foxfirefey: Dreamwidth: social content with dimension. (dreamwidth)
foxfirefey ([personal profile] foxfirefey) wrote in [community profile] style_system2011-04-11 07:17 pm
Entry tags:

Style Class, Session #1: Class Intro

Welcome to the DW Styles Class! From the number of people answering the poll, this is going to be a fairly large class, even if a lot of you can't make it. Lurking is, of course, okay! I do want to encourage lurkers to ask questions if they have them, however--you don't have to stay out of sight.

This class is geared around learning by doing. The main project of the class is to create a style of your own! The lessons are tools to help you along the way, so the syllabus is subject to change if I feel we're going over a subject too fast and people need more time to adjust. At the end, I'll have treats for people who share layouts with others at [community profile] dreamwidthlayouts.

Your mentors are, in no particular order: [personal profile] afuna, [personal profile] ninetydegrees, [personal profile] liv, [personal profile] seleneheart, [personal profile] monarchist, [personal profile] exor674, and, well, me. Mentors are here to help me review lesson plans before they go live and help answer student questions--some are CSS only, others know S2. But! If you know the answer to another student's question, please feel free to help them. We all can work together to learn things.

This class is split up into three "tracks" for different experience levels and goals.

Simplified CSS
Designed for people who want an easier introduction in CSS. It involves making style changes to an existing layout with the base CSS included.
CSS only
Designed for people who want to make a layout from scratch based on existing layout HTML--you can do a lot with just CSS. People might need help with an S2 override or two in order to achieve the effect they really want, but overall the goal is to work with CSS.
S2/CSS
Designed for people who want to be experts in changing both the HTML and CSS of their layout, or building in interesting behaviors. S2 is a programming language and once you know it you'll have few limitations (no JS, some CSS cleaning) in making a style exactly the way you want.
Poll #6596 Original Student Desires and Experience Levels
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 151


My class track will be:

View Answers

Simplified CSS
20 (13.4%)

CSS only
17 (11.4%)

S2/CSS
94 (63.1%)

Observation only
18 (12.1%)

I'm interested in this class because:

View Answers

I want to customize my own style
114 (79.2%)

I want to make styles I can share with others
76 (52.8%)

I want to be able to help others with their styles
56 (38.9%)

It's a good way to learn skills I'm interested in, like HTML/CSS or basic programming concepts.
108 (75.0%)

If you have another interest in this class, what is it?

CSS Experience

View Answers

None or very little
47 (31.1%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
44 (29.1%)

Advanced
9 (6.0%)

HTML Experience

View Answers

None or very little
13 (8.6%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
69 (45.7%)

Advanced
18 (11.9%)

S2 experience:

View Answers

None or very little
107 (70.9%)

Beginner
35 (23.2%)

Experienced
7 (4.6%)

Advanced
2 (1.3%)

Browsers I use or have access to:

View Answers

Chrome
91 (60.3%)

Firefox 3.x
90 (59.6%)

Firefox 4.x
80 (53.0%)

IE6
10 (6.6%)

IE7
12 (7.9%)

IE8
40 (26.5%)

IE9
38 (25.2%)

Opera
54 (35.8%)

Safari
62 (41.1%)

Mobile browsers/devices
66 (43.7%)

Other
13 (8.6%)

My main browser is:

View Answers

Chrome
26 (17.2%)

Firefox 3.x
56 (37.1%)

Firefox 4.x
44 (29.1%)

IE6
0 (0.0%)

IE7
0 (0.0%)

IE8
1 (0.7%)

IE9
1 (0.7%)

Opera
9 (6.0%)

Safari
9 (6.0%)

Mobile browsers/devices
2 (1.3%)

Other
3 (2.0%)

If you answered "Other" for any of the browser questions, what browser(s)?

Alright students, as your first exercise I would like you to:

  • Say hi, and greet others! Also ask any questions you would like to know before Friday's class on "S2 Background and the Customization Wizard".
  • Fill out this poll--it will help me know who has what experience level, and the different reasons people are taking the course for.
  • Think about what you want your style to look like, if you'll be making a style for the course!

And now, I'm going through and checking to make sure that all people who answered the original interest poll and don't already subscribe get a reminder to watch this community (unless they have different methods of keeping track)! Hope to hear from you all!


Previous: Syllabus

fulminata: (Default)

[personal profile] fulminata 2011-04-13 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, don't worry. I felt that way for a long time, but once I realized that my LJ friends weren't likely to hop onto the DW train, it made it easier.
aine_silveria: (Default)

[personal profile] aine_silveria 2011-04-13 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
Heh, yeah. And those that have either crosspost or never use them. >>;;;
fulminata: (Default)

[personal profile] fulminata 2011-04-13 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Some use is better than no use. :D
afuna: Cat under a blanket. Text: "Cats are just little people with Fur and Fangs" (Default)

[personal profile] afuna 2011-04-13 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
Technically it was [personal profile] allen who implemented it, I just committed! (To give credit where credit is richly due :D)
mergatrude: a skein, a ball and a swatch of home spun and dyed blue yarn (Default)

[personal profile] mergatrude 2011-04-13 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm mergatrude. I deeply love my layout over at LJ and want to replicate it, so I'm looking to pick up enough CSS to do that.
afuna: Cat under a blanket. Text: "Cats are just little people with Fur and Fangs" (Default)

[personal profile] afuna 2011-04-13 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm Afuna, and I'm pretty experienced with the the three. I've learned most of what I know by helping other people, and I'm much more interested in figuring out issues and tweaking details than in building stuff from scratch!

