The web development starter kit 1.0.0

[Sparky712]

It's about time I gave to the community. So, as my gift to the community, i give some fresh knowledge. This is mainly aimed at those new to the boards, and looking to learn.

Browsers:

To start off with, you will want a browser. A browser is a (usually) graphical user interface, for viewing web pages. There are a large variety, but a few stand out as the main competitors. For web development, you have a couple of options. Either you use a tool that can accurately simulate the different browsers, or you have multiple browsers on your system. If you are working from a home system, it may be a better option to have multiple browsers - you may end up preferring to use one of them for casual use. here are the necessary browsers to have installed:

• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera

There are many other browsers around - but these four are the most popular, and useful to a web developer for this reason. Another reason it is necessary to utilise many browsers, is that they do not necessarily render the same code, the same way. Most notable for this is IE, which is known (especially the older versions) for not displaying pages correctly, whilst the same page displays correctly on other browsers. Whilst building your websites, it may be good practice to check how it displays in different browsers.

Editors:

Next, you will need an editor. There are a variety available, but some will be more useful than others. you CAN write it in notepad - there is nothing stopping you. Other more practical options are:

• Notepad++
• Dreamweaver (more on that in the next paragraph)
• g/vim
• gedit
• sublime

Basically, a good text editor to use, would be one with syntax highlighting, tuned to the language in use. please note though, that notepad++ and dreamweaver are for windows OSes. On the topic of dreamweaver - it is ill advised to use dreamweaver whilst learning web development. Whilst you are learning, you want to learn the good practices, and avoid the bad ones, and you want to write your code manually. A general rule of thumb is the more a tool aids productivity, the less useful it is for learning - there is such a thing as too helpful. dreamweaver assists the process by filling in parts of the code for you, and also includes a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor - do not use this. You will not be able to learn web development with this, as learning the languages requires you to use them - something you will not be using if you are drawing boxes etc. to make the site.

Languages:

Arguably the most important tool in a web developers kit is a variety of languages. In the beginning, the web only used HyperText Mark-up Language - HTML. As technology improved, so did the variety and complexity of languages used for building websites. Here are the most well known languages involved in web development.

• HTML
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - though this is more an extension to html)
• Javascript
• PHP (Originally, Personal Home Page tools, now PHP Hypertext Processor)
• SQL (I have not named a specific version, as they are similar, though some may have different syntax)
• ASP / .NET

This is by no means the only languages used, and it is by no means exhaustive. As a beginner, it would be a wise decision to begin by learning HTML and CSS, and then progressing onto PHP, and SQL. These are the foundational languages of many modern websites, HTML and CSS being a necessity, and PHP with SQL being the language behind the page. After these comes javascript, a language unconnected with Java, is a scripting language that can be used alongside HTML. These five, however, are the five most commonly used, and therefore most advantageous to learn.

[vezzy]

Practically useless, in fact I'd say your last paragraph has terrible advice.

Modern web development makes barely any use of PHP anymore, much less .NET.

SQL and other RDBMS systems are becoming phased out in favor of NoSQL and key-value stores like Redis, CouchDB, MongoDB and so on. Not to say that SQL isn't still useful, it absolutely is. However, for many projects it's turning out to be unnecessary or superfluous, with other database management systems having their own special advantages.

PHP is being used less, as it has been revealed time and time to be a sloppy and crufty language. Server-side web development now largely focuses on Ruby, Python and JVM languages (Java, Groovy, Scala). There's also still some Perl to be found.

You really should read up on modern web development and web technology stacks, especially what big companies are making use of.

PHP and SQL are still useful to know (especially SQL) because of how long they will remain, but very rarely will any serious new projects be making use of them. Learn PHP enough to be able to maintain legacy applications and to spot common web vulnerabilities, but more than that is not really needed.

[Sparky712]

I won't deny it'd be useless to you, Vezzy. but this is more aimed at the absolute beginner. and for those, it is useful to learn these languages. and yes, I am considering adding ruby, python and perl to that list.


As for your  'modern web development makes barely any use of PHP any more'

http://www.computerjobs.com/gb/en/Web-Developer-jobs-in-United-Kingdom/
Its showing jobs in the UK because that's where I'm from, and well, just scroll down the first page, more than half of the jobs have PHP as a wanted language. Just because "It's not used any more" doesn't mean it is not a necessary language to learn in web development. alongside that, SQL in some form or another is also highly desired.However, there is little argument here, as we both agree that they are useful to know.

and well, .net.. that was purely included as a used language, and it's well known.  But do keep in mind that this is by no means an all-encompassing guide, but a starter kit, for those taking a first step - of course there is other stuff to learn afterwards, this is just the first steps. Also, do remember that by the point that an individual knows these, they are much more aware of the industry at that time, and the languages in use at the time.

P.S. Vezzy - I apologise if I come off aggressive, or otherwise unsociable. you are correct in that new languages and databases are becoming more popular, and at some point, I will edit this post to reflect that. This post will change alongside my learning, and with advisory input from this community - quoted, possibly.

[Uriah]

Hi Vezzy, it's been a while, do you remember me?

I've got to agree with Vezzy, this post was almost useless. I appreciate the attempt but most of the information was either too casual or just plain wrong. ASP/.NET are extremely rare in web development. You fail to properly distinguish the difference between server side and client side languages, and your advice in the order of learning these languages appears kind of random.  And yeah, last paragraph was the worst.

Overall you seem generally uninformed about web development. Please dont take this the wrong way, but dont be that guy who barely skims the surface of a field and then starts spouting information about it as though they actually know what they are talking about. I've gone through that phase myself. It takes a while to understand everything and I can tell that you are new.

