Comments
7 CommentsSo I've got a grasp of (x)html and css. So what's the next thing out there for me to learn in the web development arena? Personally, I was initially going to grab some books on PHP and MySQL. But then a book about Javascript caught my eye. Then I noticed Ruby... I even glanced for a second at C++ (not really web related... but)
So before I go buying up books, I wanted to get the 9rules' community opinion. So what's next in line after (x)html and CSS?
frotzed
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'd go for php and mysql. I have a cursory knowledge of both, but am an expert in neither. I find myself often thinking to myself, "man, I wish I knew php better and mysql better." I've never said, "I wish I knew Ruby." There have been times when I wished I knew Javascript better, but it's less frequent than php and mysql. Just my two cents.
peroty
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'll echo what frotzed said.
PHP / MySQL or find a business partner that knows them like I did.
You can always give ruby on rails a whirl if you want to explore that realm.
JulianBH
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'd say get more of a grasp on XHTML and CSS.
jchristopher
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'll go along with both previous posts. You can't really go wrong with focusing your efforts on the combination of PHP & MySQL. That doesn't mean that after you've taken some time with something, you can't explore other areas out of curiosity. There is choice when it comes to programming languages because they're suited for different people and different tasks.
Mike
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
PHP/MySQL are definitely tools you should have in your toolbox if you want to actually "build" anything as opposed to handing stuff off to other people.
Oli
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'm going to echo JulianBH. I'd leave the sever-side stuff alone until you're more than just acquainted with webdesign.
I think Mike's quite wrong in saying you can't build anything without a server side language. Sure you can make web apps with them but I think it's more important to find your focus...
Ultimately, everybody falls under one of two labels: designer or developer. One can do the other's job but most people find it easy to tell what they enjoy doing the most.
Therefore, I think it's important that you give one a thorough go before you consider moving on. PHP (et al) rely on your presentation skills so much that I think you need to know what you're doing there before you take it up.
So what does that mean to do? Making mock-ups really.If you can make sexy mocks, you can make sexy templates. If you can make the templates, you can use them in PHP. If you can use them in PHP, you'll have an absolutely awesome time developing things.
posure
Written Apr. 30, 2007 / Report /
I started with PHP+MySQL after I was making crappy Geocities webpages for a few years. If you try PHP out, make sure to always keep a tab open to php.net - great documentation.
@Oli
I'd say that there's a third label being front-end developers, but thats a smaller group.