Hello, my name is Hunter, and this will be the introduction to a series of blogs I produce while going through Flatiron School. Today, I thought I'd talk about what I've learned so far, and what has personally interested me. So let's get started shall we?
What I've come to understand in the last 3 weeks is that there are these 3 main "fundamentals" of front-end web development, each of which I have dipped my toes in. Of course, I refer to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Each has their own uniqueness and challenges, and I have spent at least a week going over each of them respectfully. I have to admit, I really like the interaction between the 3 and I hope to explore more about them in the future. My main goal with this particular blog, is to talk about what interests me the most about each of them and share some personal stories.
HyperText Markup Language, otherwise known as HTML, is where I first went to start my project for this phase. I had a general goal in mind for what I wanted to accomplish, and I thought HTML would be the correct first stop. My thought process went as follows; I looked through some old labs and into the HTML of a simple website I knew off the top of my head, and I started replicating my own original code to start my website. HTML is cool because It's relatively simple. You can see exactly what you're doing and what it's supposed to show in real time. The names for all of the features are very clear and easy to understand, and the tree analogy is pretty simple too. I enjoy creating the basic skeleton of what will later become a full fledged organism.
Next we come up to Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. CSS is arguably the most fun out of the 3, as this is where you can really see the changes you're making. Do I want the background to be black? How about white? How about a picture of a beach or even a moon? The other day I was painting actually, I like to follow old Bob Ross painting tutorials, as he's long been an icon of mine. I feel similar about both CSS and painting, where I feel really in control over the artistic representation of my work. That being said, it was ironically the segment I had the least to do with during the project. I was mostly doing work on the big boss of the 3.
Finally we end up here at JavaScript, what I consider to be easily the most difficult, but arguably the most important of the features. I have really enjoyed learning JavaScript over the last couple of months, and even though I am excited to move on to the next phase, I do think I will miss it a little. It really makes you feel like a programmer, like you're doing something important and engineering something new. I look forward to feeling that again, more and more as we progress through the course.
That being said, I just wanted to quickly express my thoughts on those 3 fundamental skills, and that I am really happy with my current state of affairs. I think I understand the concepts pretty well and it's actually pretty enjoyable. If you made it this far, thank you for taking time out of your day to hear about my progress. I hope I didn't ramble too much. Until the next time!
--- Hunter Matyi, future Software Engineer.