Not sure what my next learning step should be

Phreaddee

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
Markup with html, style with css, function with js, implement with php
Jquery is a js library, makes life easier

You can publish a website with html/css only, hence why i would learn that first.

Dom is document object model.
http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/
Again a pretty dry read...but worth knowing.
 
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Skyn2

New Member
Thank you.

maybe a weird question, but how long is average to learn HTML5 and CSS?

I ask this question because I don't want to be done 'to quickly'

If I know an estimate, I also know I went to the process to fast. I rather stick, lets say, 6 months on HTML5 before going to JS knowing I know what I need to know, then 2 months and only know somethings about HTML5/CSS

Understand what I mean?
 
ronaldroe

ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
It all depends on you. It took me a few weeks to get a good handle on how to code HTML, but I'm still learning new ways to structure it better. I took about 3 months to grasp CSS syntax, but I'm not even sure how long to truly grasp it, and I'm still picking up better ways to do things.

As far as what to learn when, here's the theory behind it.
To do things the way they were meant to be done is to understand the separation of concerns.
HTML is for structure. How you want the document to flow, be indexed by search engines.
CSS is for presentation. What you want the page to look like and where you want everything to appear.
Learn these together, because they are so intertwined, you may miss some of the overlap if you do it separate.
JavaScript (as Phreadee suggested, be sure to learn jQuery) is for interaction. While CSS can do some interaction, and should be used where possible, JS provides deeper interaction. This will be your accordian-style pages and what-not.
PHP is for dynamic content. If you're doing static pages, the only PHP you'd benefit from is includes. But you use it to generate dynamic content on the server that is served to the user as HTML.

In answer to one of your other questions, AJAX stands for Asynchronous Java And XML. In short, it keeps an open connection to your server and reads and/or stores information without reloading the page. This is one thing I've yet to begin learning. I'm still working on PHP at this point.
 
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Skyn2

New Member
Okay. I think I have not been very efficient.
I was talking to my girlfriend and she said I have been busy with this for 1.5 month, and to be honoust.. I think I know much more then when I started, but I have not done much!

My biggest concern is learning the right stuff, but learning it the wrong way.

What is the most effective way in studying this?
Reading books takes lots of time, which I am more then willing to take, but I do have the feeling I don't really learn how to do by reading?

I have the feeling I am still reading, and will be still reading in a month when I could probably do way more that would get me further.
I love to read, thats not the problem :) But maybe reading isnt the way to go in this business.

I hope I explain myself good.
 
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ronaldroe

ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
If I could point you in a direction, when you're learning CSS, pay extra attention to the box model, and ask lots of questions about it. I'd say easily 50-60% of the issues people come here with have to do with box model. And, if you're going with W3Schools, their explanation isn't very good.
 
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Skyn2

New Member
I am reading an ebook now about HTML5 and CSS3, its from sitepoint. Very interesting read!

thank you for the youtube link. I watched more of him, about web design
 
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simbob

New Member
If you want to get stuck into Dreamweaver you can do a lot worse than try this book, it has lots of tutorials and demonstrates & explains code and WISIWYG editing, basics of CSS, it also refs Fireworks, and is easy to follow. I bought it way back for CS3 (lots of versions available) and found it very helpful:

Dreamweaver CS5.5: The Missing Manual - David Sawyer McFarland
 
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