Seeking advice for Web dev

[golden_shield]

I know theres lots of code nuts around here so perhaps some of you could give me some guidance. :)

I recently decided I wanted to learn some web development skills to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks and because I just find it interesting and challenging.
So I started learning HTML5 CSS jquery and javascript.
The first three I picked up quite well and its starting to get more challenging with the javascript.
I guess what I want to know is things like

<ul>
<li> Is there a best way to practise this shit </li>
<li> what are the best or perhaps logical pathways from here </li>
<li> what is the best methods for learning real world skills </li>
<li> Any relevant advice would be really appreciated </li>

</ul>

Im still a noob but I really want to learn the right way.


Luv in advance

[Rakknah]

I would suggest googleing a guide on basic HTML and learn from there, HTML is pretty simple tbh, But googles your best bet.

[uwantobthisgood]

I know theres lots of code nuts around here so perhaps some of you could give me some guidance. :)

I recently decided I wanted to learn some web development skills to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks and because I just find it interesting and challenging.
So I started learning HTML5 CSS jquery and javascript.
The first three I picked up quite well and its starting to get more challenging with the javascript.
I guess what I want to know is things like

<ul>
<li> Is there a best way to practise this shit </li>
<li> what are the best or perhaps logical pathways from here </li>
<li> what is the best methods for learning real world skills </li>
<li> Any relevant advice would be really appreciated </li>

</ul>

Im still a noob but I really want to learn the right way.


Luv in advance

I am sure there are some better sources, but W3SCHOOLS is your best friend for this!!! it has a try it yourself editor. This is also an interactive learning site I like. These are both good for beginner and intermediate.
If you are going to get serious about this, i recommend your own web server. The best way to learn real world skills (that i have found at least) is to do it on your own web server, make yourself a personal web page. Make pages for friends and/or family.
As for advice (again this is just me personally), learn PHP, this is my favorite language!

PS. to do the bullet points you will want to do "list" inside these [ ] for open and a "list" [/ ] for your end (no quotation marks).

Good luck!

[Peternack]

I am sure there are some better sources, but W3SCHOOLS is your best friend for this!!!

+1 to W3SCHOOLS, its a great source for beginners and you can find examples for almost all tags.

[golden_shield]

Thanks to all,

I have been learning on Codeacademy.com which has been really good. they have updated it recently with a better editor.
Also I have lots of tutorials from Lynda Tutts and Treehouse..

I like the own web server idea.

Do you think I can teach myself properly or is it better to go to a university or tafe and learn in a class environment ????

[Rakknah]

Thanks to all,

I have been learning on Codeacademy.com which has been really good. they have updated it recently with a better editor.
Also I have lots of tutorials from Lynda Tutts and Treehouse..

I like the own web server idea.

Do you think I can teach myself properly or is it better to go to a university or tafe and learn in a class environment ????

You can easily learn yourself as long as your put some time into it, HTML is really simple once you figure it out. And once your have mastered that just work you way up. I mean you can goto a class for it if you like, but personally I wouldn't waste your money. Once you start getting into the more advanced programming lanuaguges you may want to start taking courses on em.

[uwantobthisgood]

I agree with @Rakknah classes may be useful for more advance web techniques or languages. In my experience (4 years under grad school in computer science, 3 years grad school in computer science), there is no better way to learn than hands on, real life experience Having your own server or at least having your own place to host web sites is a must though. With the money you would save from taking classes or going to school you could get yourself a couple really nice servers!

[golden_shield]

I got a couple of pc's sitting around doin nuthin so Im going to have a go at setting up ubuntu on one of them and play around with setting up a web server on it..

Does that sound like a plan ? I just read a bit about it last night and from what I read its pretty common setup .

[uwantobthisgood]

I got a couple of pc's sitting around doin nuthin so Im going to have a go at setting up ubuntu on one of them and play around with setting up a web server on it..

Does that sound like a plan ? I just read a bit about it last night and from what I read its pretty common setup .

It does! that is how i started out. Minus Ubuntu, I am a CentOS man myself (just personal preference), no GUI though. I found that I learned more and retained more of what i learned when forced to used nothing but the command line.

[golden_shield]

makes sense. I have never used either of them before but im sure i can find some nice tutorials somewhere to get me cooking.
But first, COFFEE !!!

[Rakknah]

I got free unlmited hosting I dont use lol, I can give you access you if you. Full Cpanel and all that jazz just no domain name.there's about 2 months left on it

[Nizar]

If you want to go with any distro of linux, or any distro of Windows, it shouldn't effect your code. To quote somebody who worked on an MMO as the lead developer, since he taught me how to code properly... "If you can build a login, you can build anything/everything."

So, your first big goal should be to build a login that uses PHP, MySQL for the database, and an HTML form. It should store the user's information in cookies or using a session.

Personally, I would go with EasyPHP, it runs on windows and will allow you to learn and understand PHP+HTML pretty quickly without having to completely relearn using a computer. Learning a database, two programming languages, HTML, and CSS... Is going to be a bit more work than most of us code monkeys would like to admit.

Form follows function, and a lot of those sites for learning code lack goal-setting, they're usually good references. I started out trying to replicate regular web sites, getting a header, content area, sidebars, and footer working was quite an exercise, but it wasn't until I had to actually make a web site WORK that I suddenly started seeing real gains as far as how well I could develop my code. I had to make a real estate web site within three months that had a functioning home search, a nag page (register so you can see the listings), a page for displaying listing information, a login, and make all of it look professional. That web site is the biggest real estate web site in the area and now my personal web site has a high ranking as well.

[nahpalm]

EasyPHP is a great way to setup a WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) it let's you spend less time on creating a development environment and more time on learning to code.

One thing I must warn you of. If you do go the PHP and database learning route please spend some time reading and practicing data sanitization and properly escaping data. Learning to do this out of the gate will save you a lot of aggravation later.

Also a nice resource to test a snippit real quick that I use is Create a new Fiddle - jsFiddle another good tool if you are trying to learn JS and a site has compressed or minified the JS into almost unreadable text is this: Online JavaScript beautifier It will add new lines and indentation to minified JS.

Also CSS is your best and worst friend :) You have to learn it, but it can be a wild beast to tame. You'll know what I mean the first time you spend a couple hours making something look perfect in one browser then notice in a different browser it looks nothing like intended.

[golden_shield]

Ok my head is spinning now

I Really appreciate all the info and offers. Very helpful indeed.
I think I will spend some more time actually understanding all those things :) for a bit.
but first COFFEE!!!!

Great thread :) :) :)

[blaster21]

get into docspedia while it's still open for registration and download some books and videos to learn from.