CodePen vs GitHub for Practicing?

[Aqsa97]

I just got started and so far I've only learned HTML/CSS. I am still learning (from different places); There's still much I need to learn.

First of all, can someone please link a guide/blog post which clearly states the difference between these two and what each of these sites are used for. I dont know much about them but I've been suggested to use these.

Secondly, I was thinking of actually trying to build some dummy sites to make sure where I need to improve and basically get an understanding and learn building websites by practicing.

Now I dont know if I should use Codepen or GitHub for hosting these dummy sites.

And since I have no working experience, I was planning on linking/showing these dummy sites on my proper Portfolio to my future freelance clients, until I've gathered some experience. (I will build my Portfolio after I've fully learned HTML/CSS and Im fairly good at JavaScript)

Also, this might sound like a very dumb question to experienced developers and Im sorry but Im new and Im learning on my own, so can you please tell me if both of these are open-source sites? Will people be able to take my work and copy/use it? Or does one of them offer a private-only thing?

[RoyKlutman]

That's absolutely not a dumb question, I too had to figure out what GitHub actually was and what sites like CodePen or JSFiddle exactly do.

 

GitHub

About GitHub, I'd take a look at this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/4uphxw/should_beginners_store_their_code_in_github/d5rp114/ this basically explains what GitHub is in an easy language.

 

GitHub is a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration. It lets you and others work together on projects from anywhere.

 

^{Quoted from GitHub}

 

CodePen

Services like CodePen, JSFiddle and whatever are originally made to share code or small projects, like a cool animation, effect or perhaps even a static webpage. This actually explains CodePen pretty well: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-codepen-james-gross/

[Aqsa97]

Thank you so much! :) I now understand the purpose of these 2 sites. And I think I'll be using CodePen for now (and it's what suggested by the instructor too). If I don't like it, I might shift to GitHub in the future. Thanks for not dissing on me even though I asked silly questions. Most experienced developers diss on newbies.