wouldn't turn back! I started out by learning online and doing some design tutorials in my spare time, there are tons of resources out there to help you get started. A recent favorite of mine to learn coding is Code Cademy, just google it!
I would consider beautiful coding to be a page that is well structured and uses good syntax that is semantic. For example, the correct use of css selectors, html elements. Latest coding practices and technologies such as html5/css3, some good javascript frameworks to drive the front end of a website (see handlesbars, angular, backbone .js).
If you are going to make a nice one pager, consider the basics first and go from there! All the best and have fun!
 
I'm not sure how I missed this thread, but I did some how, sorry!
Welcome to the forums, Edger! I agree with his post entirely. A lot of people don't think it matters how the code is presented, but it does. It's not just about how easy it is to read though, it's also about efficiency and best practice. The aim is to create the fastest, most lightweight piece of code that you can so the website loads quickly - especially if it's for mobile devices.
How is your learning goes, as it has been almost two weeks since you posted this!
 
Now I'm no web designer but I do dabble in it for my own personal 'pleasure' lol
How I started out...
My first site(s) were designed via wysiwyg editor (golive at the time)
After a while I started delving into the code that was being produced by golive and 'tidying' up the id's, classes and some of the ugly code.
Then it was a progression into tidying the css files, integrating css3 code which wasn't supported by golive
I can now pretty much write my own html/css from scratch although I'm still not really any good with javascript/php (better money in this area supposedly). Now I don't think my code is perfect but it's a lot better than the auto generated stuff lol
As to beautiful coding... you might want to look into responsive web design, this is the direction web design is heading and you may as well start learning using this methodology.
 
Hand coding is the best way to go! Beautiful coding is W3 compliant and I always use the less is more idea. I see this in CSS mostly. There is usually no need to create a special ID or class for everything. There are some great ways to combining multiple elements. It took me awhile to get the hang of it, but to me that's beautiful code :)
I use a lot of photoshop elements for my designs so it can get tricky but there are some great resources out there. Here is a great site that helped me a lot when I first started:
Maybe you know it, but it's pretty cool! Have fun
 
dasikins said:
Beautiful coding is W3 compliant
it would be if all the latest html5 stuff would validate.... the idea is sound but not everything validates and in some cases it's actually better if it doesn't validate (Jaz made a HUGE post on this) due to the way readers for visually impaired people work.
 
Levi said:
it would be if all the latest html5 stuff would validate.... the idea is sound but not everything validates and in some cases it's actually better if it doesn't validate (Jaz made a HUGE post on this) due to the way readers for visually impaired people work.
True! I love HTML5. I am working on getting a hand to draw a picture for a web design slide by exporting illustrator directly to canvas. Good stuff!
 
Hi guys
Thanks for all the responses - I saw codeacademy mentioned on twitter the other day - I'll definitely check it out.
I've mostly been using Illustrator when I've been putting mock-ups together, and my HTML and CSS are coming along.
Javascript - yeah... that's level 2 stuff, isn't it... the level 2 Boss.
 
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