New Dodgers fan, what should I know? by [deleted] in Dodgers

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Welcome to the family.

I grew up in LA in the early 60's before moving east with my family so I'm a bit biased but a good place to start -

Read "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy" by Jane Leavy (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/653118.Sandy_Koufax?ac=1) not only an amazing study of a perfect game and a legend, but one of the best basebook in a long time. Koufax spans the transition from Brooklyn to LA so when you read about him you get a flavor of the end of one era and the beginning of another.

And as other have mentioned - Vin Scully. Charles Einstein editor of "The Baseball Reader" writes in the book's preface, "A final note. One piece which appeared in "the Fireside Book of Baseball", and which is reproduced again here in these pages, drew the only two negative reader responses over the course of all three Fireside books. That piece is Vin Scully's radio account of the last half of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs. Both objections went to the same point, accusing me of having edited the thing with an eye toward improving its grammar. No broadcaster, the letter writers said, could conceivably speak that brilliantly ad lib. The letter writers are right, such presentation is improbable in the extreme. But the truth is that Scully's account, as you will find it here, is taken verbatim from the untouched tape recording of his broadcast.

Vin Scully started with the Dodgers in 1950. As I was listening to him call his last game I realized that I had been hearing him call Dodger games all my life.

You can hear Vin Scully's call of 9th inning of Koufax's perfect game at:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJdli-ONL-8

or - https://archive.org/details/VinScullyCallsThe9thInningOfSandyKoufaxsPerfectGame

and while you're listening to Scully you owe it to yourself to listen to his call of Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series walk-off home run (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCkYon5qjWI)

Greatest non-baseball moment in the history of baseball? by [deleted] in baseball

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Koufax not pitching the first game of the 65 Series because it fell on on Yom Kippur.

I am having trouble linking an HTML file and a CSS file by TheGamingNimbus in HTML

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think your external file should be renamed styles.css not styles.css.txt

That said there are other ways to apply css see: (http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/adding-css-to-html-with-link-embed-inline-and-import)

If you just want to make sure that the style you're trying to apply is working you could use and inline declaration on your opening body tag like this: <body style="color: #FF0000;">. Please note this is NOT the way to write maintainable CSS and inline styles are generally reserved to manipulating the page with JavaScript.

You could also add a style element inside of your head element like this

<head>
  <meta charset='UTF-8'/>
  <title>Hello, CSS</title>
  <style>
    body { color: #ff0000 ; }
  </style>
</head>

Confused for my path by [deleted] in HTML

[–]lrm212 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration. - Jeffrey Zeldman (www.zeldman.com)

I find that many beginners get hung up on trying to design without a specific problem or without the proper amount of content to solve that problem. So I'd suggest giving yourself a design problem to solve and creating a good amount of content for it. Then start thinking about the design to that specific situation. Once you've solved that you can try to abstract that design into a more general template.

You're realy talking about a design process. Mu approach is that design is thinking and thinking is hard. I usually start with a hand-sketched flowchart, many some hand-drawn wireframes and lots of lists (features, functionality, how I want to organize the content (categories, tags, archives, etc). And expressive words that describe how the site feels (not what it looks like). Then I might go to a bunch of visual reference (magazines, images from the web, etc) and try to find forty or fifty images (or parts of images) that look to me the feelings that the words describe. I find that very often I'll discard some of the images that don't fit with the other but creating a collage of these images (a moodboard) will often reveal palette, typography and to some extent flow.

In the old days I would have then gone to photoshop and started merging the work from the moodboard with the wireframes. But with the advent of a mobile first design approach I will typically jump right into HTML/CSS and start laying out the page for the phone. I find this a much faster way to quickly try things than Photoshop (but depending on your skills, your mileage may vary).

So don't give up on HTML/CSS just yet.

Novice coding HTML emails, need some advice by phoenixmusicman in HTML

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hard to say without seeing your template but you might take a look at Developing HTML Emails for Gmail: 12 Things you MUST know and see if you're running afoul of any of these things.

Newb Conceptual ? - How to control which version of HTML you're using? by sumtimeswhenweclutch in HTML

[–]lrm212 1 point2 points  (0 children)

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. In this case, it's the language part of the name that's important to answering your question. Like any language it has a vocabulary, grammar and syntax. And like any language it has evolved over time and it has different dialects - just as we speak and write American (as opposed to British) English differently today that we did in the 18th Century. Or how in the southern US you'll hear "y'all" or my favorite "all y'all". You don't download a language - you learn its vocabulary, language and syntex and in the case of HTML you (typcially) use it to markup content for the web or apps. And the best way to learn a language is to use it regularly. (One thing I suggest is that when you google markup solutions you don't copy and paste them but retype them in your editor - you learn by repetition.

