HTML and Scripting What is needed to..?

Discussion in 'Computers' started by Zanza, Sep 15, 2004.

  1. Zanza

    Zanza .Net-ing & PHP-ing~*
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    What is needed to be a good site coder?? I mean good as in great coder. A coder who will be payed for doing other's site??

    Does it need to know HTML, CSS & PHP?? Does it need to know how to use graphics like in Photoshop and Flash?? Or graphics aren't that important?

    Is there anyone who have coded a site for someone else and got payed for it?

    I am just curious because since I am an IT student I plan on making my site-coding knowledge more and more since I believe I will use it someday.

    I already know of little HTML, little but makes me go on. I believe that I need to learn PHP more than CSS, but I am one who doesn't jump to a hard level before going through other levels to reach the level I want (hard).

    This might look like a waste of time and effort, but not to me. I love programming, infact there are couple who I look up to in this area, heck when I failed in my 2nd programming course I never gave up because of thoes two :)

    Sorry for making this long ^^;
     
    #1
    Zanza, Sep 15, 2004
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  2. BakaMattSu

    BakaMattSu ^__^
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    Well, here's what'll be useful for "it"

    Speaking as a developer for the web, I'll try and offer the advice I can. But, really, things can vary based on your area and clients...

    1) HTML and CSS should be second nature to you. If I gave you a screenshot of a page, you should be able to immediately recreate a quick layout from scratch in notepad. It's okay to look up the odd tag, but you ought to be able to crank out this stuff easily, as it's not really "coding".

    2) Good handle on server-side scripting. ASP.NET (and the older ASP) are big in areas where Microsoft systems are in place, PHP is the big one for UNIX/LINUX installations. Get good at building the more dynamic solutions, as this is where the real power and development is at.

    3) Good handle on client-side scripting. Javascript is a dominant force on the web, and still necessary to do all kinds of interactivity after the page has been served to a user. Get used to learning ways to pass data between client and server scripting as well. And learn how to code a good, several levels deep dynamic dropdown menu - those are such a pain. :p

    4) Good handle working with data. SQL, Oracle, XML/XSLT. It's very useful to learn how to store, retrieve, and manipulate data. And hand in hand with server side script, it's very very powerful juice.

    5) Practice makes perfect. The more you code, the more you learn. Play around and experiment making your own sites in many ways. Push yourself to the limit to create new functionality you haven't before.


    Bottom line is to cover all your bases, and diversify your skill set. Some shops run completely M$ with IIS, SQL and .NET, others go with apache, MySQL and PHP. Learn what you can, and enjoy yourself while you're at it. Not many pay for simple static HTML pages nowadays, so the big bucks are in the dynamic server-run monsters that run the web today.

    Don't worry about design or graphics as a developer. That isn't your realm, and more than likely you'd be given such resources from another firm or department. Your job is not to make the content, but to make it work.
     
    #2
    BakaMattSu, Sep 16, 2004
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  3. Slydice

    Slydice ave, Lex, morituri te salutamus

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    yep, i think Baka hit the nail on the head.

    HTML and CSS should be just "what you use to draw the website" essentially. Good practice would be to learn XHTML and use it and CSS2 for your websites.
     
    #3
    Slydice, Sep 16, 2004
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  4. luvweaver

    luvweaver Ad Jesum per Mariam

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    I think it's more than that...

    Don't look at "html and CSS" as separate entities.

    Think of them as two aspects of the same webpage.

    The key here is.... DOM.

    Morpheus: "Open your mind Neo. You know the question, don't you?"
    Neo: "What is the DOM".
    Morpheus: "Few people know the DOM. People can't be told what the DOM is. They have to see it for themselves."

    OK, enough babbling :p

    The DOM specifications in the w3c site are an incredible resource.

    Every document can be seen as a tree, with HTML as the topmost element. HTML has two childs: Head, and body. Head has more childs, such as title and meta "tags", and so on.

    If you can dominate this concept, you can do wonders in javascript, like adding or replacing content dynamically (like my latest experiment: hyper stories! http://members.fortunecity.com/luvweaver/smj/fic6/projectl69.html ) Because you're NOT manipulating a tag soup. You're just playing with the DOM tree, moving and copying nodes here and there. (Hmmm maybe this analogy will work. Think of the DOM as a "christmas tree" :p where the branches and leafs are the text, and the spheres are the CSS styles.

    Oracle: "Think DOM, Neo. Think DOM, and you will succeed :) "
     
    #4
    luvweaver, Sep 20, 2004
  5. child of sin

    child of sin ★★★★☆

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    i heared u say "i love programing", so gurl if ur heading for the title GPZ "great programer zanza" ;P just dont aim for web/database languges! O_O build ur structures on OOP based langs! as a first step dear, and as i advise you i say C++ will be ur best friend ;D..this is what a programer should work on..
    matt guided you well to be a web developer as you asked, but i felt like posting my opinion..please dont drop my karma web dudez ;___;

    btw..u remind when i finish to scroll my CS degree, put it in a chest..and throw i at the oceans of the forgotens!!! ;P
     
    #6
    child of sin, Jul 30, 2005
  6. child of sin

    child of sin ★★★★☆

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    i didnt! i advised the C cuz she wanted to be a programer, i didnt say that for the Web development thing ;3
     
    #8
    child of sin, Aug 5, 2005
  7. Zanza

    Zanza .Net-ing & PHP-ing~*
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    When I said I love programming, I didn't mean just C or C++ or whatever. I think this is wrong, but I ment learning various languages, both computer stuff and web stuff :p

    like html, php, VB, SQL, etc.. ^^;
     
    #9
    Zanza, Aug 5, 2005
  8. Slydice

    Slydice ave, Lex, morituri te salutamus

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    You can use C or C++ :rolleyes:

    Google it

    Use CGI as a keyword
     
    #10
    Slydice, Aug 8, 2005
  9. Jedimdo

    Jedimdo New Member

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    Sugoi. What about learning both at the same time?: Java. It'd be a nice a addition to your language collection. Or you want something more new? C#, since it's available for any OS it's recommended too.
     
    #11
    Jedimdo, Aug 8, 2005

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