I am completely new to web design....a totally blank slate.

I was hoping someone with experience could answer a couple of questions. Thanks for your help.

1. If you are just starting out, what order should you try to learn programming laguages. for example, Is it HTML, then Java, then...?

2, If you are going to get to the point of designing and running your own web sites, what do you need to learn besides languages.

3. Are we to the point now, or are we close, where you are wasting your time learning all of this because there are simpler ways for anyone to create their own web sites...kind of like how few people know or use DOS now.

Please help me to figure out what to learn because I am trying to start learning on my own.

Thanks

Act like I know nothing

1. obviously HTML first ... what you learn after that will depend on what you need ... i will others in the know answer why you would want to learn javascript or php or ...

2. you will need to learn what makes a good web site + search engine optimisation issues

- what makes a good web site: easy to navigate, information is easy to find, information is well sorted, good colour scheme, nice graphics, ....

- search engine optimisation: this is a huge area and covers keywords, on-page and off-page factors, backlinks, ....

3. i would say yes in a way in that there are lots of free templates you can buy or freely use that will enable you to get a really nice web site online quickly ... knowing HTML will enable you to alter the design of the templates to your needs, adding javascript/php/... will enable you to add a certain amount of interaction or automation to your web site template

my 2 cents worth

hope this helps

serge

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1. HTML (or XHTML+CSS, if you prefer) first, then your queue will depend on what you need to do.

2. Basic FTP knowledge would be helpful. Again, beyond that, it depends on what you'll be doing.

3. No, we're not. While Dreamweaver and Front Page give you a GUI to use, you'll still need to know (X)HTML to do anything worthwhile.

I believe that something that will help those starting out is a basic understanding of what the various languages are used for. Some languages are interchangeable and some are not.

For example, you cannot replace HTML with PHP. But you can use PHP with HTML and you can replace PHP with JSP, or C or Perl.

The link below is my first draft at a page describing some of the langauges. It's a first draft, and may not be 100% accurate, but it's based upon my understanding after 10+ years of working with web stuff. They didn't have web stuff when I was in school, so all my knowledge is 'on the job', so all terminology may not be correct. But it is correct enough to give a good start to weeding thru the details.

Web Related Languages

Response to Don's article:

- You refer to JS as client side, but make no mention of it in that section.
- You might want to mention XHTML is XML with default styling for the HTML elements.
- You don't talk about how the client side is less reliable than the server side.
- I would mention how (X)HTML is required independently of any other choice; (X)HTML is the output, regardless of how we serve it.
- PHP is a web-biased only version of Perl, handled internally by the webserver (vs spawning a process). It also has more web specific features and can be mixed with static (X)HTML. Really, it's like comparing C to C++.
- You don't talk about ASP at all.
- You COULD use C# for CGI, but if you're using C#, you probably have access to ASP.NET, so there's no reason to use CGI.
- I'd rewrite the definition of CGI. Basically, you just need to say how a web server launches a program and redirects the output to the client.
- You can mix and match the server languages. It just tends to make things needlessly complicated.
- You really don't talk about the strengths and weaknesses of any of the languages.
- Your page doesn't validate. :P