So excited by this class, you have no idea!

[personal profile] shaela 2011-04-13 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Unfortunately there might be a limitation keeping you from what you want to do—I don’t think the YearPage gets access to all of the posts within it.

Oh, no. I really hope there’s a way around that.

But at the VERY least what you could do is put a link at the top of the YearPage to a post where you list out all your entries maybe?

Well, there are lists of the entries in each month on the monthly archive pages. All I want to do is move those lists to the yearly archive pages. But if I can’t… well, okay. I’ll settle for getting rid of the calendars. (Temporarily. I’ll keep looking for a way to get the archive pages I want.)
mojitochica: (delicious mojito)

[personal profile] mojitochica 2011-04-13 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I know nothing about S2 and only a little about CSS. The last programming class I had was COBOL close to 10 years ago. All the HTML I know I learned from lifting other people's code. I hope I will have the time to keep up with the class!
onyxlynx: The words "Onyx" and "Lynx" with x superimposed (Default)

[personal profile] onyxlynx 2011-04-13 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
I have absolutely no idea. The only tweaks I have made to the style I'm currently using involved changing the colors to something pleasant.
instantramen: pale woman with dark lips and eyebrows looking distantly pleasant (urine of the horsefly)

[personal profile] instantramen 2011-04-13 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
Hi everyone! I'm Ramen and my purpose here is two-fold: to attach a use to the code I learn so I have a reason to remember it, and to satisfy my insatiable need for variety.
onew: (Default)

[personal profile] onew 2011-04-13 06:01 am (UTC)(link)

Hi, everyone! I'm Reeza and I'm a professional web designer. HTML and CSS are my favorites among the roster of web languages, and recently I've been doing FBML (which is not that different from HTML, tbh, except for a few things). I'm really excited to know more about S2! Thank you so much for organizing this class :)

Re: Ideas

[personal profile] flamewarrior 2011-04-13 08:50 am (UTC)(link)
Well, the ones I found at the styles comm here, the ones that I like, that is, including the one I'm currently using, don't want to put the sidebar on the left: I've tried.
sraun: portrait (Default)

[personal profile] sraun 2011-04-13 11:53 am (UTC)(link)
Hello! What do I want my style to look like? My inspiration is this ring - Inlaid Opal, Sugilite and Petiersite in white gold. So, blue and silver/light grey, and see what I can do for opalescent accents.

My main browser is likely to switch from Firefox 3.x to 4.x over the course of the class - at that time, I may loose my 3.x. I've got an Opera license from long ago, I may reinstall it for the class.

I'll probably try to monitor the S2 stuff, but don't want to commit to actually doing that.
turlough: Gerard & Mikey Way, July 2014 ((mcr) ways)

[personal profile] turlough 2011-04-13 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
You sound almost exactly like me.

Except that the only S2 modification I think I've done "on my own" is to shuffle things around in the comment bar :-)
turlough: young man with long braid sitting on chair in foreground talking to a blond young man, Duo & Quatre from 'Gundam Wing' ((gw) conversation)

[personal profile] turlough 2011-04-13 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
make a start on designing a style which uses some fixed width and absolute dimension elements, ideally without too many compromises on screen-reader accessibility. I know a lot of people hate DW's selection of highly flexible, relative sized, div-based layouts, because they want to use graphics and make something pixel-perfect in any browser or resolution (including weird / proprietary / deprecated ones). I don't know if it's possible to have fixed width and accessibility at the same time, but I'm hoping to learn enough to start to tackle this issue

This is something I want to be able to do too. At least enough so that I can make custom-made fixed-with layouts for others.
turlough: Gerard Way, Spin photoshoot, 1 October 2010 ((mcr) my eyes are shining bright)

[personal profile] turlough 2011-04-13 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
You're the person who created Flexible Squares! I started using FS before it was even an official style on LJ - when it was still only a contest entry - and I'm still using it. Well, a highly customised version of it but the FS roots are still clearly visible. And one of the goals I have for this class is to be able to create a DW native version of this layout.
turlough: large orange flowers in lush green grass ((mcr) falling hard)

[personal profile] turlough 2011-04-13 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm turlough and I've been dabbling in HTML and CSS for several years but my experience with S2 is pretty much limited to copying and pasting bits of code other people have made. On a good day I'm maybe even be able to figure out why the bit I've just pasted isn't working as I hoped it would and I've done some creative shuffling around of code bits, but it's all been trial-and-error. I don't really understand what I'm doing and in the long run that's very frustrating.

The first goal I have for this class is to be able to create a DW native version of my current ported-from-LJ-to-core1 style.
ariestess: (Default)

[personal profile] ariestess 2011-04-13 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL! Yeah, good point!
ariestess: (Default)

[personal profile] ariestess 2011-04-13 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm actually kinda jazzed about that...
stephenie_n_lamaina: (Default)

[personal profile] stephenie_n_lamaina 2011-04-13 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
You feel dorky. I fell dorky and old. I started out on punch cards. You can't fit many of them in you purse...

Stephenie
zvi: self-portrait: short, fat, black dyke in bunny slippers (Default)

[personal profile] zvi 2011-04-13 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm here because I told someone I'd convert there LJ style, and I need a kick in the pants to actually get it done.
instantramen: a woman with black hair and white skin pouring water from a kettle (just sit back and relax)

[personal profile] instantramen 2011-04-14 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
No worries! From what I've seen, graphics experience is handy but not required.

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