how to become a website developer ?

Greetings
First of all i want to say that digitalpoint is a fantastic website and I hope you guys can help me with my problem
For some time now i want to become a website developer,I am aware that this takes many years and wont happen over night but the problem is I have the felling that I am not getting anywhere.
I am not a total computer noob,i think i have above-average knowledge of computers,but the problem is that there are still a lot of things i want to learn
I am still under windows and dont know how to use the linux terminal and i dont know how to program
For a few years now i have ideas for websites but the problem is i just dont have the knowledge to create my vision,and once in a while a website pops up that does what i imagined and I think "Damn,that was my idea"
for a while i tried with CMS systems like Joomla and Vbadvanced but sooner of later you get to that point where you just need something custom but cant afford to pay someone to do it for you...
I would really appreciate if you could give me some information about becoming a web developer,this is a longtime wish of mine and i know it will take many long nights and a lot of work and time,but i am ready and willing to become a web developer.
I am very interested in computers and business and i am still young (16) but i have the felling that i am falling behind when i consider that most of the programmers start with 8 years...but i still think that i am not too late to acquire the skills needed.
I considered posting this in Programming but i thought that it would be more appropriate here.
I also want to excuse myself for my bad English,it's not my native language i am Croatian

I thank everyone in advance for their time and help

Kind Regards
Antonio M.

 

Great first post ! I think that if you have the desire then
you probably also have the talent. I learned HTML over
the span of ten years. Then I learned CSS. While I was learning
how to code sites by hand, others were making software
that did what what I could do, but do it much faster.
That was Joomla and Wordpress.

I learned HTML while working a "regular" job. You can too.
But.. you have an advantage in that software is made that
makes very nice, and SEO friendly sites. Why not use it ?
If you need a custom module in Joomla, simply ask someone
to make one for you. You can trade for stuff if you do not
have the money.

Good luck and whatever you do, do not give up.

 

Greetings
Well i am not really a fan of joomla,at the moment i am trying to create a website in Drupal but i will open another threat for that...
The thing here is i dont just want to create simple websites i want to create programs,i always keep asking myself "How do people create scripts like Facebook or Drupal..." i dont ask myself how they got the idea or how they made them popular,i understand that part,it was just a good idea,but i dont understand how do they code them i mean those are so big i know many people work on them...but i just dont understand what makes those people better then me,is it a good college education or are they simply smarter then me i want to be able to create something for example i want to create a social network,how ? how can i do that
so thats the sort of thing i am wondering about all the time i mean i really want to become good at what i do and i want to know how i can do that...
Thank you for your fast reply and tips

 

If you want to create programs you will need to become a programmer.


Facebook is a site very similar to MySpace and is created with databases.
So is this site, if you look up at the URL ( address) here on this page,
it will usually have "php" in it somewhere. PHP is a scripting language
that is popular for web sites.

Well, this could get very long. I dont understand how they code
them either, but then again, since I can handle Joomla I do not
have to know php or mysql. I simply use them. The hard
part is done by the programmers.


These people simply have training in their chosen professsion : programming.
It is not a matter of them being better or worse than you. You touched
on the right answer; education. Since you are 16, why not study what
you like ? It seems like you want to program, not just make web sites.


How can you create a social network ? Well, you can get a group of
programmers together and do it. You can also create one with drupal
or Joomla.

You can get really specific online at what "you do". Get good at one
thing, then move on to the next related thing. Progress is good.

Good luck !

 

