I have done absolutely zero prior to arriving here. Nothing. (In terms of development, that is!) But I have always wanted to learn coding and after years of telling myself it was too late, I suddenly decided it wasn’t. Found this site and started ploughing through the front end developer section.
I was amazed to find that it didn’t seem difficult, and most things worked on the first try. Everything that didn’t, I was able to fix by staring at the screen until the problem popped out at me. Maybe I was lulled into a false sense of security, but now that I am at the tribute phase, I don’t have a clue how to go about it. Specific questions are:
In the “how to” video, Quincy briefly displays his code and says it’s all HTML, no CSS. I don’t get it. Does that mean I’m not supposed to use CSS? Why not? I thought it was better than straight HTML (more efficient)?
The video also mentions that we can use any APIs or libraries we want. I don’t have any idea what the APIs or libraries would be, or where I would find them, or how I would incorporate them into the code. I’m frustrated because I feel like other people who know nothing have managed to get past the tribute, but I am a little lost. Is this explained somewhere and I somehow missed it?
I also feel a little unsure of how to structure the whole document in general. I guess that has to do partly with Question #1; if I know what I was doing I would have a better idea of how to do it.
I’m sorry if I sound whiny. I temporarily abandoned freeCodeCamp and am taking a Udemy HTML5 class, hoping to come back to the tribute once I feel less confused. Does anyone have any words of wisdom (or explanation) for me?
He uses html and css but no javascript. Get bootstrap for css. HTML is for structure and CSS is for styling page. Look at the tribute page starting from the top and look for similar item in bootstrap. If you see item in bootstrap, copy the code snippet and paste it in codepen. Codepen has a css setting tab that will allow you to link bootstrap to your project. Keep asking questions if you get stuck
Hint: The first thing you see on the project page can be found under typography under css in bootstrap docs. Or under jumbotron section under component in bootstrap docs.
To be clear, he means that there is no CSS that he wrote himself (aside from one declaration fixing the margin a bit). The aforementioned Bootstrap is pre-written CSS for you to use in your own projects. Take a look at the map if you need a refresher - Bootstrap lessons start at Use Responsive Design with Bootstrap Fluid Containers. Feel free to write all the CSS you want, too.
In programming, a library is pre-written code that you can include in your own projects. Bootstrap is a library. There are lots of others because programmers are lazy and we all want to reuse each other’s code as much as possible.
API is a term that gets thrown around a lot without much regard to what it means. You don’t need to worry about what it is or what it means for this project. Mr. Larson is simply being explicit in saying that students are free to use whatever technology they want or need to finish the job.
Starting is the hardest part. Try to make it look as much like the example project as you can, but pick a different person, place, or thing to tribute. Once you get the ball rolling, you’ll probably find yourself flooded with ideas about how it should look.