Vezzy, I guess i agree with you about SQL, but not PHP. PHP is still a relatively healthy language and definitely not "legacy". It is doing very well in both popularity and the job market, and is often used professionally. It's a tad "sloppy" and a little less elegant than some other languages but it does have its advantages.

PHP remains more popular for server side development than both python and ruby (it's actually the most popular scripting and server-side language, I believe). But yes, those two are catching up. JVM languages are pretty uncommon though, I'd say. I'm actually surprised you didn't mention server side javascript...true that it's current use is negligible, but it's been rising fast and has a lot of potential as well.

[vezzy]

PHP is not legacy. Not yet. But it is most certainly being thrown out by the majority of people working on startups and large web applications.

The ones still using PHP have to resort to ludicrous performance optimizations to be up to par. Case in point: Facebook wrote an entire virtual machine that converts their PHP codebase into bytecode, which is then compiled to x86 machine code.

If you haven't already, read PHP: A Fractal of Bad Design.

[Uriah]

Thanks for the article. As before, i agree with the sloppiness of PHP, and that article introduced me to some things I actually didn't know about. However, that doesn't mean it's being thrown away...that's certainly not what the statistics say. And it still doesn't mean that PHP does not have its own advantages.

Yeah, I know what Facebook did. It's called hiphop php. But it wasn't because PHP is slow (it's faster than both ruby and python, i think), but because Facebook is huge and can use whatever they can get. Also, it's a great idea, and really simple to implement. It allows them to code in PHP and run c++, which is amazing. (It's converted into c++ , compiled into a binary and ran as an executable). To convert its just one line in the terminal, if i remember correctly.

Also, Facebook has its own reasons for sticking with PHP. Its not like they got unfortunately stuck with it; it was a decision that they made and still stand by.

I'm not necessarily defending PHP, but I think saying it is "being thrown out" is a huge exaggeration and not exactly true. PHP is doing just fine and i think it's beneficial to learn it.

Last I heard, lots of people in EZ use PHP. Perhaps they can enlighten us on their reasons?

[Sparky712]

Hi Vezzy, it's been a while, do you remember me?

I've got to agree with Vezzy, this post was almost useless. I appreciate the attempt but most of the information was either too casual or just plain wrong. ASP/.NET are extremely rare in web development. You fail to properly distinguish the difference between server side and client side languages, and your advice in the order of learning these languages appears kind of random.  And yeah, last paragraph was the worst.

Overall you seem generally uninformed about web development. Please dont take this the wrong way, but dont be that guy who barely skims the surface of a field and then starts spouting information about it as though they actually know what they are talking about. I've gone through that phase myself. It takes a while to understand everything and I can tell that you are new.

Vezzy, I guess i agree with you about SQL, but not PHP. PHP is still a relatively healthy language and definitely not "legacy". It is doing very well in both popularity and the job market, and is often used professionally. It's a tad "sloppy" and a little less elegant than some other languages but it does have its advantages.

PHP remains more popular for server side development than both python and ruby (it's actually the most popular scripting and server-side language, I believe). But yes, those two are catching up. JVM languages are pretty uncommon though, I'd say. I'm actually surprised you didn't mention server side javascript...true that it's current use is negligible, but it's been rising fast and has a lot of potential as well.

It may be rare now, but ASP / .NET is still well known. but thanks. And.. i did not feel the need to distinguish - it's not really a spoonfeeding. If they go off to learn a language, they will learn for themselves which is server-side, and which is client-side. However, that may be included at a later date.

Also, the order is not random. HTML/CSS first, as it's the basics, and as they are the face of websites that you see. next PHP, and SQL, as they are (currently) useful languages to know, and languages that are often used alongside each other. after that, javascript, as it is either PHP or javascript that goes first, and in either case, the other would be next.


as for that last paragraph being the worst - yeah, i would agree that it's structured badly, and sounds rushed. However, it is a suggested learning path, what order would you two suggest web development should be learnt in then?

Vezzy: thanks for the link.. I will read that this evening, when I have time.

[Stackprotector]

Practically useless, in fact I'd say your last paragraph has terrible advice.

Modern web development makes barely any use of PHP anymore, much less .NET.

SQL and other RDBMS systems are becoming phased out in favor of NoSQL and key-value stores like Redis, CouchDB, MongoDB and so on. Not to say that SQL isn't still useful, it absolutely is. However, for many projects it's turning out to be unnecessary or superfluous, with other database management systems having their own special advantages.

PHP is being used less, as it has been revealed time and time to be a sloppy and crufty language. Server-side web development now largely focuses on Ruby, Python and JVM languages (Java, Groovy, Scala). There's also still some Perl to be found.

You really should read up on modern web development and web technology stacks, especially what big companies are making use of.

PHP and SQL are still useful to know (especially SQL) because of how long they will remain, but very rarely will any serious new projects be making use of them. Learn PHP enough to be able to maintain legacy applications and to spot common web vulnerabilities, but more than that is not really needed.

Lol dude you are fucking kidding me right? "Modern web development makes barely any use of PHP anymore, much less .NET.". Are you living under a fucking hater stone? Are you a professional in this field?

PHP is the most used language on the web and it is not about to change very soon. Most new project are still written in PHP, sure all you hipster startups write their apps in python and ruby and whatnot but the majority of the real business is not into anything else than PHP, and there are still loads of job openings for PHP.

[vezzy]

the majority of the real business is not into anything else than PHP, and there are still loads of job openings for PHP.

Twitter was Ruby on Rails, before going to Scala.

Instagram is Python.

Reddit is Python.

Slashdot is Perl.

Hacker News is Lisp (Arc).

YouTube and most other Google services make use largely of Python, Java and C++.

DuckDuckGo is Perl.

Craigslist is Perl.

And so on.

Of course lots of businesses use PHP and many beginners are still drawn to it because of the inertia, and its symbolic status. That doesn't mean it's actually a good language.