Ever wanted to learn how to code HTML or CSS? JavaScript? Learn how to use Photoshop? Get started with HTML5 or CSS3? Well you can learn that and a whole lot more at Treehouse! From the Treehouse website:
Our mission is to teach Web Design, Development and iOS to people everywhere, in order to help them achieve their dreams and change the world.
I have been a member of Treehouse since the end of February and I love it! What’s so fantastic about it is you get to unlock badges as you go along watching videos that teach you things like:
- HTML – Lists, Objects, Text, Forms, HTML5
- CSS – Selectors, Box Model, Page layout, CSS3 Techniques
- Typography, Web Fonts, Photoshop
- JavaScript, Ruby, iOS
- …and so much more!
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There has been a lot of discussion lately on blogs and Twitter about the use of vendor prefixes, and I’d like to add in my two-cents.
I initially came across the whole thing from Chris Coyier at Css-Tricks.com, followed by tweets from various web professionals on Twitter. Essentially, Mozilla (those behind the Firefox browser) wants to provide support for Webkit’s -webkit- prefix (that is used by browsers like Safari and Chrome that use the Webkit engine). A lot of people are saying this is a bad idea. Others are also saying we (the designers/devs) have gotten ourselves into this mess. I think it really comes down to all of us – the browser vendors, the W3C, and the web designers/devs.
The browser vendors have their own set of prefixes that they use for experimental purposes – it is pre-standardized code, and prefixes are not spec. Firefox uses -moz-, Safari and Chrome use -webkit-, Opera uses -o-, and Internet Explorer uses -ms-. Apparently, web designers/devs are using the -webkit- prefixes only, to use properties we call “CSS3”, because they either don’t know about the equivalent prefixes for other browsers, or don’t bother (sometimes, though, they don’t exist). Technically, some of these fancy schmancy techniques we use with prefixes aren’t really CSS3 – yet, anyways depending on how far along they are towards W3C recommendation. Many of these techniques are kind of like previews, and allows the browser vendors to test stuff out (as well as designers/devs too, who can provide feedback). Some browser vendors are already supporting standardized CSS3 properties. But the support varies with each browser vendor, and some browser vendors are using their prefixes to test things, and not all are testing the same things.
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Well, my website has been down for awhile as I have been working on the redesign. This is it! What do you think? There’s lots of changes with this redesign. Obviously, the overall look of it. But there’s more to it than that of course. I thought I would go through what I have done and learned through this process.
Custom theme!
My previous design was a child theme that I created off of Thematic, a theme framework. At first I liked child theming, but after learning how to create my own themes over the past few months in my directed study at VIU, I have a new love for custom theming. With creating your own theme, you have complete control over everything, and you don’t have to use CSS to hide things, or force things to be a certain way. There’s a lot less clunky stuff going on I guess you could say. You can also include or exclude certain components, such as comments.
A couple books that have helped me out with custom theming are Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog and Smashing WordPress Themes: Making WordPress Beautiful, both by Thord Daniel Hedengren. Both are great books, and I highly recommend them. There is a 2011 edition now of Beyond the Blog as well. And, I also can’t forget the help of the WordPress Codex.
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