Lesson #2: Let's Get Down to the Basics

Now before we get started, I want you to know this one thing ☝️:

it is more than okay (expected actually) if you don’t understand every word in the following lessons.

What I don't want you to do is stop. When you come up to a term that hasn't quite clicked yet, message in the slack channel but keep on going. This was one of my biggest challenges when starting computer science 💻. Computer Science is all about connecting the dots; combining the knowledge you do have to something new.

Every class I would find myself in another rabbit hole 🐰, getting confused at the first new term that was introduced and not understanding how it fits into the bigger picture. I would spend the rest of the class looking up article after article / watching video after video, every new term led me down another 63 rabbit holes until I gave up. lol, don't do this. Give yourself the time to process, and repeat the lesson a couple of times until you feel comfortable. In order to connect the dots, you need to be willing to reach new dots. #TrustTheProcess 🏀

Also, I found it easier to not think of this as an "Easy 10 Step Process to Becoming a Programmer" ✅. I wish it was that easy... but its not a linear process (kinda like life). You'll understand it at your own pace, in your own way.

The Basics

When I start a new project or I'm in a new transition or even fine tuning my craft, I go back to the basics. I feel like most people try to breeze past this phase, because its not flashy or fun but its the foundation that'll bring you forward.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the basic language for any web page. Its a prettified text file that defines the structure and presentation for web page content. Its the skeleton of your website, your web page without makeup on 💄.

For this lesson, we are only going to focus on building one file - the index.html file in our own website repository.

1. Use the repository you created from lesson #1 as your project repository for the class. (You can rename the repository to something different if you like).

In order to have your personal computer files synced with the files in your Github repository, we're going to have to go into hacker status😎.

1. Open your text editor (Atom or Sublime Text) to your project and it should be there all nice and pretty.