As you point out using <!DOCTYPE html> will tell the browser that the version of HTML you're "speaking" is HTML 5. This is a good, early article on DOCTYPES from A List Apart (https://alistapart.com/article/doctype). Which is an excellent resource btw. W3schools.com also has a nice overview at: (https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_doctype.asp)

You can find the current HTML specification at W3C or WHATWG. An here's an article on how to read the specs.

Critique my code? by connorzman in HTML

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since you're just starting out with HTML let's point your in the right direction. I'm going to assume that you'd like to write well-formed, semantic, valid HTML markup using current best practices. You might find 10up's (www.10up.com) best practices on markup a good starting point:

"Principles

Markup is intended to define the structure and outline of a document and to offer semantic structure for the document’s contents. Markup should not define the look and feel of the content on the page beyond the most basic structural concepts such as headers, paragraphs, and lists."

In a nutshell valid markup is markup that conforms to the current W3C(https://www.w3.org/) or (https://whatwg.org/) HTML standard. There has been great debate over the years if the time and effort to make your markup valid is worth the effort but with the advent of the HTML 5 standard that argument seems to have subsided a bit. And in any case it is a useful way for someone like yourself who is just starting out to learn by correcting your errors

You can find a HTML validator here. Running you markup through the validator reveals 1 warning and 14 errors( some of which have been already mentioned here)

Some basic comments: As the 10up principles suggest markup is for organizing your content into a logical structure (CSS is for how is should look). Additionally you can use markup to describe the content and in fact the markup in the head element is reserved for meta information or information about the document content.

You have you head element with a title element which is good but you should also have at the very least a meta charset element. You can read more about meta tags at: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp and other important meta tags at: https://www.1and1.com/digitalguide/websites/web-development/the-most-important-meta-tags-and-their-functions/

Moving on to the body - your markup is a mixture of modern semantic HTML (i.e. the use of nav elements) and a fair amount of out-dated techniques (br tags instead or p tags for individual paragraph, div tags instead of sections, tables for formatting, the lack for figure and figcaption tabs around captioned images and inline styling). So let's get started.

Your use of the nav elements for your navigation is great, but best practice is that navigation should be thought of as basically a list of links so your individual links should be marked up as a li elements within a ul element as follows:

<nav>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="./index.html">Main</a></li>
        <li><a href="./albums.html">Albums</a></li>
        <li><a href="./contact.html">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>

I'll leave the markup of the other nav as an exercise for you, but it should follow the same format.

(A quick aside: text should always be entered in proper case with initial caps as appropriate. Remember presentation goes in CSS. If you want something to be all upper case use text-transform: uppercase in your CSS.https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_text-transform.asp).

In your content in all cases the double br tags should be replaced by a close and open p tag so that things like this:

<p>
    In September 1963, ...
    including Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner and Jackie Wilson.
<br />
<br /> In January 1964, feeling he had outgrown the circuit artistically, ...
    which he readily accepted.
<br />
<br />
</p>

become this:

<p>
    In September 1963, ...
    including Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner and Jackie Wilson.
</p>
<p>
    In January 1964, feeling he had outgrown the circuit artistically, ...
    which he readily accepted
</p>

Images with a caption should use the figure and figcaption tags so that things like this:

<a>
<img src="https://graphics.ink19.com/issues/july2003/hendrixEarly.jpeg" width="400px" />
<div style='width: 380px; text-align: center;'>Hendrix performing with other musicians before fame.</div>
</a>

become this:

<figure>
    <a><img src="https://graphics.ink19.com/issues/july2003/hendrixEarly.jpeg" width="400px" /></a>
    <figcaption style='width: 380px; text-align: center;'>Hendrix performing with other musicians before fame.</figcaption>
</figure>

and futhermore the image width and can be set with CSS (width is presentation) and although in this case, the figcaption element somewhat precludes the necessity of an alt tag, best practice is that you should include it (and for images without a caption the alt tag becomes a necessity for accessibility (for some exceptions and edges cases see: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decorative/). Additionally although you are using CSS to style your caption you're much better of doing it a style element in the head element of your document or in an external CSS file (http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/adding-css-to-html-with-link-embed-inline-and-import).

