which language to learn?

[moosey]

I wanted to learn a language that would be useful for the web and things like that. Since I am new to this, I would like to start out with something less difficult (if possible) and move on to something harder. I was considering html and saw a book for html4. what is the difference with html and html4? are these good to learn or would xml or java be better to start with? Any books you'd recommend? any advice would help. thanks

 

[Moonbender]

Heh. Well if you want to do anything related to the web you must learn HTML first. HTML 4 is just the latest revision of the language, get a recent book/guide, they should all include documentation on HTML 4.
Decide on whether Java or XML are relevant for you when you're "fluent" in HTML.

 

[audiophan]

As Moonbender stated, you must learn HTML. The web IS html, everything else just makes it visually appealing. After that you can incorporate XML, java, cgi, css and the list goes on.

 

[Damascus]

Like everyone said, start with HTML. Then work your way up
to the Java's, PHP's, and maybe ASP..

 

[Hullboy]

Yeah, start with HTML4, but do not buy Mastering HTML 4 by Sybex. You may be a beginner, but you will outgrow this thing within 2-3 weeks, unless you are really dumb. Don't know which other books you can get, but I'm telling you, steer clear of this.

Also, don't get FrontPage. Just learn how to enter the mark-up into notepad or some other text editor then you will know how to construct pages and won't get confused by FrontPage's seemingly endless diatribe..........

I'm sure Wrox will do some books on this. So far I've been very happy with them

 

[MrWhiteUK]

With HTML I'd suggest taking a look at the many free guides on the net (try the html section over at about.com) learning html is so simple its not even worth spending money on a book.

Also download CoffeCup html editor, its great to work with, syntax colour highlighting and has lots of 'insertable' html code.

Cheers
Dom.

 

[Damascus]

Yes, like everyone said, don't use Notepad if you can help it.
Get something like EditPlus to do your editing (to preserve your
sanity). Notepad is a last resort only.

 

[SinNisTeR]

HTML, JSP, CGI/PERL/PHP, MYSQL> some of the good ones..

 

[Zach]

Don't bother with java, learn javascript. And PHP if you really want to get into it, you can go to databases with some SQL varient from there (like MySQL or PostgreSQL).

CSS is okay, but there aint much to learn that's truely useful I think, and they are buggy when you compare to how IE and Netscape (and Mozilla) use them.

That's the trickey part, learning to make your sites cross-compatable. People still use 640x480 (or less, what are old Mac's?). People still have 33.6K connections, and some only have 256 colors. You get to weigh what you think your target audiance will be capable of and how many people you're willing to cut out. Learning HTML is nothing compared to that.

 

[Rahminator]

Screw writing HTML in notepad yourself. You must learn learn whole HTML first which takes a few days (maybe a few weeks if you have a life and do something else besides learning and writing HTML 24/7) It's error prone, it takes a lot of time to finish and even more to "debug" so your site looks good in most browsers. You can create visually stunning websites in Macromedia Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage with the fraction of the the time you would have to spend if you did it in Notepad. Of course, learn at least some HTML so you can edit/make small changes to the code generated by either of these WYSIWYG editors.

 

[BeauJangles]

I second what Rahminator said, there is no point in learning all HTML. Dreamweaver will create anything you need and does it pretty well.

 

[Zach]

<< I second what Rahminator said, there is no point in learning all HTML. Dreamweaver will create anything you need and does it pretty well. >>



First off it takes a couple years to leanr HTML, not because it's hard but because all the browsers suck. THat leads to why you have to know it to be a web designer: To work around sucky browsers. Netscape, IE, they both have problems. Make a cute page in Dreamweaver and almost always something goes wrong. And why be tied to a WYSIWYG editor? I can update most of my pages via telnet using vi. Not to mention Perl and PHP, if you want to have your scripts print HTML and you aren't any good with it you'll be doing way more cutting/pasting in and out od Dreamweaver (or whatever).

Also, Notepad really really sucks. UltraEdit has syntax highlighting, file type conversion, lots of stuff. THere's others along the same lines too, look around.

 

[Zach]

<< With HTML I'd suggest taking a look at the many free guides on the net (try the html section over at about.com) learning html is so simple its not even worth spending money on a book.

Also download CoffeCup html editor, its great to work with, syntax colour highlighting and has lots of 'insertable' html code.

Cheers
Dom. >>



I used to keep a printedd copy of this in my desk, I've never purchased an HTML book. Tons of Perl books though, a Javascript book, a few Java books..

 

[richleader]

All I can say, is don't learn French. Bloody waste of time, believe you me.