Learning HTML

[Kamron Bennett]

What are some good effective ways to learn
html and also teach it?
What were the ways you guys used to learn
HTML?
I learned by dissecting website codes and
trying cool stuff I saw on my own
downloading free templates that are
compliant and trying to replicate them
was also a route I took. What about you guys?

 

[richard]

What are some good effective ways to learn
html and also teach it?
What were the ways you guys used to learn
HTML?
I learned by dissecting website codes and
trying cool stuff I saw on my own
downloading free templates that are
compliant and trying to replicate them
was also a route I took. What about you guys?

Good way to learn. www.oswd.org has thousands of examples to learn from.
Learn in bits and pieces. Try something out. Find out why it does not work.
Learn by validating code. A lot of the major commercial sites don't even
bother. It looks good, it works. They don't give a damn.

Use an editor that has an abundance of features in editing. The one I use,
checks tag pairs on the fly. If something isn't quite right, the color
coding gives me a clue where to look.

 

[dorayme]

Kamron Bennett

What are some good effective ways to learn
html and also teach it?

That is two questions, having rather different answers. Likely
there is no good answer to either that will suit everyone.

If you are wanting some immediate general guidance on the first,
at least, I would say to get a grasp of the ideal of semantic
markup and of the separation of this from CSS styling.

You might start by spending time at

http://htmldog.com/

 

[Kamron Bennett]

Kamron Bennett


That is two questions, having rather different answers. Likely
there is no good answer to either that will suit everyone.

If you are wanting some immediate general guidance on the first,
at least, I would say to get a grasp of the ideal of semantic
markup and of the separation of this from CSS styling.

You might start by spending time at

http://htmldog.com/

I am able to write compliant HTML and CSS,

I'm just interested in the ways you guys learned
HTML and CSS so I can pass on these practices
to the group of youngsters I plan to teach
at a community centre's evening class mentorship
programme I am a part of.

 

[Kamron Bennett]

I am able to write compliant HTML and CSS,

I'm just interested in the ways you guys learned
HTML and CSS so I can pass on these practices
to the group of youngsters I plan to teach
at a community centre's evening class mentorship
programme I am a part of.

I volunteer there and I Just want to give then a start
in web developing, sort of stroking their interest in
Web Development

 

[Captain Paralytic]

Good way to learn.www.oswd.orghas thousands of examples to learn from.
Learn in bits and pieces. Try something out. Find out why it does not work.
Learn by validating code.

Hmm, you should suggest to richard that he does this...

 

[dorayme]

Kamron Bennett

I am able to write compliant HTML and CSS,

I'm just interested in the ways you guys learned
HTML and CSS so I can pass on these practices
to the group of youngsters I plan to teach
at a community centre's evening class mentorship
programme I am a part of.

OK.

Just btw, mind you, how did you learn?

Are you the slightest interested in suggestions about what your
charges should early on get a grasp on? Or is the suggestion I
made unhelpful, not understood, partly understood, or what? It
was not commented upon, perhaps because all your attention was on
my assumption that you were including yourself in wanting to
learn HTML/CSS and you wanted to sort that one out pretty quick
smart!

 

[Fokke Nauta]

What are some good effective ways to learn
html and also teach it?
What were the ways you guys used to learn
HTML?
I learned by dissecting website codes and
trying cool stuff I saw on my own
downloading free templates that are
compliant and trying to replicate them
was also a route I took. What about you guys?

I thought myself HTML with working with Frontpage 4, which was quite
intuitive.
I run evening classes myself where I teach beginners to work with HTML and I
use NAMO. The old version (3) is free, absolutely out of date for developing
modern websites, but as intuitive as Frontpage to learn how to write simple
web pages, frames, tables and the likes.
As I said, not suited for modern websites, but good to learn and to make
simple websites fort home use.
And a good start to continue with Dreamweaver for more professional use.

Fokke

 

[dorayme]

I thought myself HTML with working with Frontpage 4, which was quite
intuitive.
I run evening classes myself where I teach beginners to work with HTML and I
use NAMO. The old version (3) is free, absolutely out of date for developing
modern websites, but as intuitive as Frontpage to learn how to write simple
web pages, frames, tables and the likes.
As I said, not suited for modern websites, but good to learn and to make
simple websites fort home use.
And a good start to continue with Dreamweaver for more professional use.

The very worst possible way to teach HTML or CSS is to use
anything like Dreaweaver or Frontpage or *anything remotely like
it*.

I see I missed in a previous post the method the OP used to learn
HTML/CSS himself - trying cool stuff, downloading free templates
- so apologies to him.

Many of us messed about in all sort of ways to learn this stuff.
That does not mean it is the slightest *good* guide to how it
should be taught to others.

 

[Kamron Bennett]

The very worst possible way to teach HTML or CSS is to use
anything like Dreaweaver or Frontpage or *anything remotely like
it*.

