Webcrafting Journal: Week 2

[ItzKey]

Dear Melonland,


          Hows it going! If you're wondering what this is, I want to keep a sort of 'journal' here in the forums to document my journey as a green Webcrafter and Netizen. Being able to look back in the future about my mindset, struggles, achievements, and good times feels like it would be fun to do and maybe even to read for others!


          I just released v 1.0 of my site yesterday! It's not much, and is mostly form over function at the moment, but I feel really proud about what I've been able to learn and achieve in two weeks. It feels like I've unlocked a part of myself long since forgotten; left behind with my introduction of social media platforms to post art (Deviantart specifically, if that counts). It's freeing. I don't think I've felt this passionate about anything since I first made art on my old defunct computer! This passion has even bled over to my art! If you knew me, you'd know that the last 5 years has been really, really rough for me getting myself to make art. I couldn't come up with any ideas to draw for myself, unless prompted by someone else. Now, although it's slow going, I find myself finishing art quicker, and more easily able to come up with ideas to draw! 


          With the good times comes the struggles. Although I'm super happy with my site, I have a hard time with Javascript. It's supposedly one of the holy trinity of webcrafting and is claimed to be simple to use and code. Reading HTML and CSS makes super sense, but for some reason I struggle with understanding JS code. I've been trying to use tabs for my navigation bar, but trying to comprehend and change tab code for myself makes knuckles white with how dumb I feel. I know the break through to understanding JS is right at my fingertips but alas it continues to elude me. I might just have to make the Nav buttons move to an identical page but with different content for now until I can figure out JS. Time to scrounge through forums and youtube videos until I get this. There's always time to learn.


          Outside of that, I'm just vibing with the feeling of Webrevival. It feels like being part of a rebel group against the central web; showing people the freedom of creating websites for oneself instead of using sterilized, and often bloated, mainstream social media. I hope to make many friends within the Web Revival circles. Trading tips, exploring websites, and supporting each other!


Maybe one day I'll be able to carve my name in the halls of the internet. One can dream haha! 


Keep being awesome,

Key

04/03/2025 @922.73

[vance]

Heck yeah!! Congrats on getting your site up! It's amazing that it's felt to inspiring and energizing to you, I'm so happy for you :D

Were these two weeks your first time learning HTML, or did you already have some experience with it?

Also, what the heck, whoever said JavaScript was simple was a HUGE LIAR. I mean, even as someone trying to study programming, JavaScript it known for being a hot mess of a programming language hahaha. Also, even if it were one of the more "simple" languages (...which it's totally not), learning any programming language is conceptually challenging and is always a big leap compared to HTML and CSS. So please don't let yourself feel dumb over it, that struggle is 100% normal, it's not you.

Also, just peeped your site, and I LOVE how it looks, wow!! Super cool. Can't wait to see what else you do with it! (I'm curious about your "quests"!)

What do you mean by "tabs" for the nav bar, by the way? Maybe I can help you troubleshoot!

[ItzKey]

@vance  Thanks so much I'm really happy you like what I have so far! And thank you for the kind words  The only experience I had with HTML was back in highschool about 10 years ago now (lawd I feel old), but most of the people took the class for an easy A since the teacher generally was chill and the class subject was new. So new, in fact, that the school forgot that he was teaching the class the next year, The teacher cancelling the class, and I couldn't learn further with it. YnY

From what I understand, Tabs are just changing the content already on the page to something else instead of moving onto a new page altogether. It seems like it makes the overall coding lighter, but I just prefer it over just moving to a new page haha.  Here is what I found on W3Schools. Any insight on how to edit this code, and more easily understand JS is an absolute boon! Thanks for coming out to help <3

[ItzKey]

@vance OOO ACTUALLY?? I figured it out! the code still kinda confuses me with it's naming conventions, but I got there! Huzzah!

[vance]

Oh, cool, great job!! :D Sometimes all it takes to solve code issues is leaving it to rest for a while and coming back later, lol

[JetDungeonDragon]

Pretty much what vance said. Sometimes leaving and coming back later is for the best. Sometimes you might also try working on another part of your website. Working on other problems has lead me to think of potential solutions to entirely different problems.

[feralcat]

i love your website, key! and i understand the struggle with coding. it's difficult at first, but then it gets easier! i mean, it might not get easier, it might get exponentially harder depending on what projects you're going to pick up in the future , it's just that the type of problem changes (no longer "what does this do?" but more so "how the HELL do i calculate the shortest path from point A to line BC?" or [more relatable to me now!] "why the HELL does this API not return the timezone???"). not a discouragement, just a thing i've noticed about skills (you become better and start doing harder projects, which results in you having the same amount of problems).

i've read through your code (i hope you don't mind, haha) and i just want to recommend mdn web docs made by the mozilla corporation (the guys who make and maintain firefox). it's a great resource for newbies and experienced developers, i use it all the time! not sure what this method does or returns? go to the mdn web docs. not sure whether JS DOM has a method for this or that? go to the mdn web docs! although, the language might be confusing since it has a lot of tech lingo, but the docs are WAY more detailed than the W3Schools.

your question about what the 'document' object represents in your script is answered in Introduction to the DOM and Document webpages on the mdn web docs. they go into great detail about all the behind-the-stage work that websites do (honestly, i should read it myself, i never bothered learning all the intricacies ).

TL;DR on the "what does the 'document' object represent?" question, here's an excerpt from mdn:

The Document interface represents any web page loaded in the browser and serves as an entry point into the web page's content, which is the DOM tree.

and here's an image that i think illustrates this better than the quote:



basically, the Document object represents any webpage in its entirety. it's the parent of everything on the webpage (seen [like the <body> of the HTML] and unseen [like the <head> of the HTML]).

also, if you're JUST starting programming and had 0 prior experience in it, diving straight into JS DOM can be daunting and that's okay! if you're searching for a more structured learning experience, FreeCodeCamp provides free and interactive lessons into javascript. i learned a lot about responsive web development and javascript from them (they have a BUNCH of classes about pretty much everything there is to do in coding).

but to be frank, playing around websites and ideas is the BEST way to learn javascript coding! sparkle on and best of luck in your web adventures!