Git, 'it's not terminal' and a trip down (some) memory lane.

Git

No, not that type of 'git'. The git that I had failed to use regularly until I started The Odin Project (TOP). The type of git that keeps track of changes in case I go wrong, which is very likely to happen. One of the main things that I have noticed in the past two weeks is that I have become 'gitified' - automatically checking git status, adding to git, committing to git and then pushing to git. Basically, a lot of things that involve git. Considering I never really did this prior to starting TOP, I am happy to see myself doing this automatically now.

Git Messages

In spite of very good instruction in TOP, I haven't quite mastered the art of the git message yet and noticed that I committed more than one git message entitled 'final version'. It started off okay-ish e.g. 'Completed basic HTML structure', but as I went through much trial and error trying to figure certain things out, I ended up realising that I had worked on several different things by the time I committed the next git message. I wrote this complacency off to being at a relatively early stage of The Odin Project. I definitely need to take this into more consideration as I move forward though.

'It's not terminal!'

Actually, it is (the) terminal that I have been using, but it's been going pretty well. I had never used either Linux or the terminal before starting TOP and I admit that I definitely found it confusing to begin with, but it's getting easier. So I've been using the terminal for most things including git commands, navigating between files and creating new files and folders. This is by no means groundbreaking, but as it was brand new to me just a few weeks ago, I am happy to see myself remembering a few commands - showing that they are actually going in to my head and it certainly seems less intimidating than before.

A trip down (some) memory lane

So, since my last post, I have been working away on the Odin Project and have completed HTML Foundations, CSS Foundations and Flexbox. Much of this material was revision for me, but I am following the course as advised (no skipping essential resources) and I have definitely learnt a few new things/have become better at old things I thought I (sort of) new.

Some of the things I remember as new were collapsing margins in nested elements and the fact that flex-grow/shrink can be applied to individual items - something I definitely had not picked up properly before.

I enjoyed doing the landing page project and while doing it, finally understood why CSS resets are used.

I think that the main improvement i have seen since finishing this project was the relative ease with which I was using flexbox - even understanding that justify-content and align-items work in the opposite way when flex-direction is changed. I had used flexbox before, but was defintely more comfortable with it, although I would like more practice with flex-grow/shrink etc. TOP required the reading of some Josh W. Comeau articles, which I found excellent. He has a very down-to-earth and easy-to-understand way of explaining things and I plan to read more of his articles.

I also learnt how to publish a finished project page on Github - something I had also never done before and being required to do these things as part of The Odin Project is definitely making me feel more comfortable using them.

Throughout this section of the course, I found the support from the Discord community to be excellent. The one downfall is that they were so helpful, I sometimes found myself reaching out to them for help, when I should probably have tried a bit harder to find the answer myself.

Finally, I have also decided that I am not going to continue using Front-end Mentor for the time being. I want to focus on The Odin Project and work towards completing that as my priority. I find the structure, organisation and quality of the course to be very motivating and I am finding focusing on one comprehensive resource to be more beneficial.

I hope to make weekly reports on my progress going forward.

Thanks for reading.