Can I learn HTML5 etc just on local PC?

[ruby34]

Hello

I want to learn HTML5 , Javascript etc.. web programming.. just so I can get familiar with it.. but don't feel the need to broadcast it to the world ie webspace/web host.. TBH I don't have anything interesting to say.

I have created a few web pages on local machine and using Notepad and Internet Explorer.. so if I wanted to do more of it and just to LEARN things like HTML5 Javascript and CSS.. could I do it on local PC using Notepad (or any text editor) and browsers like Firefox etc?

I understand some web programming is SERVER SIDE.. in other words the web page has to be on a web server (ignore local server on PC which sounds a pain to do.. is it?).. I'm not talking about that PHP etc.. I understand that has to be on some web host space you buy.

I'm on about stuff you CAN do on your own hard disk/PC like a HTML5 page and use within it Javascript and CSS etc.. if I do that to learn , can anyone see any problems with that?

I could buy web space and the monthly cost is small.. but I don't mind not knowing PHP.. and TBH I don't have any desire to publish a website (yet).

Thanks in advance.

 

[purbeast0]

yes you can do it on your local pc no problem. just run a local instance of apache tomcat and deploy the files into where the server is running locally, and you go to http://localhost:8080 and you will see the webpage there. you will be running a local web server but it won't broadcast anywhere.

http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/appdev/

 

[raf051888]

Yes you can. I would enable IIS [if on Windows] or install something like XAMPP.

 

[unokitty]

Hello

I want to learn HTML5 , Javascript etc.. web programming.. just so I can get familiar with it.. but don't feel the need to broadcast it to the world ie webspace/web host.. TBH I don't have anything interesting to say.

I have created a few web pages on local machine and using Notepad and Internet Explorer.. so if I wanted to do more of it and just to LEARN things like HTML5 Javascript and CSS.. could I do it on local PC using Notepad (or any text editor) and browsers like Firefox etc?

I understand some web programming is SERVER SIDE.. in other words the web page has to be on a web server (ignore local server on PC which sounds a pain to do.. is it?).. I'm not talking about that PHP etc.. I understand that has to be on some web host space you buy.

I'm on about stuff you CAN do on your own hard disk/PC like a HTML5 page and use within it Javascript and CSS etc.. if I do that to learn , can anyone see any problems with that?

I could buy web space and the monthly cost is small.. but I don't mind not knowing PHP.. and TBH I don't have any desire to publish a website (yet).

Thanks in advance.

For any of the client side technologies, HTML5, CSS, and javascript, you are good to go. No need for a server.

Though, I would recommend that you check out a better editor. For example, something like the free Notepad++ .

If you have the time Codecademy seems to have a lot of mindshare now. (Free but requires that you register with an email address.) If you're just starting out, they have an excellent HTML/CSS course. And once you finish that, you can move on to their JavaScript course.

If you want to explore server side technologies, PHP, mySQL, and so forth, you will need access to a server. Lots of hosting sites available for three or four dollars a month. Though, you could also install a vm on your pc and make a virtual server there... Then again, you could just take the Codecademy PHP course as well...

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[purbeast0]

If you want to explore server side technologies, PHP, mySQL, and so forth, you will need access to a server. Lots of hosting sites available for three or four dollars a month. Though, you could also install a vm on your pc and make a virtual server there... Then again, you could just take the Codecademy PHP course as well...

Best of luck,
Uno

you don't need a 3rd party server or host at all for that, you can run all of that on your local machine with a web server running.

 

[ruby34]

Thanks for the responses.

@unokitty

Yes I guess I could just use local PC/Windows 7 and do the client side stuff like HTML5 Javascript CSS.. I did set up a local web server a LONG time ago.. but if I did use something like Apache or whatever I would have to read up and it may be difficult.

The thing is yea I could sign up to cheap web hosting plan and yes they are a few quid something like £3/month and you can do anything.. I just have made mistakes in the past where I've purchased things and it's not been needed.

I bought ALOT of computers books (physical) and afterwards I found out I could have got that information for free :biggrin:

I don't have a desire to want the world to see content that I create and TBH I don't have anything interesting to say.. making a website is easy.. a CHILD could do it.. but making something unique , original , interesting and helpful is a different thing.

The other question is what's your opinion on FREE web hosts.. there are some out there and they don't have adverts etc.. are they scams or are there some safe sites I can use.. I dont mind having a long URL to use or anything like that.. it just means I can mess about with PHP etc.. does anyone have any information about this?