I see I missed in a previous post the method the OP used to learn
HTML/CSS himself - trying cool stuff, downloading free templates
- so apologies to him.

Many of us messed about in all sort of ways to learn this stuff.
That does not mean it is the slightest *good* guide to how it
should be taught to others.

I never used those authoring programmes like Frontpage and Dreamweaver
I used Notepad++ (my absolute favourite programme) when I was teaching
myself. I still consider myself learning by the way. So I guess that
would be a cool approach to adopt. But guess what, everybody learns
in different ways so maybe using DW will work for someone else, so I
want to get a collection of approaches then I could maybe pick out
most used and maybe effective ones.

 

[richard]

The very worst possible way to teach HTML or CSS is to use
anything like Dreaweaver or Frontpage or *anything remotely like
it*.

I see I missed in a previous post the method the OP used to learn
HTML/CSS himself - trying cool stuff, downloading free templates
- so apologies to him.

Many of us messed about in all sort of ways to learn this stuff.
That does not mean it is the slightest *good* guide to how it
should be taught to others.

DW is bloated crap.
I wanted to play around with some table stuff and found a copy of Fp2.0.
Since FP allows you to enter items in the displayed table rather than
straight coding.
2.0 is even worse than the original. It inserted a bunch of crap I wanted
nothing to do with and was totally out of date. Half the code they use is
deprecated.

www.blumentals.com
I use rapid PHP 2010 now and love it.

 

[Kamron Bennett]

I never used those authoring programmes like Frontpage and Dreamweaver
I used Notepad++ (my absolute favourite programme) when I was teaching
myself. I still consider myself learning by the way. So I guess that
would be a cool approach to adopt. But guess what, everybody learns
in different ways so maybe using DW will work for someone else, so I
want to get a collection of approaches then I could maybe pick out
most used and maybe effective ones.

Oh and another thing Validate - can't stress that one. All the
templates/sites
I do are valid, if it weren't for those useful validators then we would all
be spewing out bs code huh?

 

[Dylan Parry]

I wanted to play around with some table stuff and found a copy of Fp2.0.
Since FP allows you to enter items in the displayed table rather than
straight coding.
2.0 is even worse than the original. It inserted a bunch of crap I wanted
nothing to do with and was totally out of date. Half the code they use is
deprecated.

What were you expecting? FrontPage 2.0 was released in 1996, when half of
that deprecated stuff was probably cutting edge!

 

[Fokke Nauta]

The very worst possible way to teach HTML or CSS is to use
anything like Dreaweaver or Frontpage or *anything remotely like
it*.

<cut>

Why?

To teach HTML you need a WYSIWYG editor. I used Namo (like Frontpage but
creates clean code) and payed attention to the HTML code section. This
combination of a HTML editor in Word-style and the HTML code was a perfect
base to teach HTML.
You want to make it more complicated with a non-WYSIWYG editor?

Fokke

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

To teach HTML you need a WYSIWYG editor.

I used Namo (like Frontpage but creates clean code) and payed
attention to the HTML code section. This combination of a HTML editor
in Word-style and the HTML code was a perfect base to teach HTML.

Might be okay, once you know how to write and understand proper valid
HTML and CSS.

http://htmldog.com <-- well-recommended tutorial
All that is required is a good text editor.

You want to make it more complicated with a non-WYSIWYG editor?

Yes. 'Tis the only way to learn properly.

 

[Doug Miller]

To teach HTML you need a WYSIWYG editor.

Nonsense. Notepad and a browser works just fine.

 

[dorayme]

<cut>

Why?

To teach HTML you need a WYSIWYG editor.

To teach people how to use a WSYIWIG editor you need a WSYIWIG
editor. But to teach them about the HTML and CSS, you need to
corner these rabbits and look at them directly. There are general
issues about HTML and CSS that it helps to understand that a
WYSIWIG editor in itself is not geared to do.

 

[Helpful person]

For the same reason that the worst possible way to teach mathematics
is with a calculator.

sherm--

Maybe, but the US schools require them for equation solving.

www.richardfisher.com

 

[Doug Miller]

That's not mathematics - that's algebra.

Algebra is mathematics.

Mathematics is what's taught
in grade school; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.

*That's* arithmetic.

Mathematics includes arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, differential and
integral calculus, geometry, topology... just to name a few.

Once students get to the point of solving equations, it's assumed that
they have mastered the basics, to the point where having to do the math
by hand would serve only to distract from the subject that they have *not*
yet mastered.

You mean do the *arithmetic* by hand.

 

[Tim Streater]

That's not mathematics - that's algebra. Mathematics is what's taught
in grade school; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.

No, that's arithmetic. Algebra is a branch of Mathematics - along with
geometry, calculus, and so on.

Unfortunately this concept-inflation notion that addition and so on is
somehow "mathematics" has hit this side of the pond too.