I am a budding Computer Science major who has just finished his first year at the local college. I have completed all the university-transferable introductory language courses offered (C++ and Java). Never mind the language choice, I wasn't taught anything beyond, "This is your input. This is your output. This is your class. This is your ENTERPRISE-level single-purpose line-saving enhanced for loop."
My mother, who is paying my way through college, is expecting to see returns. She has asked me to create a website for her start-up business. Of course I don't know how to do that.
And this, dear /prog/, is why I need your assistance. If you could just be my guiding hand here and point out books, websites, good languages to start in, software, anything a novice web designer might find useful.
Yes, I have read my SICP.
No, I only understood about a quarter of it.
Yes, of course I'm going to read it again, but at the moment I must place priority on the material world.
And for the trolls, I do intend on taking everything said in this thread seriously, so please refrain from "trolling" as I will no doubt end up believing it.
HTML is just a markup language. CSS is a presentation language, and Javascript is a client-side scripting language. If you know them, you can make any (static) web site.
Pick any general-purpose language and you can generate content dynamically (HTML, images, CSS, js, whatever). Input is the GET/POST request, and the output is whatever you need it to be.
There are frameworks for various languages which simplify the task considerably, or dumbify it so that anyone can do it.
However, designing web sites is not a programming job, it's Art, so you should get someone else to do it, unless you want to do it yourself (has MDickie replaced the scientist in you with an artist?).
>>3 However, designing web sites is not a programming job, it's Art, so you should get someone else to do it, unless you want to do it yourself
No, Mom's done the designing stage; she knows what she wants it to look like and it's my duty to realize it. Now that I actually think about it, I must have titled my thread wrong.
Do you have any particular recommendations on where I should begin studying these languages? I know little of CSS and Javascript, and my HTML doesn't extend beyond the basic tags.
>>6
Your dedicated server setup, hosting or whatever you choose is not related to the programming task you have ahead of you, but if you plan on using a cheap hosting service, then you're probably limited to a couple of crappy languages (like PHP, and on some others Perl). You'll have to make a choice depending on your budget and available resources.
Do you not know of DNS or how the Internet works to ask such questions here?
>>11 Zed Shaw
Not that I agree or disagree with him, as I'm not familiar with the book.
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Anonymous2010-07-21 2:03
If you choose Perl, download wakaba, install it, study it, make changes to it. When you've went through all code, you'll know enough about HTML, CSS, Javascript and Perl to make any site you like. Firebug add-on for firefox helps a lot. Remember that you can view source code of all web pages, so if there is a particular HTML/CSS/Javascript feature you want to have, just find a site that has it and borrow it.
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Anonymous2010-07-21 2:26
>>15 just find a site that has it and borrow it
Why are you going to borrow it? Are you going to give it back after you're done?
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Anonymous2010-07-21 2:29
>>16 Are you going to give it back after you're done?
Just how did you come to that conclusion?.. I did say borrow, didn't I? No, I'm not giving it back, ever.
How about you explain how what you're studying has nothing to do with webdesign?
Because it really doesn't. You're going to make her a horrible website and her business will suffer for it. You don't know the first thing about layout, typography, form, hierarchy, color, etc. Understanding these tools requires years of effort and raw talent. And that's before you even touch a markup or programming language. If you attempt this you will actively be doing her a disservice. Tell her that she's an idiot for bringing her misaligned pride into her professional life, and suggest that she have her website made by someone who actually knows what they're doing.
>>19
His mother, the client, already has all of this worked out. He just needs to turn her pictures into web pages. It doesn't require any of skills you listed.