Computing Resources

Tools

GitLab

We will be using GitLab to submit homework assignments this quarter. If you are new to Git, we recommend using the GitKraken desktop tool to easily get started with cloning and managing a code repository (supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems), or alternatively, using a command line tool.

Option 1: Installing GitKraken
Option 2: Getting Started with GitLab on the Command Line (handy command line basics tutorial for first-time users)

Text Editors

We recommend Atom as the text editor for writing code in this class. If you prefer a different text editor (Sublime, VisualStudio, Vim, Emacs, etc.) you are free to use it instead.

Atom

File upload tools

We recommend Filezilla for uploading your files to a server, like your UW student server. (Use the link below to avoid "bloatware"). If you prefer a different tool (WinSCP for Windows or scp for on a terminal shell) you are free to use it instead.

Filezilla

Browser Web Dev Tools

We strongly recommend either Chrome or Firefox as browsers to view your web pages in this class. You can find useful development tools for either choice:

Local Servers

Use these to do server development all from your local machine

Mac MAMP
Windows MAMP
Reporting Errors with PHP on MAMP
Atom php-server package (you need PHP installed to use this, but it's a very easy way to run PHP programs directly fro Atom!)
MAMP phpmyadmin

Windows Shells

Simulate a Linux machine on your Windows machine. Not needed for Macs because you can run Terminal on Macs (search for "Terminal" in your navigator tool).

Ubuntu for Windows 10
Cygwin

Code Quality

CSE 154 Code Quality Guide

Code Validators

While these will not catch all code quality issues, they do go a long way towards finding some problems. Validating will be a required part of all creative projects and omework assignments.

Languages and Technologies

HTML and CSS

MDN HTML Elements Reference
HTML5Doctor - great resource to learn more about best practices and examples using different HTML tags
MDN CSS Reference
Web Style Guide (Lynch and Horton)
140 CSS Color Names, RGB, and Hex Values
A CSS Selector Game! (note, not all tags are "real", but this is great to practice different types of CSS selectors!)
Flexplorer (a webpage to explore different flex layouts with colored boxes
Responsive Design with CSS Media Queries
Color Pallete Generator (with options to view with different types of color-blindness filters)

JavaScript

Visual Event - a JS bookmarklet to provide debugging information about what events have been attached to DOM elements
MDN's introduction to Modern JS
Working with Dates in JavaScript

PHP

PHP Language Cheatsheet
List of common PHP bugs and debugging tips
Interactive PHP Tutorial (good 1-hour tutorial for basic language syntax)
A more thorough PHP Tutorial
Fun way to practice "truthiness" in PHP: Return True to Win
PHP CodeStepByStep Exercises

Input Validation

Form Validation (client-side and server-side, MDN)
HTML5 Form Input Elements (MDN)