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Did you know: Java

Java was developed by Sun and released in 1995.  It is meant to run on a java virtual machine whichs theoretically could run on any computer.  

It was released in 2007 under a GNU public license.  

I was packing today to head back to Utah, so this is it for today. 🙂
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Git!

When programmers talk about source file control systems they most often talk about Git. If you have one person writing a paper, it is easy to track the changes and differences.  But imagine you had 10 people writing the same paper.  And it wasn't real time (like Google Docs).  How would you track which changes affect which changes and which is the most current state of the paper? 

Git is a version control and source code manager.  You can use it as much or as little as you want.  Basically it saves snapshots of your work and provides tools to ensure that the version you are working on is the most current version and the changes you are making are not negatively affecting someone else.  

That being said, at the moment I find Git hard to use.  

Screen_shot_2012-05-28_at_8
(This is the Git UI.  Terminal.  Command line.)

There are various project and sites and tools to make Git easier to use (see Github.com).  Github for Mac seems like a good place to start.  I will report on how it goes soon. Until then… party on!
Posted on by admin

Git!

When programmers talk about source file control systems they most often talk about Git. If you have one person writing a paper, it is easy to track the changes and differences.  But imagine you had 10 people writing the same paper.  And it wasn't real time (like Google Docs).  How would you track which changes affect which changes and which is the most current state of the paper? 

Git is a version control and source code manager.  You can use it as much or as little as you want.  Basically it saves snapshots of your work and provides tools to ensure that the version you are working on is the most current version and the changes you are making are not negatively affecting someone else.  

That being said, at the moment I find Git hard to use.  

Screen_shot_2012-05-28_at_8
(This is the Git UI.  Terminal.  Command line.)

There are various project and sites and tools to make Git easier to use (see Github.com).  Github for Mac seems like a good place to start.  I will report on how it goes soon. Until then… party on!
Posted on by admin

Learned a bit about SASS

If you don't know what CSS and don't care, this post is not for you.  Watch this video and move along. 🙂

For those of you who do care about CSS, SASS is a new-ish preprocessor.  So basically you write stuff in SASS and it turns into CSS.  

For example in CSS you have to explicitly define every color.  If you want a certain shade of a color you have to type in #e5f4g6 (not a valid color code of course) In SASS, at the very beginning of your code you define that color ( #e5f4g6) as "blue2".  So every time you want that shade of blue you just type blue2.  Much simpler and easier to remember. 

If you want to know more, read this article on CSS preprocessor. That is all. 
Posted on by admin

Learned a bit about SASS

If you don't know what CSS and don't care, this post is not for you.  Watch this video and move along. 🙂

For those of you who do care about CSS, SASS is a new-ish preprocessor.  So basically you write stuff in SASS and it turns into CSS.  

For example in CSS you have to explicitly define every color.  If you want a certain shade of a color you have to type in #e5f4g6 (not a valid color code of course) In SASS, at the very beginning of your code you define that color ( #e5f4g6) as "blue2".  So every time you want that shade of blue you just type blue2.  Much simpler and easier to remember. 

If you want to know more, read this article on CSS preprocessor. That is all. 
Posted on by admin

Coda 2 – mini review

Screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_10

Coda 2 came out yesterday and I bought it.  It is made by Panic software and it is a really nice program. After using it for a day, here is my initial thoughts and feelings. 

The Good
  • The Preview mode is awesome.  One click there, one click back.  Smooth and it just works. 

(one click.  Smooth.)

  • I love the text auto-complete.  It is much easier to write correct html when you don't have to type out the tags and properties.  
  • I love the visual page switcher at the top.  When you have base.css, and index.html, and apps.html sometimes it is just nice to have a visual representation of the page you are working on. 
The Not so Good

  • Sometimes the auto-complete puts your curser in awkward places that require some arrow key work to get to where you really want to be. 
  • Tag Matching! This is slightly ridiculous.  When you arrow key the cursor over a round bracket "(" in javascript Coda will make a little radar blip on the matching cursor.  Which is nice.  But when you click on the bracket it doesn't do the same thing.  And tags don't do anything.  When you are closing 6 </div> in a row, is gets super confusing.  The computer is great at matching tags, why in the world is this not an option? 
At first use, Coda 2 is a very nice IDE for creating web pages.  I will use it more and post a more complete review soon.  In the mean time, if you want to try it out, it is $100 dollars on the Mac App store. 

Screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_90screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_9

Posted on by admin

Coda 2 – mini review

Screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_10

Coda 2 came out yesterday and I bought it.  It is made by Panic software and it is a really nice program. After using it for a day, here is my initial thoughts and feelings. 

The Good
  • The Preview mode is awesome.  One click there, one click back.  Smooth and it just works. 

(one click.  Smooth.)

  • I love the text auto-complete.  It is much easier to write correct html when you don't have to type out the tags and properties.  
  • I love the visual page switcher at the top.  When you have base.css, and index.html, and apps.html sometimes it is just nice to have a visual representation of the page you are working on. 
The Not so Good

  • Sometimes the auto-complete puts your curser in awkward places that require some arrow key work to get to where you really want to be. 
  • Tag Matching! This is slightly ridiculous.  When you arrow key the cursor over a round bracket "(" in javascript Coda will make a little radar blip on the matching cursor.  Which is nice.  But when you click on the bracket it doesn't do the same thing.  And tags don't do anything.  When you are closing 6 </div> in a row, is gets super confusing.  The computer is great at matching tags, why in the world is this not an option? 
At first use, Coda 2 is a very nice IDE for creating web pages.  I will use it more and post a more complete review soon.  In the mean time, if you want to try it out, it is $100 dollars on the Mac App store. 

Screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_90screen_shot_2012-05-25_at_9

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Another website is born…

Today I finished my creation!  It is simple, and not finished, but it lives.  

Walle

(My sites usually end up like Walle, while in my head they are Eve.)

I will link it into my main site tomorrow.  I learned a lot building this little site.  I spent probably 2 hours trying to fix a bug that my dad saw and fixed in 3 minutes.  I used legit jQuery for the first time. I also used a new css framework, the Skeleton.  I used the Apple API's to access the large format images of the app icons, and I made a working button.  In addition to all that, I learned that I have a lot to learn.  

#LetsDoThis
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CSS frameworks

House-construction

If a website is like building a house, a framework is like getting 4 sides and a roof. Just put that baby together and you are done.  You still have to know what you are doing (electrical, plumbing etc) but it is a lot faster.  

I learned about Blueprint today, a CSS framework. I like it.  But at the moment, it is not responsive. So I decided to use Skeleton instead.  To use a framework, you have to understand it.  It doesn't do everything for you.  But it does make it a lot easier.  For example, if you wanted to make a 3 column layout in Skeleton, you would define you object with a class of "three columns" and the framework does the rest.  You still have to worry about how big the object you are adding is, and how it reacts, but it arranges it for you.  

I didn't finish the project that I was working on, but be prepared to be blown away with a nice 3 by 3 grid tomorrow. 
Posted on by admin

CSS frameworks

House-construction

If a website is like building a house, a framework is like getting 4 sides and a roof. Just put that baby together and you are done.  You still have to know what you are doing (electrical, plumbing etc) but it is a lot faster.  

I learned about Blueprint today, a CSS framework. I like it.  But at the moment, it is not responsive. So I decided to use Skeleton instead.  To use a framework, you have to understand it.  It doesn't do everything for you.  But it does make it a lot easier.  For example, if you wanted to make a 3 column layout in Skeleton, you would define you object with a class of "three columns" and the framework does the rest.  You still have to worry about how big the object you are adding is, and how it reacts, but it arranges it for you.  

I didn't finish the project that I was working on, but be prepared to be blown away with a nice 3 by 3 grid tomorrow. 
Posted on by admin