The One Where Alevtina Tries to Understand HTML

October 5th, 2020

In today’s seminar, I was glad to learn about the relationship between HTML & CSS. When Reg explained that HTML is used in classifying something e.g. this is a paragraph, and CSS communicates the specifications e.g. this is a full-width paragraph, written in Georgia font, the link between the two finally clicked: HTML describes, in general terms, and CSS fills in the details of those general terms.

Unfortunately, that does seem the only thing about HTML & CSS that “clicked” for me. The < > and </> continue to throw me off, as I find it visually difficult to see where each of the rings of the “onion skin” are, and which are so-called master rings that contain wider selections of the text. I am also having a difficult time with the instruction not being a verb. For a long time, I thought that <i> </i> meant “italicize,” but now I understand it is more something like: “This word is under the class of things that are italicized,” which is a different way to think about it. I don’t think I would call coding instruction, but classification. Maybe scripting is a better word? 

Of course, we could just avoid working with code entirely for the assignment, but I do see this as an opportunity to finally get something I’ve struggled with. In that vein, I welcome any and all reading suggestions (books or articles)! 

Alevtina Lapiy