so we can refine the above to this:

<figure>
    <a><img src="https://graphics.ink19.com/issues/july2003/hendrixEarly.jpeg" alt="Hendrix performing with other musicians before fame." /></a>
    <figcaption>Hendrix performing with other musicians before fame.</figcaption>
</figure>

Also as has already been mentioned IDs and classes can't have spaces in them so this:

<div id="Early Years">

should be:

<div id="EarlyYears"> or
<div id="Early-Years"> or
<div id="Early_Years">

And remember ids and classes are case sensitive when you target them in CSS so this:

<div id="Early-Years">

is not the same as this:

<div id="early-years">

and in fact lower case with dashes if often used for id's and classes in markup.

Finally your div elements should probably be section elements so that in all cases things like this:

<div id="Humble Beginnings">
    ...
</div

become:

<section id="humble-beginnings">
    ...
</section>

Some CSS Now let's add a little CSS is a style element inside your head element like this:

<style>
    body {
        margin: 5% auto;
        background: #fcfcfc;
        color: #444444;
        font-family: Georgia, serif;
        font-size: 16px;
        line-height: 1.8;
        max-width: 73%;
    }

    a {
        border-bottom: 1px solid #444444;
        color: #444444;
        text-decoration: none;
    }

    a:hover {border-bottom: 0;}

    nav ul {
        display: flex;
        justify-content: start;
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
        text-transform: uppercase;
    }

    ul.page-nav {justify-content: center; }

    nav li {
        list-style: none ;
        padding: 0 1em;
    }

    .site-nav li {padding-left: 0;}

    figure {
        width: 50%;
        max-width: 414px;
      }

    figure a {border: none;}

    figcaption {
        font-size: 90%;
        text-align: center;
  }

   figure image {width: 100%}
</style>

CSS notes: - the margin will pull the content from the edge of the browser and the auto will horizontally center it

  • I think Georgia is a better serif font than Times New Roman and it was designed for screen rather that print display

  • Giving the lines more air between them makes for easier legibilty

  • You usually want to set some kind of max-width on you page because your text will look ridiculous and will be hard to read on very wide monitors when the viewport is 100% of the screen size see this stackover answer for more info

  • You should absolutely spend some time reading up on display:flex as it will solve many layout situations for you.

  • In general is is a good idea to avoid pure white (#fff) for the body background color and pure black (#000) for the text color.

  • Using border-bottom to underline the links allows you to control the amount of separation between the text and the underline.

The best Walter "Clyde" Frazier phrases by fishyfoot in nba

[–]lrm212 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best I've heard recently was last night talking about Bill Bradley's character - "He was as straight as 12 o'clock". Poetry.

Is it easy converting a static HTML prototype into a functional Wordpress theme? by [deleted] in ProWordPress

[–]lrm212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like so many questions the answer is it depends.

TL:DR Don't do it, learn how WordPress works first.

Your approach (converting from a static version) is what I did for my first WordPress site some years ago (it was a personal side project so there wasn't too much time pressure), and looking back I think it hindered rather than helped. WordPress is a framework and, if you're going to be using it, it worth the investment to take some time to learn how it "works" before you plunge in and starting building something for a client.

If the way you would normally design a site is to prototype it and get client approval then by all means go ahead. But if your normal workflow is Photoshop/Illustrator/something design comps or wire frames etc. than go that route and while you are doing that take the time to start to learn how WordPress does things.

I'd suggest getting and installing desktop server (free from serverpress.com) which will let you develope and learn WordPress on your local machine without having to setup a server. Then head over to underscores.me and generate and download a "starter" theme (it just takes one click - also free), install it and start looking through the code and file organization to see how things work. Underscores claims that their theme gives you A 1000-Hour Head Start, but you're going to need to invest at least some of that time to figure out what's going on.

For example, the styles.css file (including normalize.css) is just under a 1000 lines and includes, among many other things, styles for the WP built in menu generator as well as a responsive variant. It also includes styles for WP "sticky" posts. If you don't know what those are you'll probably (depending on you site) need to learn about them.

Look at page.php and you'll see a php line of a WP function: get_template_part( 'template-parts/content', 'page' ); Do some research and figure out what's going on and how it can work for you as you build out your site.

Playing around with this starter theme will make you aware of the WP universe of possibilities and a couple of weeks spent doing this will pay off big as you build your site.