View Full Version : How to start???
GotNoClue
03-10-2003, 20:31
Hi newbie here. I do not have programming knowledge. So can any point me as to how I should/where to start. Learning on my own or is there a course that I can start with. The final aim is to be somewhere like a webmaster arena :D
You should ask yourself first what you want to learn. Which area do you want to excel in in the future that can be of help to you in your career? Web designing or web programming? Or do you just want to do the administrative part or maybe even everything? There are definitely many courses for you to start with. If you know next to nothing for any web related stuff, you should start with the basics :D
GotNoClue
03-10-2003, 20:51
Originally posted by userguy
You should ask yourself first what you want to learn. Which area do you want to excel in in the future that can be of help to you in your career? Web designing or web programming? Or do you just want to do the administrative part or maybe even everything? There are definitely many courses for you to start with. If you know next to nothing for any web related stuff, you should start with the basics :D
sorry...web programming will be the choice for me. Ok, so what basic course should i be signing up for....:(
Are there any courses being offered at your nearest community center/club? Sometimes, they offer some basic web designing courses for the residents living in the area. So, it will be easier for you right? Anyway, if there aren't any, you can check out the Informatics website at: www.informaticsgroup.com and check under Courses. Also, you can do a search on this forum - I think there are some courses being offered atm but I'm not sure if the courses offered are simple enough for you?
pingcrisis
03-10-2003, 21:38
Learn c++, it offers the base for other programming languages.
If you don't anything about web applications, start with the basic stuffs (client-side) first: HTML, follow by JavaScript, then go into more advanced stuffs (server-side) like PHP, Perl, ASP, etc, with database..
pingcrisis
03-10-2003, 22:22
Oh, web programming, ignore my post please.
Yup. I agree with what alien has said. You must make sure that you have a strong foundation in HTML coding before proceeding on to the more complicated languages such as PHP or Perl. Don't rush through. Make sure you understand everything before advancing to more difficult ones. As the saying goes: Rome was not built in one day - you must have the patience and passion to learn :)
Hi GotNoClue,
Good news; you can learn everything without paying a cent! There's lots of free resources out there on the internet, like tutorials, web-space, etc. You'll just have to find them thru Google. Some sites with great information are: about.com, w3schools.com, sitepoint.com ...
A good way to start on your path to webprogramming guru-ness would be to build your own website and then move on to developing web-based applications if you are interested in that too. Identify something to build, and start working on it. If you have no clue how to start, search for 'HTML primer' or 'HTML tutorial' on Google which would list some of the best and easy guides to HTML. Then follow these guides to build a simple webpage.
Once you have achieved this HTML part, you can carry on to learn more advanced web-programming like PHP, javascript, also by looking at 'beginners' tutorials' on the web. One excellent guide to MYSQL and PHP I can think of off hand is this: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/525 . I've recommended this to quite a few friends and they learned it fast.
If you cannot follow one tutorial, move on to find another one that's easier to understand. There's tons of articles and tutorials. Another good place to feed are programming forums like forums.devshed.com or phpbuilder.com/forum . These online communities allow you to post questions and people will rush to answer. Just don't be afraid to ask.
That's about how I started more than 7 years ago although the resources weren't so readily available then. It's much much more convenient now with Google spidering everything.
Good luck!
Yeah...true. But I prefer to learn them from someone who is proficient in that face to face. I only use those articles and tutorials on the web as references for learning - for eg, when I forget something, I could check it out on the sites without asking the instructors :D Anyway, I also started off thru' those tutorial sites when I was younger but gradually proceeded to taking on courses :D
definitely, u need to know HTML like u know how to eat....
then, go on to php and sql as they are very widely used
Hostings
05-10-2003, 10:30
Basically i would suggest you to look for other opportunities. Why do i say that? Well, you can go on and learn. But make sure you're the best. Why i say that again? That's because web designers and web masters are everywhere! Nowadays, students are very lucky, in school, they get free web designing lessons.
Basically they'll have that foundation and basics, from there, anyone who work hard and look for easily available resources can be a good designer already.
Therefore, if you would like to be one, make sure you're really that good, if not, i would suggest you to venture on others.
EDIT: http://meds.queensu.ca/~meds2006/council.html
Look at this, click on it and scroll down. Look how wonderful their webmaster is.
Originally posted by Hostings
Nowadays, students are very lucky, in school, they get free web designing lessons.
Really? I don't seem to be getting those...maybe very basic softwares like Word, Excel, Publisher and just a bit of Frontpage. No complex languages taught though - PHP, Perl, etc...lol :D
Hostings
05-10-2003, 10:48
Not really. Dreamweaver, Flash, Director, Fireworks? They are all taught free.
If you do request, at least in my school, i get free ASP lessons. Also, PHP and Perl resources can easily be achieved in the internet.
And by the way, web designing is not coding. ASP/PERL/PHP and such are into coding already.
my school does teach us flash, photoshop and dreamweaver but very basic......
i mainly learn online thru sites and read books
Originally posted by Hostings
Not really. Dreamweaver, Flash, Director, Fireworks? They are all taught free.
If you do request, at least in my school, i get free ASP lessons. Also, PHP and Perl resources can easily be achieved in the internet.
And by the way, web designing is not coding. ASP/PERL/PHP and such are into coding already.
Originally posted by ToOnZ
my school does teach us flash, photoshop and dreamweaver but very basic......
i mainly learn online thru sites and read books
Are both of you in the IT club? :D Cos' we don't get such lessons in our school. Maybe the school web admin is too busy to conduct any lessons. Most of the basic courses conducted are by outsiders hired by the school and well, they basically don't teach much. 5-10 mins of teaching and the rest of the time is ours :D Anyway, thanks for pointing out that I mixed up web designing with coding, guess I overlooked that. Anyway, the general term for both web designing and coding is web development right? :)
im not in IT club....but my school does conduct
"Computer Lessons" for secondary 1-2 students....although its very basic, prolly also like 30mins teaching, then rest of time u explore the program....
Hostings
05-10-2003, 12:23
Basically mine has lessons, compulsory from secondary 1 to 3. Anyone skip lesson w/o MCs or valid reason will be take as truancy and defiance. Well, every secondary school should have it, as the government had assigned at least S$230 to all students within secondary 1 to 4 for computer literacy.
Originally posted by Hostings
Basically mine has lessons, compulsory from secondary 1 to 3. Anyone skip lesson w/o MCs or valid reason will be take as truancy and defiance. Well, every secondary school should have it, as the government had assigned at least S$230 to all students within secondary 1 to 4 for computer literacy.
S$230 for secondary students? Hmm...wonder what my school is doing with that money especially when you multiply that by the number of students in each school lol:D
If you wanna learn web development (programming is a subset), you'd do good to learn what constructs web pages first - HTML. You may counter that modern application platforms like ASP.NET actually abstracts the underlying HTML away from you and allows you to concentrate on the application programming bit specifically, but in my experience, knowledge about HTML is unavoidable to understanding what goes to form the web pages you see on browsers.
Step #1:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
Step #2:
After you master what is there, look at the following article to decide for yourself which language you should pick up :): http://www.wellho.net/forum/8424301301.html
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