There are many tools available to help coders do their best work. Before you start coding, do a few housekeeping items. First, ensure that you are doing all of the following:
- Using the Chrome browser: Download and install the latest version of Chrome, as it offers the most support for the latest HTML standards.
- Working on a desktop or laptop computer: Although it is possible to code on a mobile device, it can be more difficult and all layouts may not appear properly.
- Remembering to indent your code to make it easier to read: One main source of mistakes is forgetting to close a tag or curly brace, and indenting your code will make spotting these errors easier.
- Remembering to enable location services on your browser and computer: To enable location services within Chrome, click on the settings icon (three horizontal lines on the top right of the browser), and click on Settings. Then click on the Settings tab, and at the bottom of the screen click on “Show Advanced settings … ” Under the Privacy menu heading, click on “Content settings … ” and scroll down to Location and make sure that “Ask when a site tries to track your physical location” is selected.
To enable location services on a PC no additional setting is necessary, but on a Mac using OS X Mountain Lion or later, from the Apple menu choose System Preferences, then click on the Security & Privacy icon, and click the Privacy tab. Click the padlock icon on the lower left, and select Location Services, and check Enable Location Services.
Finally, you need to set up your development environment. To emulate a development environment without instructional content use Codepen.io. Codepen.io offers a free stand-alone development environment, and makes it easy to share your code.