caught hand coding in the bathroom!
This past week has been nothing but me, countless pots of coffee, and Dreamweaver shacked up at my desk force feed learning CSS as fast as I can. Altering existing code inside of Blogger only allows you to see what it can do, not what I can do. Starting code by hand from the start shows you there is a ton to learn. I have to say that the pages I've written so far have NOT used tables at all. I've been on the DIV tip all the way brah! I've obviously been peeking at other's codes to see how they've solved issues, but for the most part I'm creating all my styles by hand and memory. I still can't believe that I've gotten this far since I started the Web Design courses in February!
As for the portfolio site, I've already aquired enough knowledge to start coding it in CSS rather than butcher it in ImageReady. As a style builder and an image optimizer it's a great tool, but as a coding tool for your screen image it's a disaster. If you've been to the site, clear your cache and visit again. Watch how long everything loads; you can see it reading the code from top to bottom. WAAAY too much JavaScript used for things that can be easily done in CSS. Take for instance the works pages and the hover effect that I've used. There is JavaScript written for and with every one of those images telling the computer to do something 'onmouseover'.
In CSS you create a class that can be recalled by every image but loaded just once, and CACHED for the rest of the site using that class! The stylesheet loads one time, and is called upon throughout the site w/out affecting any loadtimes. Granted once the JavaScript is loaded, the site works pretty well, but we're talking about new page hits, and not just w/ my portfolio site.
All this talk about load times, standards, and lite/minimal code is for all the sites we'd produce for customers. Think about how many times you've been to a site and your mood starts to change to irritation as you wait for the content to appear. It's the same thing as walking into a store and having a bad experience or being ignored. Your mood affects your choices and that is a major concern for all trade/commerce sites.
NOW I know why those who code in CSS and XHTML standards promote the issue so much, it's a major accomplishment to do so! The best way to check out CSS sites is to find a gallery. I found one that aggregates most of them for you! CSS Galleries is up to 175 pages so have fun. I haven't been through all of them, but it's not like I didn't try.
Technorati Tags: web design, web standards, CSS, JavaScript, ImageReady, XHTML, hand coding
As for the portfolio site, I've already aquired enough knowledge to start coding it in CSS rather than butcher it in ImageReady. As a style builder and an image optimizer it's a great tool, but as a coding tool for your screen image it's a disaster. If you've been to the site, clear your cache and visit again. Watch how long everything loads; you can see it reading the code from top to bottom. WAAAY too much JavaScript used for things that can be easily done in CSS. Take for instance the works pages and the hover effect that I've used. There is JavaScript written for and with every one of those images telling the computer to do something 'onmouseover'.
In CSS you create a class that can be recalled by every image but loaded just once, and CACHED for the rest of the site using that class! The stylesheet loads one time, and is called upon throughout the site w/out affecting any loadtimes. Granted once the JavaScript is loaded, the site works pretty well, but we're talking about new page hits, and not just w/ my portfolio site.
All this talk about load times, standards, and lite/minimal code is for all the sites we'd produce for customers. Think about how many times you've been to a site and your mood starts to change to irritation as you wait for the content to appear. It's the same thing as walking into a store and having a bad experience or being ignored. Your mood affects your choices and that is a major concern for all trade/commerce sites.
NOW I know why those who code in CSS and XHTML standards promote the issue so much, it's a major accomplishment to do so! The best way to check out CSS sites is to find a gallery. I found one that aggregates most of them for you! CSS Galleries is up to 175 pages so have fun. I haven't been through all of them, but it's not like I didn't try.
Technorati Tags: web design, web standards, CSS, JavaScript, ImageReady, XHTML, hand coding
posted by Chris Huller at 12:09 PM
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