How to Make (almost) Anything 2023 | Week 2.1: Project management

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Assignment: Work through a git tutorial; Build a personal site in the class archive describing you and your final project

Description: Take a look around this website! The website is still in a very basic state as I get ramped up on git and html, but I hope to continue refining the UI throughout the semester. While I explored different website templates, I found it fitting to maintain the HTML format as an ode to the HTMAA class format.

Procedure:
  1. Register with git account for the class
  2. Begin watching through various git tutorials & html tutorials to gain a better understanding of how to best use git
  3. Create a personal website within the CBA group in the class archive
  4. Format website home page using html, including the desired website navigation tabs
  5. Create a new file for each of the navigation tabs and code the respective content in html (note: photos must be compressed using FFmpeg prior to incorporating on website)
  6. After each desired change, commit updated website to the class master branch
  7. Validate the desired UI is displayed and update the html file as-needed
  8. Continue to update and refine website appearance and content throughout the semester
Key learnings:
  1. Git can be useful for record keeping, but also be wary prior to committing -- Git allows for an infinite backlog of previous versions of each file, which can be helpful if you need to revert any changes, but also comes with the caveat that and code being committed should be double checked given it is never truly 'undone.'
  2. Local git can be a powerful tool compared to the web UI -- I have been using the web UI version of the git editor, but it was pointed out that installing the local git editor allows you to work offline, validate your personal website UI in real time prior to committing, and allows for utilizing a range of commands to get various information and status updates on your file. Given these advantages I am working to shift from the website UI git editor to the local git editor.
  3. I took websites for granted -- There is such a wide range of complex and aesthetic websites that I took for granted the code that goes into them. As you can see, my current version of this website is very bare bones, but I hope to continue refining the appearance and layout as I explore more about the possibilities of html and Java.