Where to start?

Duff Man Jr.

Hi, over the long summer months i want to get good at building sites, i kinda know html and have made a few relativitly simple sites using dreamweaver.

What would be the next step in learning to make good dyanmic sites??

Thanks

Ph3n0m

Start reading up on either ASP or PHP and combined with SQL, mySQL, Oracle or even Informix

mneylon

Oracle?

Oh come on. You won't be using Oracle unless you are in an enterprise environment.

Php, asp, asp.net and mysql / mssql / pgsql - yes

Ph3n0m

Well you never know what kind of enviroment you could be working in

mneylon

Ph3n0m wrote:

Well you never know what kind of enviroment you could be working in

If you have experience then you *might* end up using Oracle at some point........

forbairt

PHP and a bit of MySQL should get you up to speed ...

Lots of open source projects ... lots to play with .. and you've only the summer to do it in ...

stick with one language and get good ...

of course I could just be bitter cus I never did anything with ASP could anyone recommend a good starting point ?

forbairt

On the original post ...

My recommendations ...

Step one ... get yourself this
http://www.wampserver.com/en/index.php

I'm not sure what webserver you're running at the moment but if its dreamweaver .. chances are you're running it from static pages ?

Step two ... get yourself a text editor Note Pad ++ is quite nice as is crimson editor

Step three ... find a tutorial ...
To be honest its best you find this yourself initally ... if you can't begin to find out information for yourself you're in the wrong game ...
http://ie2.php.net/tut.php

Step four ... play ...

jmcc

Ph3n0m wrote:

Start reading up on either ASP or PHP and combined with SQL, mySQL, Oracle or even Informix

ASP & Microsoft SQL Server. PHP & MySQL. The bulk of the low to mid section of the web's dynamic sites run on PHP and MySQL. If you are only learning, then these would be the options to go for.

Microsoft's has a pile webdev/languages stuff available for free now so ASP and SQL server (there is even a free version of SQL server that will handle most hobbyist databases and a 180 day evaluation version of SQL server.)
http://msdn.microsoft.com

If you need to evaluate enterprise level databases, then PostgreSQL might be a better option. ( http://www.postgresql.org ) It is free/Open Source and it also is very well supported.

Oracle is a serious database with serious hardware requirements. It is not exactly something that you'd mess around with as a hobby. Many of the big sites on the web use it but they also have fully qualifed database administrators (DBAs) that handle it. There is an evaluation version available.

Perhaps it may be a good thing to get a book or two on SQL because it you will be using it if you ever develop a dynamic websites. A good grounding in SQL is very useful, perhaps moreso than a knowledge of PHP or ASP.

Also on the webdev angle - learn about CSS and what is possible with it.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

error9 wrote:

stick with one language and get good

Actually, learning a few languages is easier than learning one. Most computer languages share commonalities that allow you to pick up a new one quickly if you are competent in another (though I am not sure tha this applies to Perl). But as with any language, the important aspect is to keep using them.

Regards...jmcc

rsynnott

blacknight wrote:

Oh come on. You won't be using Oracle unless you are in an enterprise environment.

Bebo

forbairt

jmcc wrote:

Actually, learning a few languages is easier than learning one. Most computer languages share commonalities that allow you to pick up a new one quickly if you are competent in another (though I am not sure tha this applies to Perl). But as with any language, the important aspect is to keep using them.

Regards...jmcc

Given the person knows a bit about html .. I'd assume they aren't the most technical yet ... so my advice would stand ... no point confusing yourself with asp and php at the same time ... and they are talking about learning over the summer ... I know in my first job I stuck with perl for the summer and got a basic understanding of it over that time ... throwing other languages into the fray would have really confused me ..

Malice

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. They are an excellent resource for a variety of web development topics.

Also, when I was trying to get my head around CSS, I found this tutorial to be very helpful.

GP

error9 wrote:

On the original post ...

My recommendations ...

Step one ... get yourself this
http://www.wampserver.com/en/index.php

I'm not sure what webserver you're running at the moment but if its dreamweaver .. chances are you're running it from static pages ?

Step two ... get yourself a text editor Note Pad ++ is quite nice as is crimson editor

Step three ... find a tutorial ...
To be honest its best you find this yourself initally ... if you can't begin to find out information for yourself you're in the wrong game ...
http://ie2.php.net/tut.php

Step four ... play ...

since when is Dreamweaver a server ??
and if he has Dreamweaver he doens't need Note Pad ++

GP

PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, MySQl, and if you have the cash MS SQL

Lots of free code tutorials for both these days (even for MS products like .NET e.g Web Matirx).

If needs be you can do Oracle at a later stage.......

Also with regards to SQL dbs, don't forget PostgresSQL

forbairt

GP wrote:

since when is Dreamweaver a server ??
and if he has Dreamweaver he doens't need Note Pad ++

miss understood post ... sorry I wasn't clearer ...

Meant if you're running dreamweaver doing basic sites you've probably just got static pages and no server running ...

You get a better understanding for websites, building them from scratch ... which is something dreamweaver cuts out .. with a lot of the page done for you by it.

Please note I've not used dreamweaver since 2000 ? so am probably talking through my .. AHEM

GP

error9 wrote:

miss understood post ... sorry I wasn't clearer ...

Meant if you're running dreamweaver doing basic sites you've probably just got static pages and no server running ...

You get a better understanding for websites, building them from scratch ... which is something dreamweaver cuts out .. with a lot of the page done for you by it.

Please note I've not used dreamweaver since 2000 ? so am probably talking through my .. AHEM

hmmm, definitely would suggest doing dev. by doing tutorials from scratch too.

I used to use smoe of the behaviours built for speed's sake but not anymore. That said they can usefully for a beginner to play around with but can also be a bit confusing and definitely long winded!

Duff Man Jr.

Thanks for the advice guys, when the weather gets crap again im going to start with a little php and sql.

Seth Brundle

GP wrote:

PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, MySQl, and if you have the cash MS SQL

as said earlier MSSQL doesn't cost to test!

forbairt

surprised no one mentioned ruby