1. Before you begin

Before diving in to editing the theme, there are a few tools and concepts you need to be aware of. You don't actually have to learn these tools to edit much of the theme, but you need to be aware of what part they play in the development flow.

Git

• Git versioning allows us to track changes in an organized manner.
• Although Git can get complex, we are using in a very simple, straight forward way. [Link to workflow docs]
• Git website

LESS

• A CSS "preprocessor" which extends the functionality of CSS (e.g., variables, functions, and more).
• CSS is easy enough right? LESS is easy too! If you know CSS, then LESS will feel very comfortable.
• Browsers can't read LESS, so we use tools to translate LESS into good ole' fashioned CSS. The tools used to do this all operate off of the Node.js platform.
• LESS website

Node.js

• Think of Node.js like the "Java" for web development tools. You don't have to know how to use Node.js directly, but you do need it installed on your computer to run the tools that automate some of the tasks required to test and release updates to the theme.
• Node website

Grunt.js

• Grunt is a configurable "task runner" built on the Node.js platform. This is used to automate otherwise teadious, time consuming tasks.
• You don't have to actually learn grunt to contribute to the theme. But you will have to install it and run various grunt tasks (e.g, commands) to apply those changes (i.e., grunt build).
• Grunt website

Bower.io

• Bower is a package manager for web developers. It allows you to easily update, install, and manage third-party dependencies. (i.e., instead of going to the Bootstrap website, downloading, unzipping the download, and then uploading you just use the command bower install bootstrap).
• Bower website

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