Week 3 / Seachtain 3

This week was based on writing content for use on the web. This doesn’t mean how to write an article; rather, it means how to put together a web page or how the “inside” of a website works. Basically, we’re all in the Matrix, and I’m slowly learning how to read it!

[IMAGE]: Screenshot from The Matrix (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999), a hallway made entirely from green “code” language, with three humanoid figures standing in the background.

We were given an overview of  programs and websites for beginners in HTML writing. WYSIWYG HTML Editors are “What You See is What You Get” programs and, much like WordPress, they allow you to write and put together your page while the HTML is automatically written in the background. Some examples of WYSIWYG tech are Mozilla Thimble, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Blue Griffon.

Web design involves making sure that your content is accessible to as many people as possible. That doesn’t mean how many Twitter followers you have, though – it means you need to make your content accessible, legible, and readable for people with different experiences of web use.

We were introduced to three terms that play a part in web design:

Accessibility: “the inclusive practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities”, e.g. making sure a video has closed captioning, that images come with text explanations, and that your content is legible and readable;
Legibility: “whether a small burst of text such as a sign or a headline is instantly recognizable” or not. This relates to the font size, serifs, weight (boldness), character shapes and counter size.
Readability: “the ease [with] which text can be read without fatigue“. This is the concept that some things are intrinsically more taxing to read than others, due to font size and type, colour, and line length and height.

The website http://wave.webaim.org/ allows you to check if your website is accessible, and it shows issues that might be present on your site. I’ve changed some aspects of my blog after using the website, including changing the font colour of my image captions and making my colours contrast more.

The lecture included a bit about Eye-Tracking: the study of how a person’s eyes navigate new information, which relates to parts of a web-page that a reader or viewer is most likely to register as sources of information. The Centre for Translation and Textual Studies in DCU have selection of information about eye-tracking on their WordPress if you’re interested in reading more about it as a concept.

We were also introduced to Codecademy, the Duolingo of hypertext markup language.

[IMAGE]: Codecademy logo: code encased in a box, c of cademy underlined.

This site offers an introduction to code, and our task was to begin the tutorials on the system. I learned what a <div> tag actually does, which has been a long time coming. I also had a chance to play around with heading settings in HTML.

I wanted to make the new web-page look like my blog. I changed the headers and paragraph info to suit my own content, but I realised I didn’t know how to use special characters (like the “ó” in Blagadóir). I learned that some characters have specific HTML codes, or “entities” that allow them to be used in HTML coding. Here are a few of the usual ones in Irish:

á:  &aacute;
é:  &eacute;
í:  &iacute;
ó:  &oacute;
ú:  &uacute;

This was great as it pushed me to finally get my head around this, and what it means for using Irish on the web. The above information was found here, where you can see all the characters that are available for use.

Title image from The Matrix. Directed by Wachowski and Wachowski. Warner Bros., 2003. DVD.

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Seachtain 3

An tseachtain seo, bhíomar ag caint faoin gcaoi ina scríbhtear ábhar a chuirtear ar líne. Ní hin le rá go rabhamar ag caint faoin iriseoireacht nó faoin mblagadóireacht; bhíomar ag caint faoin rud a sheasann taobh thiar de gach rud. Go bunúsach, táimid uilig sa Matrix agus táim i mbun an teanga ceart a fhoghlaim (go mall, caithfidh mé a rá).

[ÍOMHÁ]: Gabháil scáileáin ó The Matrix (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999), halla iomlán déanta as “cód” glas, le trí figiúirí daonna ina seasamh sa chúlra. 

Rinneadh cur síos sa léacht ar chláir agus ar shuíomh a úsáidtear chun HTML a scríobh. Is éard atá i gceist le cláir WYSIWYG HTML ná go mbíonn tú in ann rud amháin a scríobh agus a chur le chéile ar scáileán amháin, agus ansin déantar HTML go huathoibreach as an rud atá déanta agat. Is samplaí de WYSIWYG iad Mozilla Thimble, Adobe Dreamweaver, agus Blue Griffon, rud ar bhain mé úsáid as cúpla bliain ó shin, agus mé ag obair go dian ar shuíomh idirlín de chuid cumann éigin sa choláiste.

