Have you tried "view source"?
Friday August 1, 2008
I was reading a blog on Appcellerant today and they were talking about learning HTML by viewing the source code. When I started building Web pages, that was, in effect, the only way to learn it. You would see a page that did something really neat and you'd think "wow, I want to do that" and no sooner had you thought it than you were right-clicking and viewing the source. I still do that all the time even now, in an age of Flash and challenging JavaScript or PHP backend sites. In fact, viewing the source is a great way to see how I do my HTML/CSS templates. While I include all the code for download, you can view the source of the sample pages and see it all in action.
Comments
I’m finding that the free Firebug add-on for FireFox is a great way to learn about XHTML/HTML and CSS. Once installed, you can right-click on a page feature you’re interested in and select ‘inspect element’. Seems to work for most features, except Flash.
Alan: good suggestion. Personally, I found Firebug caused problems with other pages and applications, but maybe it works better now.
I, like Jennifer Kyrnin, learned HTML just the same way, by viewing the source. Back in 1995, there weren’t yet any classes on web development at the university I attended, and I had just read a 2-page article in a printed publication about the basics of HTML.
I started viewing the sources of pages one after another, and started seeing patterns in more detail. By the time that an HTML class finally came about, I took it independently (no classroom time), since the prof knew nothing that I hadn’t learned by viewing the source of web pages.
Now that the web has become more dynamic, with databases like SQL and MySQL, and with programming languages like ASP and PHP, I can only learn a bit by viewing the source (like CSS and DIV tags).
At least basic HTML can be learned the same way I caught on. But if you’re wanting to learn a more advanced language like PHP, I would recommend browsing PHP.net one definition at a time… and subscribing to the PHP mailing list here on About.com.
Thanks again for reminding people about viewing the source, Jennifer.