Cheers.

 

[purbeast0]

once again, there is absolutely NO reason that you need to pay a hosting company to use a web server. do you realize what is actually happening when you pay a web hosting company? all you are doing is paying to use their server. you can run a server instance locally on your own machine.

paying a monthly fee because you don't want to learn how to setup your own apache or mysql server is pretty dumb imo. if you are too lazy to learn how to do that stuff (which is a piece of cake - apache is LITERALLY downloading a zip, unzipping, and running a command from the command prompt), then chances are you won't get very far with programming.

front end, backend, and middle layers can all be developed on your own local machine without anyone else being able to see it.

2 seconds with google lead me to this which is a webserver with php and mysql bundled.

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

 

[Markbnj]

OP asked about "HTML5 etc." so I guess that leaves a question mark at the end. For the client side stuff you definitely don't need to mess with a server at all. Firefox Developer Tools or Google's Developer tools and a decent text editor and Internet connection are more than sufficient. There are also plenty of services that you can query if you need something to respond to ajax calls you are experimenting with. Google has ten or twenty different APIs you can make calls to.

When you do get to the point where you want to experiment on the server side there are plenty of no-cost options there. Probably the easiest is just to create an Amazon web services account and spin up a free-tier instance. You can be up and running in a few minutes. And then as purbeast0 says you can always run locally, either by installing directly to your development system, or in a VM or docker container. On the MS side their development environment includes a local development web server.

 

[ruby34]

@purbeast0 don't you think referring to people as "lazy" and "dumb" is a bit insulting and unhelpful???

I do find it difficult understanding the setup of Apache.. so what?! Does that give you the right to be rude?!

The other thing to accuse someone that you no nothing about.. of being "lazy" makes you IGNORANT.

I do spend alot of time reading stuff on sites related to computers etc.. people may not be as clever as you but that doesn't give you the right to insult them.. it is that sort of thing which puts people off from asking for help!!

I have looked at setting up Apache etc and I did find it confusing.. if you're not going to help then don't waste your own and other people's time in posting.

 

[ruby34]

@Markbnj thanks for the CONSTRUCTIVE response.

I WILL do the client side stuff you talked about.. and am google searching "amazon web services" as I type this.. thanks for the tip!!

I may not be able to do something but I will start off with what I can do.. and I have created HTML pages in the past.. it's not that difficult.. but want to get into it more.

 

[purbeast0]

if you don't think i've posted some helpful info in this thread, then you are purposefully not reading what i've responded with, and instead just read the responses that are trying to coddle you to tell you what you basically want to hear.

and i'm not insulting anyone. i am simply saying if someone thinks it is too much work to learn how to do something as simple as setting up an apache server, then learning how to code is going to be about 1000x more difficult. and chances are if they don't want to learn how to do the first one, they won't spend more time to learn how to do something much more complex.

 

[Leros]

You don't even need to run a local server. You can view HTML/JS/CSS files on the local filesystem directly in the browser. Just use relative links when referencing JS and CSS in your HTML file.

 

[Cerb]

WAMPServer is a canned non-service WAMP setup, ready to go, for Windows.

But, look into learning a bit of Linux, and setting up Virtualbox VMs (always use bridged networking), to run other web servers and apps. Javascript and Erlang frameworks (BTW, Nitrogen is awesome) tend to be packaged as nearly or completely ready to go servers, so you can extract them to your home folder, run them, then just remember to use whatever high port they use by default. In Windows, such things often get tricky. Ruby and Python libraries will also often not work in Windows due to not being properly built for it (or not able to build at all), or due to esoteric (on Windows, anyway) dependencies.

 

[ruby34]

if you don't think i've posted some helpful info in this thread, then you are purposefully not reading what i've responded with, and instead just read the responses that are trying to coddle you to tell you what you basically want to hear.

and i'm not insulting anyone. i am simply saying if someone thinks it is too much work to learn how to do something as simple as setting up an apache server, then learning how to code is going to be about 1000x more difficult. and chances are if they don't want to learn how to do the first one, they won't spend more time to learn how to do something much more complex.

Why couldn't you say it like that to start off with.. no need to use words like "dumb" or "lazy".. I have no problem with the above.

If you think saying soemone is "dumb" is not rude.. then you need spend time learning some manners.. not programming.

I find setting up/configuring things to be the difficult bit.. not learning to code.. I guess for some reason you couldn't understand that some people were like that?

