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Make This in an Hour

makethisinanhour.com

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Re: Make This in an Hour

#61

Post by codingdave »

If the inspiration for this was to smack down a friend who hasn't started "his web site", then all this really proves is that putting content online is far less of a barrier than coming up with the content in the first place.

Putting HTML in place that it can be opened by a web browser is not a challenge and has not been a challenge for over a decade. Github is one choice, shared hosting is another... as the comments already show, you can argue pros and cons of various choices ad nauseum, even on such a trivial web page as OP's.

The larger point that seems to be getting missed is that the question of "How?" pales in comparison to the question of "What content should I put on my site in the first place?"

Re: Make This in an Hour

#62

Post by madvlad »

ivanhoe wrote: post #40

err, or you could just upload index.html to any shared hosting in 5 minutes? The trouble of making a site (at least for people who can edit html directly, as in this example) is not about how to do it, but about high expectations and standards that we impose on ourselves... I'm guilty of this mysqlf, my site hasn't been updated in like 5 years, and I've built dozens of sites for others in that period...

> I'm guilty of this mysqlf

A typo only someone from this community would make.

Re: Make This in an Hour

#63

Post by collyw »

codingdave wrote: post #61

If the inspiration for this was to smack down a friend who hasn't started "his web site", then all this really proves is that putting content online is far less of a barrier than coming up with the content in the first place. Putting HTML in place that it can be opened by a web browser is not a challenge and has not been a challenge for over a decade. Github is one choice, shared hosting is another... as the comments…

A shared google doc would be just as effective.

Re: Make This in an Hour

#64

Post by collyw »

anhsirksai wrote: post #54

No doubt this post is good for some one who is beginning to build a website. But this post expects people to do their pages in html. github supports simple markdown pages to be hosted as html. markdown is clear and easy to write posts. If this post extends to teach hosting markdown pages, one can use the website built using this tool to make his own blog. This might help people more than teaching just to create a web…

As someone that knows some HTML, I hate having to learn another markdown for ever wiki site that I end up using. (Saying that WYSWIG editors seem to be more common than a few years ago for this task).

Re: Make This in an Hour

#66

Post by o_O-O_o »

piratebroadcast wrote: post #37
seanwilson wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you use GitHub pages for multiple sites? Or create multiple GitHub accounts?

You can make a github page for each project, but it walks me through a process that forces me to use their template and my own markdown, not able to actually upload html/css etc. I suppose I could create another github account though, but not sure if I want to do that every one-off site I want to put up.

You can definitely create github pages for each repo, using your own html/css/js. You just need to create a gh-pages branch [1]. If you just want to host a new static site, you can even create a new repo just for that, create a gh-pages branch, then make it the default branch and delete the master branch, leaving you with only the gh-pages content [2].

[1] https://help.github.com/articles/creating-project-pages-manu...

[2] http://24ways.org/2013/get-started-with-github-pages/

Re: Make This in an Hour

#67

Post by Swizec »

DanBC wrote: post #60
Swizec wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what point do you define a beginner then? I struggle with this a lot when writing teaching materials. It feels like teaching somebody how to create a directory should not be a part of teaching somebody how to make a website. Beginner or not. You should already know how to use a computer. It's like when I'm trying to teach people how to do X and Y with JavaScript and they get confused beyond hope when they try to r…

You're blaming the students. Is it a possibility that the fault lies with you?

Obviously the fault lies with me. The problem I'm having is exactly the question I opened with: where do you draw the line? How do you draw the line?

At what point do you say "You know what, a beginner should know this"? Or whatever the specific level you decide to teach at.

Personally I try to teach at levels above beginner. This only makes the line blurrier because there's no clear divide between someone who kinda knows his stuff and someone who's an expert. It's the same problem as putting rocks in the same place. At what point does a bunch of rocks become a pile?

Same here, at what point does a total beginner become just a beginner? When do they become not a beginner? What turns them into someone who kinda knows what they're doing? At what point do they become "actually kinda good"?

For instance: my mum can accomplish all her work tasks with a computer. But she has no conceptual idea of what is a file. She thinks in documents and she only knows how to open documents by going through the app she created them with. The attachments in her email are a completely different world than the ones she creates with Word directly. I once blew her mind by showing her that she can use Word to open something that was sent to her via email.

How would you teach her how to make a dynamic HTML5 JavaScript app? Or would you suggest some basic computer use classes first?

Or, for another example, my girlfriend always gets frustrated with me because I can't just "Explain How Everything in Computers Works. How Does a Source File Turn Into A Working App?" in under five minutes. How do you even begin answering a question like that? Do I claim magic, or start with turing machines and work her way up to formal grammars and compilers? She's asking a question so far beyond her understanding that I don't even know how to begin answering.

Re: Make This in an Hour

#68

Post by Silhouette »

Let me first say that I appreciate anyone making an effort to help a friend with modern technologies.

However, I can't help noticing that when I first used a home ISP, you got some web space thrown as part of the deal, and setting up a first web site would have required only this:

1. Write the index.html file.

2. Upload it to your ISP-provided server by FTP.

3. There is no step 3.

This was 15-20 years ago and pretty much universally available free of charge with any residential ISP here in the UK. The most complicated thing would have been getting your own domain name, because that would have required a few more button clicks and a small payment.

Sadly, the centralised "build my web site" sites and social networks seem to have taken over, and looking around it seems like today most ISPs no longer offer basic shared web hosting for free as a routine part of their plans.

So today, per this article, getting your own site on-line might need all of this:

1. Know the most complicated VCS in history.

2. Be comfortable with CLI use.

3. Have Python installed, just to run a local web server for testing.

4. Depend on a third party (GitHub) and all that comes with that (I wonder how many people who advocate GH all the time have actually read what they're signing up for).

5. Know how to order a domain name from a separate registrar and then how to hook it up to the aforementioned third party.

Any one of those things will probably be a huge barrier and a cause of repeated failures and frustrations for anyone who is interested in this kind of help in the first place.

Again, I appreciate the effort to help a friend navigate these waters for the first time, but in general I'm not sure this constitutes progress.

Re: Make This in an Hour

#70

Post by ada1981 »

Now that your friend has made the site, you could curate a collection of tutorials from people on things that take an hour or less to make.

Could be really great as a resource to send to friends who complain about doing XYZ. Send them to MakeThisInAnHour.com

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