/learn · built in public

Building Blue Spark in public.

The product was built by someone learning web development in the open. This page is that log: what was learned, what shipped, what's in progress, and exactly what this site is built with. For the engineers who want receipts, and for anyone deciding whether to start their own.

The log

What shipped. What's next.

2026-08 [done] HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript foundations — the site you are reading is the output.

2026-08 [done] Tools: VS Code, browser DevTools, Git/GitHub. Branching model: main + feature branches, squash merges.

2026-09 [done] Hosting: static deploy — GitHub Pages / Vercel / Netlify all valid targets; DNS + SSL at the registrar.

2026-09 [wip] Frameworks: evaluating when a framework earns its place. This site ships without one.

2026-10 [wip] The 4-week beginner roadmap and the no-code vs code comparison — publishing as they're finished.

The tracks

Four tracks. Real notes, not tutorials.

Foundation

HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript. One learning-log essay per topic — what confused me, what clicked, what I'd tell last-month me.

Tools

VS Code, browser DevTools, Git/GitHub. The actual extensions in use, the actual .gitignore shipped, the actual branching model.

Hosting

GitHub Pages, Vercel, Netlify, DNS, SSL — including the deployment config this site uses, disclosed once it's pinned.

Frameworks

Tailwind, React/Vue/Svelte, WordPress/Framer/Webflow — honest notes on which earns a place and why. This site ships with none of them; that's a data point too.

What this site is built with

The stack disclosure.

This site is vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No framework, no build step, no tracker, no analytics. GSAP 3.13 (ScrollTrigger + SplitText) drives the scroll choreography. The background field is a hand-written WebGL shader. The fonts are Space Grotesk, Inter, and JetBrains Mono. The brand assets are the Compass Star medallion and the ringless 8-point star. See the repo for the source.