So now that we know what we want to do
in this course section,
the question is, how exactly do we create a website?
If we recall this slide from earlier,
then it seems like there is a server involved, right?
That is where we store our website,
whatever that website thing then actually is,
it seems to be that HTML, JavaScript, and CSS code right?
And that then is stored on a server.
That is technically correct.
And once you want to expose your website to other users,
you will need such a server,
but to get started and to develop a website,
you don't need a server.
Instead, thankfully, your computer can act as a server.
No matter which operating system you're using,
no matter how old your computer might be,
it can be a temporary development server.
And this is not just something
we're going to take advantage of
for starting with web development.
As a web developer, in general,
you develop websites locally on your computer.
You test them there and only once you're done,
once you're finished, you upload them to some server.
You rent a server or buy one, whatever,
and you upload your page there to serve it to the end users,
which I guess makes sense,
because as long as you're not done with developing it,
you, of course, don't want to expose it
to any other people.
So therefore, our computer can act
as a temporary development server.
And that's great news.
It means we can instantly get started.
Then we only need two other things to get started.
One of these things is the browser.
We need a browser because a browser, in the end,
receives those instructions, parses them,
evaluates them, and executes them,
and then does something based on the instructions.
It brings something to the screen.
As a web developer,
we don't have to deal with low-level code
where we tell the computer which pixels should be rendered
and which colors these pixels should have.
Instead, as a web developer,
we leverage the browser for that.
It's the browser
which has the job of controlling pixels on the screen,
we just provide those instructions
about which I have talked a lot to the browser.
And therefore, to start developing, we need a browser
so that we can write instructions and test them there.
And then the second thing, well, that is those instructions.
That is a HTML file in the end.
Because, as a web developer,
you, in a nutshell, produce HTML files,
and it's such a HTML file
which then, of course, contains HTML code
but which also can contain or load CSS and JavaScript code.
So those three fundamental languages they, in the end,
are all written in one HTML file, you could say.
And therefore, we really only need these two things
to get started.
Now, when it comes to the browser,
you can use any browser you want.
Any browser works,
but my recommendation is
that you either use the Google Chrome browser
or you use the Firefox browser.
Of course, there are other browsers as well,
but these two browsers are particularly great
for web development.
They have a lot of built-in tools
and really sophisticated developer tools,
which we can leverage to develop websites with ease.
So my recommendation is that you pick up
one of these two browsers.
We will be using Chrome in this course,
but either of the two browsers work.
To follow along as smoothly as possible,
you, of course, might want to use Chrome,
because then all the tools in the browser
will work for you as they do for us in the videos,
but either of the two works.
Now for that HTML file,
you could think that you need to install extra software
to create such files or anything like that.
But thankfully, that's all not the case.
A HTML file is just a regular text file
where you change the extension from .text to .html.
And then, of course, you don't write normal text in there,
but instead, HTML code.
So to sum it up, the only thing you need is a browser.
That's the only extra tool you need to install.
And other than that, to get started,
you don't need to install anything.
You don't need a fancy computer.
You don't need some special operating system.
You can get started with web development,
no matter which computer or operating system
or setup you have.
Now for this course,
I will be using macOS as an operating system,
but that's just my personal choice,
Not something you need
and not something that will make any difference
in regards to the code we write or the code we execute.