I have been interested in web design for awhile, it started when i was making descriptions for my ebay business. I got kind of busy for awhile and have recently started trying to learn it again. I knew little about actual coding before and just used frontpage's buttons to do everything until it looked good. (nesting tables over and over ) anyway.. i've been taking the tutorials on w3schools.com and have learned alot. I've taken the HTML, and XHTML tutorials and feel i have it down pretty well. I practice it with notepad and checking it in my browser (i like this better than using a program like frontpage because i think i learn the code better). Now i've started CSS and i think i'll have that down soon also. So my question is what order should i learn the different languages? I'm very interested in javascript, php, and SQL. Also should i learn anything else first? I've been working at this for about 3 weeks now and just found this site so i thought i'd ask. **NOTE** I'm not worried about the complexity of the code's syntax, i read a few threads about PHP vs ASP and ASP.net.. im fine with the brackets and the dots haha
Definitely don't use frontpage anymore. If you need a decent IDE use Dreamweaver. There are also some other good editors to help with syntax and code highlighting so check those on download.com After xhtml and css, javascript is very important. Those 3 are the core basics. Also learn ajax as it is very common on the net now. Takes less than 30min to learn and practice. Try then use libraries like jquery so that you can help code js and ajax stuff faster. You can then also tweak stuff here and there to improve your js. Then move on to server side lang. PHP/mysql is the way to go and is the most common these days. Those take awhile to learn and master as there is a ton to learn about it. Learn mysql first (especially how to normalize data) and then learn php. Then learn how to use it together. This will take you a couple months to be really good, so enjoy it
yea, sorry i actually had another question too, i use Microsoft Expression Web as my editor now when i do use one, but since i've been learning i only use it to quickly reference attributes and values. My question is has anyone ever used it? a friend got me a copy and i had never heard of it, and still haven't seen it referenced anywhere while researching web design. It is far beyond frontpage, but i feel its way behind dreamweaver (i haven't actually gotten to use dreamweaver for more than 30 seconds though which is why i ask) If anyone can recommend any other tutorial sites for coding also i would appreciate it, sometimes i cross reference because i don't fully grasp a certain code sequence.
I would recommend learning PHP and MySQL next. They are going to be able to provide you session control and data management. You will be able to program login scripts and many powerful things. Then I would learn JavaScript, JQuery and AJAX in that order. JQuery allows you to take JavaScript to the next level and do things client-side or instantaneous on a browser without refresh. Power this with AJAX and you can do calls to the database without refreshing the page , therefore doing checks on username availability, etc. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
Start with php, it is very powerful. You would also like to learn SQL so that you can use a MySQL database with your php site for data storage and manipulation.