Here in the Midwest, we had the pleasure of acquiring 2 feet of snow last week. It's the White Christmas we never had the past 3 years...but in February. Although I was able to enjoy several snow days, I was also re-acquainted with an old friend, finals. Two of my online five-week session classes ended last week: JavaScript and Dreamweaver.
JAVASCRIPTIN' MACHINE
And I thought French was hard. I like to think that I have a love/hate relationship with JavaScript. My first week was cake: I was learning the ropes, everything was logical and sequential, and the language persuasively courted my left brain. Nevertheless, we all know the nature of relationships, right? It begins with the Honeymoon Phase, where all of life is just a romantic bliss. Then, it progresses into the awkward phase when you begin to discover and unravel the quirks of the other person. That is where we stand; it was the old bait and switch as we delved into the world of functions, arrays, images, etc. I somehow made it through the assignments and quizzes, but then came the final. It presented problems that we didn't even touch on during class: Create a calculator, display selected image from a drop-down, and display a random image. Three questions that sound so easy, had me stressed all week. Yes, of course I Googled; I Googled JavaScript in numerous context as it related to the problems. But, my professor was smart enough to ask for the complicated code for each one: Use the switch function, stack the cases, and don't even think about preloading images.As luck would have it, on the morning of the final project due date, the professor sent us an email stating the final project would be EXTRA CREDIT! Another old friend. I met up with a classmate that day and figured out 2 out of the 3 problems. Of course, they seem so easy afterwards, but that's irrelevant. It's staying on the learning curve that matters. Looking forward to JavaScript II.
:-/
WEAVING DREAMS
In addition to JavaScript, I spent my snow days getting real cozy with Dreamweaver and CSS. My final project for Dreamweaver was to create a five-page Web site with the content of my choice. Once again, after acing the assignments and quizzes throughout class, I found myself staring at a blank page when tackling the project. I chose Barefoot shoes, a topic that intrigues me and triggered my curiosity. My first task was researching the topic. This was easy with endless articles and studies available on the internet. I also tracked down the book Tread Lightly by Peter Larson and Bill Katovsky at the public library.After diligently researching the topic, I dove right into Dreamweaver. No layout, rough draft, nothing. Consequently, I spent the first two days fumbling around with div tags, CSS rules, and do not even get me started on margins and padding. Some important relevations:
.text = class
#id = ID tag
margins = Outside the box!
padding = Inside the box!
float: left; = Important rule that is critical to the layout of the page
*There is an arrow at the bottom of your properties tab that will give you more pace in your work screen (I figured this one out when I was reviewing my finished product)
I must say my relationship with Dreamweaver is just the opposite of my relationship with JavaScript. I initially despised Dreamweaver. Unlike JavaScript where I was able to create a program by starting with a raw blank page, Dreamweaver is readily equipped with endless toolbars, sidebars, menu options, panels, and icons on top of icons on top of icons! It was too busy for me. Nevertheless, as we spent more time together during the snow days, I became quite fond of it. Once you figure out the function of each icon, and learn your way around the program, it is actually a very friendly, functional, and helpful tool. As a byproduct, the split screen has given me a great real-time visual of the HTML, which helped me immensely in my XHTML and CSS class. In fact, by the time I finished wrestling with my styles sheet in Dreamweaver, I had a lot of the properties locked into my head. And coincidentally, we were covering CSS in my other class; I felt like a veteran.
On a side note. Evernote came in really handy for the development of this website. I used it to organize my different pages on the site. Most will create a wireframe, this was an easy way to create my rough draft.
And so, no sledding for this gal, for that is how I spent my snow days. I leave you with my Dreamweaver final project and very first Web site.
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