Is cuid lárnach de dhearadh gréasáin í an chaoi ina gcinntítear go mbíonn go leor daoine in ann do chuid suíomh a léamh agus a úsáid. Ní bhaineann sé sin leis an líon leantóirí atá agat ar Twitter. Is éard atá i gceist ná go gcaithfidh go gcruthaíonn tú ábhar atá inrochtaineach, inléite agus soléite, ionas go mbíonn daoine éagsúla in ann leas a bhaint as do shuíomh.

Tugadh léargas dúinn ar roinnt rudaí a bhaineann le dearadh gréasáin:

Inrochtaineacht: an chaoi ina ndéantar cinnte go mbíonn go leor daoine in ann suíomh idirlín a léamh agus a úsáid go héasca agus go héifeachtach. Caitfidh go gcuirtear fotheidil a chur ar fhíseáin agus go gcuirtear mínithe in aice le híomhánna.
Inléiteacht (Legibility): An féidir píosa beag téacs a aithint nó nach féidir, m.s. comhartha nó ceannlíne. Baineann sé lin le trasmhíreanna, meáchan (trom), cruth agus méid na bpoll atá clúdaithe in aon litir amháin.
Soléiteacht (Readability): an chaoi inar féidir le duine téacs a léamh gan a bheith ag éirí tuirseach. Is é sin le rá go bhfuil rudaí ann atá níos deacra a léamh, de bharr na clófhoirne, agus de bharr mhéid, dath agus stíl na clófhoirne.

[fadhb agam leis an téarmaíocht anseo – mar níl a fhios agam an ionann inléite agus soléite?]

Is féidir leat do chuid suíomh a sheiceáil le http://wave.webaim.org/, sin suíomh a dhéanann scrúdú ar aon suíomh idirlín. Léiríonn sé aon rud nach bhfuil díreach i gceart, nó 100% soléite, srl. D’athraigh mé cúpla rud a bhaineann le mo bhlagsa, go háirithe na dathanna agus an codarsnacht atá eatarthu, agus an dath atá ar na sonraithe a sheasann faoi na híomhánna.

Chasamar le Codecademy den chéad uair sa rang seo (sin cosúil le Duolingo, ach dírithe ar chúrsaí HTML) agus bhaineamar úsáid as sa Lab.

[ÍOMHÁ] Lógó Codecademy: code i mbosca, agus líne faoin c in cademy

Tugann an suíomh seo blaiseadh iontach den chódáil duit agus don Lab bhí orainn an chéad cleachtadh a dhéanamh air. D’fhoghlaim mé céard is <div> ann faoi dheireadh. Bhí mé ag súgradh le socruithe a bhaineann leis na ceannlínte, ag ƒeachaint ar na rudaí a dhéanann siad (seachas díreach ag brú ar chnaipe éigin, mar a dhéantar ar WordPress). Ní dóigh liom go gcuirfidh mé na socruithe uathoibreacha ar leataobh go fóill, ach is maith an rud é a bheith in ann na fadhbanna a aimsiú nuair a thagann siad suas. Tá achainí agam, go mbeadh rud éigin mar sin mar chuid de Microsoft Word, go háirithe nuair a théann pictiúr éigin ar strae…

I rith chleachtadh 1 ar Codecademy, bhí fonn orm an rud ar fad a athrú ionas go mbeadh sé níos cosúla ná mo bhlag fhéin. D’athraigh mé na ceannlínte agus na hailt. Bhí fadhb ollmhór agam nuair a rinne mé iarracht ainm mo bhlag a chur isteach ann. Thug mé faoi deara nach féidir carachtair speisialta a chur isteach in HTML go díreach, agu go bhfuil cód ar leith ag baint leo.  Is iad seo a leanas roinnt de na carachtair a bhíonn á úsáid againn sa Ghaeilge, agus an cód HTML a bhaineann leo:

á:  &aacute;
é:  &eacute;
í:  &iacute;
ó:  &oacute;
ú:  &uacute;

Cheap mé go raibh an chuid seo an-suimiúil. Spreagadh mé chun dul i dtaithí ar an rud chun é a thuiscint. Anuas ar sin, tugann sé sort léargas dom ar an gcaoi ina n-úsáidtear an Ghaeilge, agus teangacha eile, ar líne. Tháinig mé ar na cinn seo thuas ar an suíomh seo, agus is féidir leat dul ann chun tuilleadh eolais a fháil agus níos mó carachtair speisialta a fheiceáil!