Dan Carroll on GitHub

My GitHub Profile About Me

2023-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

I don’t know how I missed this, but adding a GitHub profile readme file was an interesting “project”. I hit upon how to do this by personalizing my profile when I stumbled upon the Customizing your profile GitHub Docs page. You can do the same by following the Personalizing your profile link yourself. Or just click on that last link to get the info.

It was actually quite fun, and a bit cheezy, adding in some details about myself mixed in with some emojis. If you haven’t added a profile readme to your profile yet, give it a go. I also have expanded my README file in my github.io code page.

On this Readme I have included some notes, lists of my online projects and other projects that have more than a passing interest to me. This is for me to keep track of a few things. And for others to obtain an idea of some of what interests me. So if you would like to know more about my technical interests, follow this link.

HTML Games with JavaScript

2023-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Games are a fun way to spend your time. They can be relaxing or exciting, even educational. Some are quite challenging and can be great problem-solving mental exercises. So, however you enjoy your games, creating and playing your own creations can be a great way to learn programming techniques.

Created a new repository, html-games, to have a playground for learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript methods outside of what I would normally encounter designing websites. Plus it should be fun. To explore the results of this endeavor, visit HTML Games with JavaScript.

I plan on including articles on basic game design, some tutorials, a few game collections for inspiration, and working games with code as examples and to show the results of my work with the game design articles and tutorials I experiment with. Will also have some of my own ideas for games, or at least some that I have borrowed from others and modified to my own liking.

So please visit. Enjoy the site. And see what you can learn and have fun doing with some of this.

Browser Navigation Examples

2023-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

I was always looking for navigation examples for new websites and never quite got what I wanted. So I would copy and modify things until I got what I wanted. Keeping track of so many examples was becoming a bit confusing.

So why not put together some examples of my own. Include some tutorials and how-tos along with other examples. Make it easy for me to find and keep track of what I like alongside of some of my own working code. And put it where I could readily find, and access, it.

Looks like GitHub is perfect for that. I can share, possibly get others’ ideas, and try out different options when I needed to change things up. I have a few examples now. I’ll have to add more as I find the time and items to save for later.

Lonely Globe PWA

2023-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

Another PWA based on the tutorial Getting Started with Offline First using UpUp. See the TalAter/UpUp GitHub repo. Just go down into demo folder for the tutorial code under “getting-started-with-offline-first-demo”. The tutorial isn’t complete. Had to look at the code on GitHub. And the .min.js.map files weren’t complete so changed to using the non-minimized js files from the src folder in the root of the repo.

UpUp is a javascript library that looks to make content available to users – always. The idea is to change the narrative from Mobile First to Offline First. Not sure how it is going since the site has not been updated in a while. But the tutorial was worth a go. Definite learning experience plus i had to do a bit of troubleshooting.

A look at my Lonely Globe Repository
Lonely Globe web page

Creating a To-Do PWA

2023-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Now this tutorial, Building a Mobile App using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by Wisdom Ekpotu, was great fun. I ended up with a useable app that has become part of my daily routine. See if you can detect the changes I made in the code for a slight custom fit compared to the original.

That is the great thing about open source software, being able to take a look under the hood and make changes to suit yourself. I see myself using this app as a template for others. I should change the theme up for something more custom, but I actually like the look and feel. Kudos to you Mister Ekpotu.

This is a simple app. No complexity. Add to the list and remove items when completed. It is a great little Progressive Web App. And can be extended as far as you would like to take it.

I enjoy it’s simplicity. It also does not require access to the website once installed. No web data. It is all self-contained and works great whether you have a live internet connection or not. It simply works.

My ToDo App

Created a PWA Examples Repository

2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

Created a PWA Examples repository to showcase code and examples of progressive web applications as I learn how these work. For more mature examples of working PWAs, check out these examples on MDN Web Docs. MDN Web Docs is a great place to go to learn the details of web technologies.

I will be starting off with examples and tutorials created by others. Once I get some experience with PWAs, I have some ideas for projects of my own. So follow along with me as I explore the creation and use of PWAs. This should be fun.

