Where should i start?

G

Guest

Guest
Hi guys,
I never done programing before... Complete novice :cry: ... But i like to try it and would like some help from the Tom's Hardware community. Read so much about HTML5, WebGL, Flash and others.

So where should i start to learn on how to build a web page? I am interested in designing an e-commerce web page.
 

cl-scott

Honorable
Jul 5, 2012
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10,660
If you're looking to get into web programming, then HTML is probably the best place to start. Strictly speaking, it's not programming, but HTML will be the foundation on which everything else will be built. If you don't know how to write basic HTML, it won't do you a lot of good to learn the rest.

After you learn HTML and CSS, which will probably only take 1-2 weeks to really get a good grip on, then you just want to get something like O'Reilly's pocket reference books. Next I'd suggest starting with JavaScript. Which is NOT the same as Java, despite the similar names. You don't need to download anything beyond a web browser for JavaScript.

WebGL would be for games or anything that might require 3D graphics so you can pretty much forget about that, and Adobe is looking to phase out Flash for HTML5, so while there might be a pretty good sized market now, 10 years from now you will probably (and hopefully IMO) have a hard time finding Flash being used anywhere. You can learn it if you like, but I'd make it a secondary task to be undertaken after you've gotten a pretty good grip on the rest.

Somewhere along the way I would also suggest looking at the likes of PHP and frameworks for creating websites such as Cake, Django, and Ruby on Rails.

The single most important thing, however, for any programmer... Do not fall into the trap of learning a particular language, you want to learn the "how" of programming. A good programmer can pick up any language in a couple of weeks because they understand concepts such as iteration, so it's just a matter of how different languages handle the particulars of iteration.
 

PhilFrisbie

Distinguished
I will second the recommendation to learn HTML and CSS, or even better, XHTML Strict to get you accustomed to using strict syntax, then JavaScript. At the very least, you can then create interactive web pages. Next up, PHP is a great C-like language which will broaden your experience.