I will give you an example.. a few years ago I tried a bit of Java and the part that confused me was what to download/install and how to configure the PATH variable or something like that.. how to save as a java file and not the .txt extension etc.. lucky I had SAMS Teach Yourself Java In 21 Days that did a good job of explaining things like that.

I was like wow it's not difficult when someone explains it.. and I was creating and running programs.

I found the coding side.. the stuff about the classes and object , functions and variables etc to be NOT difficult.

I find when you help someone setup the basics.. whether it some JDK or IDE or how to create and run a program using Notepad.. to me THAT is the difficult bit.. the programming language I find is the LEAST difficult bit.

I could say the same about web pages.. I remember a woman who explained to me how a web page works and how to upload files and what FTP was etc.. the stuff about tags and page structure was baby stuff.

If you want to help then explain how things are setup , the basics.. just saying "you're stupid" just upsets the person and discourages them!!

 

[BrightCandle]

The way development works in the professional space is that first you make it work locally on your machine. Then once that is working you push it into a shared repository and the team can all run it on their local machines. Then we run that on a test server only the team can see and once its been tested it gets released to the customers.

Its a critical skill to understand how to run your application locally, and its the right approach. Isolation is important it allows you to experiment without impacting the release system. Its not difficult to install nginx or tomcat or any of the other servers out there, and to make quick progress its much better to have it locally, then for each change you don't need to upload. Its faster, easier and better if its local.

 

[ruby34]

@cerb @leros

Thanks for the help.. yes I can do HTML5/Javascript/CSS on local PC just in a folder and yup use relative links (remember that being explained in a SAMS book).

I have checked a few servers.. WampServer and XAMPP.. they both look good and it seems they put everything in a bundle/package for you.. I MAY try it.. just have to "start" the server and then goto localhost in a broswer to test it.

I'm just worried and nervous if I do get stuck and need help and I post.. then I'll get purbeast0 saying:

"Oh people who need help setting up a simple server are dumb.. they should just quit"

lol cause that is very helpful isn't it?

 

[ruby34]

@BrightCandle

I can understand why professionals would do that and I would expect them too.. it's their job and people depend on it.. and they are very clever people.. they understand what they are doing it.. I'm just a kid who wants to learn for fun etc

The other thing is I think a person would be better off in a forum which was specific to web development.. for example codingforums.com has an "apache configuration" section which itself has 1488 threads.. the "PHP" section has 52 084 threads and 279 677 posts!!!

I think I need to start doing stuff.. and ask less questions.

 

[BrightCandle]

You really are selective in what you read. Welcome to my ignore list, we'll not speak again.

 

[ruby34]

You really are selective in what you read. Welcome to my ignore list, we'll not speak again.

I have reciprocated

 

[purbeast0]

Why couldn't you say it like that to start off with.. no need to use words like "dumb" or "lazy".. I have no problem with the above.

i did start off with that - read my first 2 posts where i even gave you links to get started. you asked about server side stuff, and i gave you 2 examples of how you could start learning it. the fact that you are looking into amazon webservices or getting a 3rd party hosting package before learning how to set up your own server is just the completely wrong way of learning imo.

anyways, good luck with whatever you do.

 

[ruby34]

I'm sorry if I was over reacting.

I have looked at WampServer and XAMPP.. out of those which is the best for me?

I will give it a go and install , it shouldn't do any harm.

The thing about those distributions is that they contain everything in a bundle PHP MySQL etc so it makes things easier for me.

It may seem odd but I find the language side of things not that difficult.. with me it's installing/configuring things.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've used XAMPP and it's easy to set up and run. I haven't tried WampServer.

Just download XAMPP and try it. The worst that could happen is that you'll waste a little time.

One tip: some programs like Skype and VMWare Workstation take over port 80 on your PC, which would keep the XAMPP Apache server from working. If you have this problem the fix is to go into Skype, etc. and turn off the setting for them to "listen" or use port 80.

 

[alkemyst]

you don't need a 3rd party server or host at all for that, you can run all of that on your local machine with a web server running.

QFT and everything is local so no FTP is needed.

 

[ruby34]

@Dave @alkemyst

I think I will try XAMPP , they seem to have an active forum too.. so that will help.. there is good FAQ.

https://www.apachefriends.org/faq_windows.html

I think I need to DO stuff and stop asking on forums about things lol

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Another Tip: if you want to give your server a real name like www.testyplace.com you can do that by going to the HOSTS file in Windows System and mapping 127.0.0.1 and localhost to that name. Google "Windows HOSTS file" for details.