Well yes,thats why i sayed that maybe i should have put this into the programming section,but i thought web development was more fitting because i dont want to create desktop applications but web scripts
Yes as i sayed i have fairly good computer knowledge i know about php,mysql,oracle and alike but the problem is there is so much to learn,i dont even know where to start,what books to buy...
Well i know how to use joomla and Drupal (ofcourse drupal is a lot more complicated,but i am learning)
but the problem here is that just isnt enough for me,i want to create,making a website just isnt something special,ofcourse its nice,but i want to create something new,to create something as i imagined that,and that you just cant do,no matter which CMS you use,because you will always be limited by depending on other people,and every script has its limits its like that old saying
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"
Right ?
Yes i want to program but the problem with education is I live in Bosnia,and here you cant really get a good education for programming...so thats going to be a major problem,but a friend of my brother who is a very successful programmer lived here for many years and got a high-paying programmer job in a German company and acquired the knowledge himself,but i never got to ask him how he exactly did it...
To get back on the point,i want to create a social network,thats not really hard to do,especially with Drupal,but imagine this,you want something else,you want a forum integrated,not very hard...but imagine this,you want to create a script that...hmm i dont know,lets say take the temperature from a server on the other end of the world...for you (without the internet) impossible,for a programmer a few minutes...thats just a silly example...
I just want to be able to create things,as i imagine them...
On the last thing you sayed i agree,you must decide what you want to do,because you can be the best in one field,you try doing 2 things at a time,you are average,you do 3 things,and you are lousy...
Anyway i still hope some of you guys can help me,programmer education is going to be hard here...but it should be possible to learn programming by reading books and learning on the net,right ?
EDIT:
i just remembered something,i mean having a good idea is one thing,like the guy who created digg,he had a good idea and payed a programmer a few thousand to create what he wanted,thats business,he got lucky...
but imagine how many people may have great ideas and just dont have the money to realize them,maybie one of my ideas is great,but if i dont try i will never know...
so thats just something i wanted to say...
EDIT II:
I just read a post by gouthamvel and i am just wondering how he managed to learn all those langauges and then flash too...
Thats the whole point of it,i want to programm i want to create websites,but not just websites i want to create how i imagine them and not be limited by boundaries of a CMS or something like that...

 

Sorry to make it seem oversimplified, but -- just do it.
If you really want to make what you see in your head, just do it.

If you are sure that is what you want to do, and it causes no harm
to anyone, go for it.

Java is a programming language that runs on many different platforms.
It is running on those machines exploring Mars at this moment. I would
suggest you learn an Object-Oriented programming language like
Java or C++.

 

well,i think that C# is the best of the C family,but dont you think that this is a bit too much for a beginner ?
or are the "lower" languages just a waste of time ?
I think i will post a threat in Programming too might get some good feedback...

 

Start with Python.

 

actually i considered that one,since its used on most platforms and the syntax is good too,i think i will go for it
i have read "a byte of python" any other good books on it ?

 

Whichever you choose, make sure you like it and that it is popular.

Yes, you can learn an Object Oriented Programming Language.

 

I just want to thank everyone here,anything else i should know,except that i will need to put some mayor time and sweat into this ?

 

Sell to the Chinese, they have the money.

 

hehe,thanks,will remember
speaking of money
i charged $75 for this site http://beautysalon-stella.com/
the template was free and i just installed,configured,added the menus,and products...do you think its overpriced ?

 

I saw it. Good work. No... whatever people will pay for a site is what
it is worth.

 

Good,something else i wanted to ask,is there a definitive way to learn programming
i just bought a few books on amazon,so what should i do,just read them and try to figure it out,or is there something else ?

 

There are only a couple of ways to learn, and it depends
on you, more than on what is being learned. If you learn
by doing, then as I suggested, just start "doing". Copy
what you see and modify it to suit your needs.

If you need more detailed lessons, then school will
be your best bet. Having books is fine if you
are disciplined enough to initiate a schedule
and sit down to to read them methodically.

I presume English is not your first language.
How did you learn English ? This will probably
be similar to how you learn a computer language.

 

If you want to learn web based languages, such as perl or php... There are several ways to learn these. The internet makes it easy.

I learned HTML first, then moved to perl, then php. The easiest way I found for beginning a new language was by downloading a pre-made script, checking out it's functionality, probing around the open sourced code, then seeing how my changes effected the original functionality.

-If I saw something in a script that I had no clue about, I'd google it. PHP makes it really easy to do this. For instance, if I saw the word "echo" in php and wanted to know what it did or how it can be used, I went to php.net/echo Easy to find.

 

thanks,but what do you think python vs html i know it isnt exacly the best comparison since html goes along php and css,mysql and alike,but the problem is...uhm...well i like python more then html and i bought a few books about it

Programming in Python 3 A Complete Introduction to the Python Language
Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner
The Pragmatic Programmer From Journeyman to Master 

Code (markup):

and uhm...i dont want to throw away the money...
so should i really head of with html first ?

 

HTML is the core language that the browser interprets to display a web page. Python would be a good language to make complex features for a website, but without HTML, there is NO web page to be displayed.

 

yea i thought you would say that...
DAMN,ah well
so its the classical
html->css->javascript->php->sql->python (if i am still interested)
ah well...
can anyone reccomend a good site/book to learn html
i think i will start with w3