a-picture-is-worth-a-1000-words

This repository is a collection of hand-drawn technology illustrations and sketchnotes created by a developer and artist who goes by girliemac. There is no code here. The project is a central place to download the original image files that the creator has shared over the years on social media and through Microsoft open-source education projects.

The drawings explain technical concepts in a visual, accessible way, intended for people who find text documentation hard to absorb. Topics covered include algorithms and data structures (things like arrays, linked lists, and binary trees), web development basics (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), machine learning concepts, generative AI and prompting, and Git commands explained through cartoon cats. The Git series, called Git Purr, depicts common git operations such as pulling, pushing, merging, and rebasing using cat puns and cat illustrations.

Some images were created for two Microsoft curriculum projects, "Web Dev for Beginners" and "Machine Learning for Beginners," which are separate open-source teaching resources. Others are conference sketchnotes taken live during talks, and some are older drawings now being archived in one place. There is also a section for a Slack API illustrated zine that was prepared for in-person events but never fully distributed before the pandemic cancelled those gatherings.

Images are available as webp and PDF files. All content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, which means you can share and adapt the images as long as you credit the original creator and release any derivative work under the same license. The creator also notes that images should not be minted as NFTs.

The HTTP Status Cats project is mentioned as a related earlier work, where each HTTP error code is paired with a cat photo. Those images now live at a dedicated domain rather than this repository.