Tales of the 14th Week Intern
Nov. 17, 2023 · 4 min readThis week, I spent the majority of time with Jekyll, which is a static site generator, that turns plain text into static websites and blogs. It is mainly used for making blogs due to its “blog-aware” nature and its ability to read markdowns.
Monday (2023-11-13)
To start the work week after running the engineer’s log, which was made using Jekyll. Our next task was to make a Jekyll project of our own. Jekyll offers a wide array of pre-built themes to choose from. But from my experience, I know that I would learn and understand more if I were to build a theme of my own.
When it comes to building websites, one must have a clear idea of what the result should look like. Because if one were just to build with no planning, there would be more confusion on what to do and more reworks and changes would occur. This is why, before making the code for the website, I made a wireframe first. A wireframe is also known as a page schematic or screen blueprint. It works as a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of the website.
I wanted this project to have a real application rather than some imaginary user with an imaginary use case. I have a friend who is a music producer, two actually, one has worked on many projects from Warner Production Studios, while the other, has not had an official client. I offered that I could make him a portfolio website that he could use to pad up his resume and also increase the chance of him getting a client and he took up my offer. This would not only help him with his portfolio but also my portfolio.
The other task I had to do was to compare the differences in speed between statically generated and dynamically generated sites, other than that, I ended my day.
Wednesday (2023-11-15)
This day’s task was to continue what I was already doing on my previous workday, which was making the wireframe of the website. Now that I made my wireframe my next step was to make the HTML and CSS. The issue I had was that even though I knew what to start, I didn’t know how to start. Because in the engineer’s log project, the only folder that I have altered was the _post folder, I knew what would happen if I placed a new markdown file there but I did not know how the rest of the project functions. So before moving on and starting the project, I extensively read the official documentation of Jekyll, which details what each part of the project is such as its liquids and its “front matter” After reading, I immediately understood and knew how the rest of the project functions and what I could do with it.
The other task that I had for the day was to make an article based on what I read on the differences between static and dynamic sites and I was to have it done by the next workweek.
Friday (2023-11-17)
Today was the day when I planned to be finished with my Jekyll Project. However, there were more complications than I thought there were. It took my time deciding what I what from the website. Although I prepared a wireframe, I felt that there was still more to be desired. I continued to watch more tutorials and read the rest of the documentation.
I dedicated the rest of the day to finishing my article on the pros and cons of statically and dynamically generated websites. You may kindly view the article through this link here