And, of course the first PWA to do is a Hello World example. Nothing exciting, but is a good first go with the code for a PWA. For a nice introduction to progressive web apps check out this article on the MDN web docs site. Follow along with this tutorial by James Johnson to create your first PWA.

PWA Examples Github Repository
PWA Examples web page

Python Bottle Bootstrap

2023-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

So, I wanted to play around with the Bottle framework. This is a very interesting tool to utilize. It is a micro-framework written in Python, all in a single file. With it you can create simple web b ased tools all the way up to full websites.

I wanted to see how it would work out with the Bootstrap framework. Bootstrap is basically a CSS library with classes you add in to your HTML. There are also some Javascript components for when you need a little extra muscle. And it is fully customizeable if you want to modify it to your needs.

I was thinking I would try it out and maybe create a simple template for other projects. What I ended up with was a full blown website highlighting my interest in Python. It has turned into a great playground for trying out new ideas.

Not that my ideas are new. Just part of my learning experience with Python and web development. I’m really becoming interested in the idea of running python code in the web browser. The option to run Python code in the web browser instead of Javascript is giving me all kinds of ideas.

Another cool thing about utilizing the micro-framework Bottle is the control it provides over your creating web apps in Python. I utilized a great full-stack Python development system, web2py, in the past. Now I have a way to actually dig deep into how web apps actually work. Great way to learn and understand the underpinnings of the technology.

So, give it a try yourself. Try Bottle out. Also, take a look at Web2Py. It provides a fast way to learn how to create your own full stack web applications.

Adding Google Analytics to GitHub Pages

2021-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

So I added Google Analytics to my GitHub pages. Now to see how that tracks. It will be interesting to see if there are any visitors here.

If you are interested in doing the same, then check out the tutorial from Niklas Leopold as I did. His How to add Google Analytics to a blog hosted on Github pages tutorial was quite easy to follow. Thank you Niklas.

Dan Reads

2021-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

My mission here, at Dan Reads is to share the books I read. Some are for the simple love of books. Others are for their content. Gotta love them too.

Okay, simple intro above, but really, I am a bookworm. I have always loved reading. And I would love to share what I have read. But it is not always easy to find someone willing to listen to me rave about my reads.

So, here I am blogging about my reads. My interests are varied but I may end up with way too many science fiction titles here. But I am also into the fantasy genre, to a certain extent. Along with westerns, adventure, military action, historical fiction (some), and suspenseful mystery thrillers (with some action).

I do read some books intended for youth, especially when there is suspense and adventure involoved. Basically, the same genres of fiction i like are readable whether meant for a young audience or a more mature one. I really look for a good story being told by a masterful storyteller.

You may also see some children’s books here. After all, I am a Pa-Pa. Need to read to the grandkids. I am making an effort to foster a love of reading in a new generation. And books do make great gifts.

As for non-fiction, I primarily read STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math – books. But also interested in Finance, Self-improvement, Inspirational, Gardening, Woodworking, Health, Cooking, and Nature subjects. So definitely not limited to a single genre.

Dan Carroll Portfolio

2020-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

My portfolio page was created as part of a GitHub Learning Lab exercise. The author of the Communicating Using Markdown course utilized the Jekyll Hacker template. This template could be termed a bit cheezy but I kind of like it. The old school computer look mixed with a few modern tweaks works for me. Maybe some day I’ll change the template to bring this part of the site into line with the main pages.

The main page links to section pages housing different parts of my portfolio. I am still working on getting together items to place into the portfolio, while creating new material as ideas pop up. The more I work on this project, the more ideas I get for other projects. A lot of it just small stuff, but small projects tend to grow over time.

I also like to share interesting items I find on GitHub and the internet at large. Some of what I have added to GitHub are in the way of extended notes. This helps me in keeping my notes and ideas organized into one place. It is also quite possible to make these notes into interactive notebooks of sorts. I’m not done by a longshot, so expect to find updates and new items regularly as I find the time.

Dan Carroll’s Portfolio pages

Hopefully, some of my visitors here will find items of interest here as well as a bit of fun. Happy coding!