In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about the basics of building a website — how to get started for beginners!

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Show Notes

04:20 - HTML

HTML is the language you write to get text and elements to show up on the screen
Elements can describe the content they contain
- p
- img
Or be structural and describe the areas of the website
- div
- h
- header, footer
Listen to our ep on HTML elements to learn more about them: Syntax 354: The Surprisingly Exciting World of HTML Elements
HTML elements have default styling applied to them before you write any CSS
- This comes from the browser and can be manipulated
- However, by default all elements are either block or inline-display

08:11 - CSS

If HTML is the bones, CSS is the clothes and skin
CSS dictates how a website looks
- Without CSS, you have text on a blank page and images
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets (“cascading” being the key word)
Adding CSS to a page
- Link tag
- Style tag
- Inline styles
Selectors
- You can select an element on the page via element, class, id, attribute
- Syntax is selector, brackets, property, value
Property
- A property is what you are changing (e.g. background-color)
Value determines how the thing looks
- background: red;
Specificity
- Specificity is a big part of the cascade. When you apply one style to something, you need to learn how to target things appropriately. This is a huge part of being good at CSS.
- People develop systems like BEM to organize this
- General rules - Use elements for base styling and classes for specific styling. Don’t use IDs for styling.
- !important exists to override everything, but as a general rule, NEVER use it. Seriously.
Some interaction
- Most interaction is done in JavaScript, but CSS has some basics
  - hover, active, focus
Pseudo selectors
You’ll often see people reaching for libraries to make CSS easier and more consistent
- Common examples are Bootstrap, Foundation, and TailwindCSS
- For the most part you’ll want to avoid these until you have a good understanding of the cascade, how CSS works, and how to write good CSS.
In addition to properties, you can now write your own custom properties for CSS.
- While this could be seen as an advanced technique, I believe the new normal is CSS variables first.
- CSS variables are indicated by —variableName: value; where variable name takes the place of a property.
- You can then use the variable via var(—variableName) in place of a property. This allows for easy duplication of same values across your style sheet.

37:08 - JavaScript

JavaScript is used to add interaction to a website
It makes your website dynamic

JavaScript the Language

We have a base programming language that has nothing to do with HTML
It has things like:
- Variables - ways to store things
- Numbers + Math
- Data Containers - Objects and Arrays
- Functions - Code grouped together to achieve a certain purpose
It also has a “Standard Lib” which means JavaScript comes with built-in support for doing common things:
- Formatting time + money
- Alerting the user
- Logging a value to developer tools
- Capitalizing things
- Sorting lists of things
- Round or randomize numbers
- Fetch data
- Talk to a sever
Promises
- Logic and flow control

JavaScript the DOM

When the HTML is loaded, it’s parsed into something called the DOM (Document Object Model)
Events
- JavaScript is mostly event-driven - when something happens, do something else
- When you click something and want something else to happen
- There are lots of events
  - mouse, touch, pointer
  - Ready
  - Forms
    - Submit, change, keyboard, etc.
Can be used to fetch data
- fetch() - you’ll often hear it called Ajax, or XMLHttpRequest
Can be used to make more HTML
- Whole set of APIs for creating elements
The DOM can be traversed

Links

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How to Build a Website — The Show For Beginners

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

How to Build a Website — The Show For Beginners