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

sarken: leaves of mint against a worn wall (Default)

[personal profile] sarken 2011-04-12 04:46 am (UTC)(link)
Hello! I taught myself HTML and CSS about twelve years ago, and I've kept up with CSS more than HTML. I'm kind of ridiculously excited to learn S2. I spent some time hanging out at [livejournal.com profile] s2flexisquares, but it's been a while, and I know things are different over here, so I didn't really feel prepared to jump in and start messing with things.
syntheid: [Elementary] Watson drinking tea looking contemplative (Default)

[personal profile] syntheid 2011-04-12 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
INDEXED <-- this one. I'm trying to solve the fixed-icon-size thing because my original plan was to have that be customizable, which... may not be possible but I was hoping it would be somehow. (Ahah, digging through my styles, I realized I also started converting Motion actually... I think you may have been the one who suggested porting it to DW? But yeah, I didn't get very far on it.)
pantswarrior: Seven declares that fun may commence. (fun fun fun fun)

[personal profile] pantswarrior 2011-04-12 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
Saying hi quickly before bed...

I got my current job in web development largely because of volunteering in the old LJ "customization" category many years ago - I loved making layouts for people, whether through customizing the styles or just using CSS overrides, and that's what started me on learning CSS to begin with.

When LJ went to the S2 system, I was completely baffled, and pretty much learned enough to make a layout that did essentially what I wanted, but was too confused to learn more. With my new job, though, I have gotten the chance to make layouts and learn new skills (currently spending my shifts teaching myself PHP with a bit of MySQL), and I'm remembering how much I like it. I'd just been thinking recently I should really sit down with the S2 system soon and learn how it works - and then I found out about this! Excellent timing. ;)

[personal profile] ex_marlboro922 2011-04-12 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm Terry. I'm pretty good with CSS and HTML; I learned most (if not all) of it from various online tutorials. I know next to nothing about S2, though, so I'm really looking forward to this class.

You guys are so amazing for doing this. <3
chratz: (Default)

[personal profile] chratz 2011-04-12 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
hey, my name is Chrissie.

I just came over from lj to dw and was looking for dw layouts, when I found your offer for a class and I am very excited about participating. I do know a little bit about html and css, but I haven't used it in years and I really want to relive my knowledge and learn some more. I know nothing about S2 and I really want to, so your class is perfect.
I am hoping to be able to design my own layout and get something that is simple on the eyes, but still beautiful. Helping others with their problems would be interesting as well and I have nothing against sharing my layout if anybody wants to use it, when it's done, but I am not sure, it'll be something people want to use.

nonetheless, I am very excited about all this and I think it's really great of you all to offer this and that we can just sign up and participate, because doing lessons and helping out does take a lot of time. so thank you to all of you!

I am looking very much forward to this experience and I can't wait to get started and maybe get to know other people in the process.
if there is something you want to know about me, just ask and I'll reply as best as I can.
ps: I am not a native speaker, so I apologise for any misunderstandings and/or mistakes.
vilakins: (girl from space)

[personal profile] vilakins 2011-04-12 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm Nico. I've done some customising of my style, and a lot more of my LJ style since I didn't like various features of the Expressive style (like the text wrapping round icons) but that was mainly by lurking on comms and seeing what others did. I'm fairly happy with my DW style as is but I'd love to design something from scratch.
lorax: Noir Olivia (Fringe - Noir Olivia)

[personal profile] lorax 2011-04-12 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
*waves hello* I'm Dena, and I'm probably likely to just be a lurker, following along just to see what I can pick up!
subtext: A big shiny fabulous rainbow cake, labeled "subtext." (Default)

[personal profile] subtext 2011-04-12 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
Haha, yes! With some practice to make it stick and a project to work toward, I'll be set. I appreciate you giving your time to help us learn!
exor674: Computer Science is my girlfriend (Default)

[personal profile] exor674 2011-04-12 06:46 am (UTC)(link)
Yay fellow mentor!
ninetydegrees: Art & Text: heart with aroace colors, "you are loved" (Default)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2011-04-12 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm NinetyD! I'm pretty experienced with all three languages but S2 remains a mystery sometimes and I'd like to learn more about it. I'm also here because I like helping people with their styles.
Edited (*pets comma*) 2011-04-12 07:16 (UTC)

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