HTML Resource Two: CodeAvengers

Here we are at a tutorial based resource, CodeAvengers.  For this section I'll only cover the HTML portion of the tutorials (Up through lesson 10 of level 1) they have.  For reference, the entire section took me about an hour and a half to finish, although I was trying to rush most of it down, so expect maybe double to triple the amount of time if you're just starting out.  Anything else besides HTML covered, I'll cover in a different post. So let's get started.

To start with, I think that this particular tutorial series is kind of dumbed down.  It seems quite slow in its pacing, but for a beginner that might be exactly what you need.  However, I also find that their chosen interface is kind of clumsy.  The phone on the side is interesting, but the button placements and ordering to remember just seems extraneous.

I think the first lesson is kind of a throw away as you're mainly just typing text and it seems kind of pointless.  I also wish that they could just show both the example and your page at the same time.  Switching back and forth not only wastes time, it detracts from the learning experience and is kind of frustrating, especially when they have hints that sometimes outright give away the answers.  I also find that the ordering of topics is somewhat odd as the <p> or paragraph tag is not introduced until the 8th lesson.  They also make an example where they have <p> tags without the closing </p> tag, which while unnecessary, is cleaner and more straightforward in my opinion, <br> tags are the only exception really as <br></br> isn't correct syntax. They make their reasoning for this, but I just simply don't agree.  Regardless of these differences in opinion, I find the review lessons really useful as they make you find common mistakes which are sometimes quite frustrating for new coders. 

Overall, I think that the site is pretty good.  While slow paced for me, I already have some knowledge in the subject and for beginners I feel that it is probably moving at the right tempo.  Definitely check it out if you think you'd enjoy it.  Unfortunately it seems like you can't skip forward, so if you have some experience you'll have to go through the motions again.  However, the strictness of the system is pretty on point as well so I think it's definitely worth looking at if you're new to this subject and are looking for a fresh start.

--CsMiREK