How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Code

TL;DR: I am gave a brief lightning talk at April’s WordPress DC Meetup on the basics of HTML and PHP (“coding for dummies”). The goal: learn how to avoid breaking your website if you edit it. Below are the slides and recording.

❗ Heads up! This post is archived and here for historical purposes. It may no longer be accurate or reflect my views. Proceed at your own risk.

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I am gave a brief lightning talk at April’s WordPress DC Meetup on the basics of HTML and PHP (“coding for dummies”). The goal: learn how to avoid breaking your site if you edit it. Below are the slides.

The Cliff’s Notes are

• The process

  • The server executes PHP and outputs HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and so on
  • The user’s browser takes that output and renders a visual representation of the page

• Client-side Languages

  • HTML – Static (unchanging) content; provides structure
  • CSS – Provides style and form
  • JavaScript – Provides interactivity

• PHP – Wrapped with “php” and “?>”

  • Variable - Text, a number, true/false, or a group of variable; identified by “$”
  • If Statement – performs an action if a statement is true
  • While Loop – performs an action while a statement is true
  • For / Foreach – combines elements of while and if
  • Functions – predefined set of actions; always followed by “( )”
  • Don’t forget semicolons

Links to Resources Mentioned

• HTML

  • Google: HTML, CSS, & JavaScript from the Ground Up
  • HTML Dog
  • W3 Learning Wiki
  • W3 Element Wiki

• Text Editor

  • Notepad++ (Windows)
  • TextWrangler Atom
  • Coda (Mac)

• FTP Client (to connect to server)

  • WinSCP, Notepad++ (Windows)
  • CyberDuck, Coda (Mac)

• WordPress

  • Define( WP_DEBUG, true); in wp-config.php
  • Debug bar plugin
  • WordPress Codex

Thanks to all who came out or tuned into the live stream. Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear your thoughts below or feel free to contact me.

Originally published April 12, 2011 | View revision history

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Ben Balter is the Director of Hubber Engagement within the Office of the COO at GitHub, the world’s largest software development platform, ensuring all Hubbers can do their best (remote) work. Previously, he served as the Director of Technical Business Operations, and as Chief of Staff for Security, he managed the office of the Chief Security Officer, improving overall business effectiveness of the Security organization through portfolio management, strategy, planning, culture, and values. As a Staff Technical Program manager for Enterprise and Compliance, Ben managed GitHub’s on-premises and SaaS enterprise offerings, and as the Senior Product Manager overseeing the platform’s Trust and Safety efforts, Ben shipped more than 500 features in support of community management, privacy, compliance, content moderation, product security, platform health, and open source workflows to ensure the GitHub community and platform remained safe, secure, and welcoming for all software developers. Before joining GitHub’s Product team, Ben served as GitHub’s Government Evangelist, leading the efforts to encourage more than 2,000 government organizations across 75 countries to adopt open source philosophies for code, data, and policy development. More about the author →

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