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Posted by Lira on Sep-23-2004 13:04:

FAO: Webdesigners in general

So, I found a rather interesting site on webdesigning and I was thinking of finally learning the stuff I always meant to (SQL, for example). In the website, they recommend us to learn XHTML (I only know the HMTL bit, and I just know the basics of XML), SQL, CSS, some Client Side Scripting and some Server Side Scripting, among other things.

I'm willing to learn this sort of stuff as, no matter how much I avoid it, I always end up working on webdesign, and I reckon this knowledge would be really necessary. I've got 2 questions though:

1) What is a Client (or Server) Side Scripting in the first place? (I'm indeed a beginner when it comes to things other than HTML)
2) What do you recommend? What should I learn?

Posted by Lira on Sep-23-2004 13:51:

quote:
Originally posted by josh4
I wanted first post, which will be long, so an edit to follow.

rofl, cheers

Posted by igottaknow on Sep-23-2004 13:52:

I wanted second post, which will be long, so an edit to follow.

quote:
1) What is a Client (or Server) Side Scripting in the first place?

Client side is scripting runs on the client's computer (not the on the web server). Javascript is the accepted language. I would suggest learning this first.

Sever side gets executed on the server. There are many languages and you must use the one that is supported by server that is being used. NT server ASP and its newer variations (ASP.Net). On Linux/Apache you use PHP.
quote:
2) What do you recommend? What should I learn?

PHP and ASP are the most popular. I'd start with PHP.

Posted by Lira on Sep-23-2004 14:22:

Thanks, igottaknow

I've been thinking about learning Javascript for a while, it's nice to know it's within the content that will be useful for me.

One more thing, are Linux/Apache servers more popular than Microsoft's NT? Although, as far as I saw, php seems simpler and better for beginners, I wonder if there's a fair percentage of Linux/Apache running systems.

edit: I'm reading Josh's post right now.

Posted by Lira on Sep-23-2004 14:35:

It was really helpful, Josh, thanks for your post

Well, it seems there's a lot of reading for me to do before I chose something specific. I know it's a competitive thing, I consider myself lucky for having got these last jobs only using html and photoshop I'll probably stick to the design part - I just thought it would be a nice idea to know a bit of the other side as well, just in case

Posted by DJAntSmith on Sep-23-2004 14:40:

Well having been a webdesigner one of the things wich worked best for me was installing dreamweaver. Download a trial and do the learning topics. It will introduce you setting up back end databases using either access or sql or any other preffered mthod and will also teach you about how asp works.

This will at least give you the basics and an understanding of how the communication from backend server to end user works. Then you can take it in whatever direction you like. Hope this helps.

Ant

Posted by igottaknow on Sep-23-2004 14:43:

I think if you learn the basics of server-side scripting it would help you understand whats going on so you can better work with programers when developing a site.

Posted by loconet on Sep-23-2004 15:14:

quote:
Originally posted by Lira
I'll probably stick to the design part

If that is the case, learn your XHTML and CSS really really really well.. think CSS instead of tables when possible. You can achieve some really cool stuff, plus us programmers will thank you for giving us clean code to work with

check out these sites:

http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/
http://www.alistapart.com/
http://glish.com

w3schools is a great source as well.

Posted by Lira on Sep-23-2004 16:39:

Nice to know DW also does this, Ant. As a matter of fact, I had used it in the past, but I was a bit annoyed by the fact that I often had to edit the tags myself using notepad whenever DW did something stupid, so I'd just use it every now and then. I'll look into these new features

Thanks for the links and tips, loconet, and for the extra explanation, Josh and Igottaknow

Posted by neoraver on Sep-23-2004 18:08:

Dreamweaver is the right program to start with, besides that - learning PHP is pretty useful

I'd also get myself in touch with photoshop - doing some harder tutorials to learn the techniques helps alot