getting back into web things

Hey all
Firstly im on a train on a phone so apologies for the bad English.

I used to do web design for fun as a hobby and then I lost my way in life and have not touched it for many years.
I am looking to get back into it but im sure things have changed

When I last looked into it I was using css xhtml javascript php and mysql.
WordPress was hugely popular. Html5 had just started to be used and css 3 was coming too.

As its been a while and I would love to gain a career in web design im looking for advice as I've probably forgotten alot.

A tried out a year at uni in software engineering but wasnt too keen on the java and c++ so I went to do graphic design. Photoshop was great but the course was structured horribly
Now doing diplomas in web development and digital media technology
My main question is what should I be focusing on these days

I was thinking the following but not sure what is used and what is outdated:
Html5
Css3
Java script
Jquery
Php & mysql
WordPress/drupal/joomla

I guess I should also look into seo and other important things

Any push in the right direction or suggestions or updates on what is used and not would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

 

Stay away from jquery unless you are already very skilled in javascript. The main features of jquery are A- it encourage you to not learn to code properly; B-it ecourages bloated trash laden code; it screws up the document object and makes rendering less efficient. Jquery plugins are a good place to hide malware, and 90% of them are pure crap written by wannabes.

Also stay away from Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla and any other load of bloated junk that limits your control. If you cannot do a custom CMS instead of using junk like that, then you need to spend time upgrading your skills.

You will get some pro and con arguments about using HTML5. I support it and think it is the right direction. CSS is the only way to do presentation. Anything else reduces the value of the end product and will be more difficult to maintain. Stay away from anything that claims to make CSS better, easier, or anything else. There is nothing more efficient or reliable then straight CSS in stylesheet files, and anything else you might be tempted to use will just produce excess bloat.

The only addition I would make is that if you are using PHP then you should be think OOP PHP, and to be compatible with the latest version and be cross-DB compatible that you use PDO objects for your php API to mySql. It makes thing much more secure than previous versions with less work.

 

Only one question: Can't we type right English while travelling on train?

BTW: All the best for your next plans *smile*

 

For the most part @COBOLdinosaur is giving you good advice, though we differ on the subject of HTML 5.

Generally speaking HTML 5 is filled with pointless redundancies if you bother learning the meaning and intent of HTML 4 Strict, in many ways 5 seems to be nothing more than the bleeding edge of 1997 Style browser-wars era practices and concepts. You WILL probably have some of those pointless redundancies (like AUDIO and VIDEO) shoved down your throat whether you like it or not thanks to crApple being total dicks to their users (which I still say is just sour grapes on their part about losing the format wars), which is why I and a good number of developers are saying to write your site as HTML 4 STRICT or XHTML 1.0 STRICT, and then slap the HTML 5 lip-service doctype on it at the last minute to support the two or three tags that are basically being forced upon us by the browser makers and outright idiotic nonsense known as HTML 5.

HTML 5 a "step in the right direction?" Only if the right direction is the bleeding edge of non-semantic markup practices from the mid to late 1990's. It has been carefully crafted so that all the bad practices that continue to linger of people using HTML 3.2 and the vendor proprietary crap that followed and then slapping 4 tranny on it can be justified by using the 5 lip-service doctype... basically allowing all the morons, quacks and fools who refuse to extract their cranium from 1997's rectum can slap each-other on the back over how "modern" their outdated, outmoded, buggy, bloated and insecure practices are.

There's a reason I call it "the new transitional" as pretty much everything it is about is the same as 4 tranny, which is a polite way of saying "in transition from 1997 to 1998 coding practices". It sure as shine-ola wasn't created for anyone who actually embraced STRICT, separation of presentation from content, or any of the dozens if not hundreds of ACTUAL improvements in methodology and design of the past decade and a half!

@COBOLdinosaur is quite right that jQuery is rubbish; at best it's a crutch for the inept, at worst it's pissing away functionality and usability internet wide for "gee ain't it neat" bull that to be brutally frank has no business on websites in the first damned place, or is just code bloat doing the job of some other tech like CSS.

Of course, jQuery is a "framework" -- pay attention to that word; if you see it - it's rubbish. Blueprint, YUI, Bootcrap, jQuery, prototype -- they universally prevent you from learning how things REALLY work, and advocate bad practices that just make you work harder, not smarter. By themselves minified/compressed they are usually two or three times larger than an entire page on your site should be allowed to reach uncompressed! The real laugh being that somehow the advocates of these bloated halfwit train-wrecks of ineptitude make wild claims about it being "simpler" or "easier" or "faster to develop" when to be frank, they do the exact opposite; but like second rate religious zealots they have convinced the masses of their bullshit through affirmation, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. Pretty much in 99% of cases if we are talking about a normal website and someone claims that a "framework" made development "easier" or "faster', they likely haven't learned enough about HTML, CSS or accessibility to offer a valid opinion on the subject.

The ONLY exception to that where it may make sense being the creation of crapplets; but honestly those are such train wrecks of using the wrong technology out of being too lazy to learn to use the right tools for the job (C, JAVA, etc) that said defenses rarely hold up to scrutiny... in a "What the *** are you using web technologies to do THAT for?!?" kind of way.

It's why you'll see fat bloated multi-megabyte monstrousities built from hundreds of separate files doing the job of 100k or less in a dozen files pissing all over the Internet because they mistook it for the wrong Lebowski.

Possibly the same reason I can't type worth **** on laptops? Forgot to bring a REAL keyboard along?

IBM Model M, when you have to type every last character in ASCII7, accept no substitutes.