What Coding Language Should I Learn? 2

[adubs]

Hey, I have learned (X)HTML, CSS, and now I am beginning to wonder now what? I want to know if it is really worth my time to learn Javascript, or if I should simply move on to more powerful languages? Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks,
Anders

 

[Vragabond]

I think it depends where you want to go with this knowledge. If it will go into designing modern (dare I say web 2.0) web applications, then Javascript would be a very useful language to know.

If you are looking more into building websites that rely heavily on server-side processing, then one of the server-side languages would probably serve you better.

I don't however know what you mean by powerful languages.

___________________________________________________________
[small]Do something about world cancer today: Comprehensive cancer control information at PACT[/small]

 

[adubs]

Thanks, well do you mean the mobile web browser 2.0? and i guess that is probably what I am interested in. Just for kicks could you give me some examples of how Javascript is useful? Also do you think I should learn Java? I am not exactly clear on what it's purpose is so if you could fill me in that would be great! Just so you know, I am looking first to make a community game web site, so I need knowledge of some kind of code to allow people to join and login.

 

[1DMF]

Just for kicks could you give me some examples of how Javascript is useful?

Javascript is useful because it has become the standard method of 'client side' scripting, which 99.99% of modern browsers support in one way or another.

This makes it platform independent also, though some browsers implement JS differently so you need to learn the 'cross-browser' compatible way of writing JS unless you have a captive audience locked into one browsers, but i'd recomment just learning how to make JS work in any browser.

JS also enables AJAX to give a rich user experience without constant page refreshes.

if you only work with MS and you are locked into MS .NET etc. then you could learn VBScript, but i think that locks you into IE as a browser, not 100% on that one, so i'd check that to be sure.

hope that gives you a reason to learn JS ;-)



"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!

 

[ChrisHunt]

I would suggest picking up a basic knowledge of Javascript. There's a lot of stuff out there that's already written for you - development frameworks and the like - so all you really need to know is how to slot components together. It won't hurt to dig deeper, of course.

What you really need to learn, though, is some kind of server-side language. I would suggest php as there's a lot of open source stuff out there to get you started. You might also want to look into using a CMS like Drupal or Joomla to do all the heavy lifting.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[dkdude]

Hi Anders

I absolutely agree with Chris that you should pick up some basic knowledge on Javascripting.

You can Google for a tutorial that match your own learning style - I found these two:

[ul]
[li][URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_intro.asp[/url] - they have excellent JS, HTML, CSS etc. references as well[/li]
[li][URL unfurl="true"]http://javascript.about.com/od/learnjavascript/a/tut00.htm[/url][/li]
[/ul]

When you get stuck, you can use tek-tips' javascript forum:
[ul][li]found here[/li][/ul]

A nice "CSS Properties To JavaScript Reference Conversion" table I use:
[ul][li]found here[/li][/ul]

You may want to learn serverside scripting as well. As Chris, I too prefer PHP. W3schools has a tutorial to get you started (again, Google for a tutorial that match you learning style):

[ul][li][URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp[/url][/li][/ul]

To test your work you can run a webserver on your local machine. There are many packages to choose from. I like this one:

[ul][li]XAMPP[/li][/ul]

Goog luck learning


Jakob

 

[dkdude]

One more advice, Anders. When working with javascript I recommend to use the FireFox browser because it is much better for troubleshooting compared to IE.

If you like FireFox, you should get the FireBug extension too - very nice web development tool.

Links:

[ul]
[li]FireFox[/li]
[li]FireBug[/li]
[/ul]


Jakob