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Further Knowledge building.. Help?
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Further Knowledge building.. Help?

eastoncheastonch Member
edited July 2012 in General

Hi there,

Just wondering about a few things, I currently find myself at a cross roads of where I want to take my education, or atleast, personal teaching. I find that i'm somewhat fluent in the "basic - intermediate" usage of PHP, MySQL and HTML. But struggle to grasp CSS. I've only attempted Java as a simple "Hello world" and some Minecraft Bukkit Plugins.

I've just managed to download some free kindle books on JavaScript, HTML(5), PHP and CSS/3.

My question is, for a personal usage, where should I focus some reading hours into? Should I continue down the path of PHP / HTML until I'm extremely fluent and can start writing major scripts and systems? Or Should I learn some JS, What can JS do for me? I've not really used it much, or anything to be honest, I once had a web-slider in a business theme which was pretty horrific if you ask me, mainly because it was just cheaply ripped by my web dev.

If somebody could clear up exactly what JS can do, and where it could take my own development, that'd be great, and if anybody has any suggestions into where I should focus hours.

I'm quite fluent in VB, but that's primarially for a College Unit.

Next year, we're focussing on the basics of MySQL, JS, PHP and Client-Side Customisation, I guess I can probably just float through next year since I know more than the tutor does about PHP and MYSQL.

Thanks for reading, and I really hope I find some great examples of JS below this post when I read back on this tomorrow.

:']!

Comments

  • bretonbreton Member

    @eastonch said: Next year, we're focussing on the basics of MySQL, JS, PHP and Client-Side Customisation, I guess I can probably just float through next year since I know more than the tutor does about PHP and MYSQL.

    Why spending time on it now if there are plans next year? Spend time on something else now. Python, for example. Or read SICP and code some Lisp.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    Would you like fries with that?

  • telephonetelephone Member
    edited July 2012

    @eastonch said: If somebody could clear up exactly what JS can do, and where it could take my own development, that'd be great, and if anybody has any suggestions into where I should focus hours.

    I'm sorry... You know the basic/intermediate of PHP but don't even know what JS does?

    Anyway, here's a good stepping stone for Javascript (You should be able to churn through most of the lessons within a day)
    Codecademy

    In regards to what you should learn, that's up to you. Do you like backend development better? Do you like creating frilly website features (frontend)?

  • @Telephone it's never really came up, JS wise.

    And thanks for the link, I signed up and there's quite a compendium of knowledge and guides there. Worth a look.

    I prefer backend development, mainly because my sense of design and colouring is bullshit. I know what colours look good, and what would make something look great, but I just don't harness the skills to create a frontend, which puts me off. Maybe once I understand the backend of a system, i'll work more on front end.

    @breton at College we learn VERY basic material, for instance, we'll spend 4 weeks on learning how to declare vars and use arithmatic functions. Not something I want to waste time on, I'd rather understand, have it working live on my site so I already have "most" of the knowledge i'll need for that unit.

    Thanks for all the help, except @jarland who will never get served at my McDonalds.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • PatsPats Member

    @eastonch said: will never get served at my McDonalds

    All this JS/PHP/mySQL to run McDonalds ? 0_o
    i thought you need to the other dept. where they teach to play with potato/chicken/vege/dough... :D

  • yomeroyomero Member

    JS is tied to PHP/Sql. Unless you can delegate all the visual stuff to someone else, which sounds complicated

  • Realised that JS is quite similar to PHP to be fair.

    And @Pats I don't own a McDonalds, I work there part time while studying... with the UK Job market how it is.

  • PatsPats Member

    @eastonch said: I don't own a McDonalds

    i know it bro... otherwise u'd had been at HighEndTalk.. :)

  • @Pats all it takes is £100,000 investment to become a franchisee, that's building internals covered too. You just need to purchase the store location :']. Then there's the fees/month etc.

    Thanks @Zen, I've looked at Code Academy for some guidance, it's helping me, and I'll work at it slowly. JS Seems pretty simple, nothing I Can't do with PHp already though! -- Looking to see how I can make fancy little moving sliders etc.. Once I get that sort of thing covered... Then I feel I've got somewhere.

    I would love to learn how to make PHp interact with servers, so I can create something like PungCM. I've looked into monitoring, but only really found out how to make it check upon a person loading, I guess this can be automated through the use of CronJobs and MySQL / FlatFile building.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @eastonch said: except @jarland who will never get served at my McDonalds.

    I see how it is.

  • krokro Member

    @Eastonch get on irc and send kro[au] a msg, ill help you learning wise, with just about any languages ;) all fairly similar champ ;p

  • Thanks matey, I'll jump on now :']

  • Ruby is pretty fun :) If you like building web apps, inevitably though to be good you'll need to be reasonably decent at Javascript/SQL/Regex.

    Then there's the fun part - design. Just use bootstrap or outsource :P

  • @eastonch I suggest to have a specific project (e.g. write a blog software or something simple), and learn all the stuff that you need to complete that project. You will cover all html + js + css + php +mysql doing that.

  • My advice would be read PHP code directly, if you have background about the syntaxis. Starting with simple scripts working with data. For new developments support them on a PHP framework, the wheel was made. And then go to the "kitchen" of Wordpress, easy to read and learn a lot with that "simple" blog. JS is great but you always found pre-build things.

  • @ JCaleb I had a great idea, something that would tax every skill, with logins, Database connections, support tickets, everything. I just never got into it that far, I got all the framework completed interms of a functions include that i'd use, some header includes etc...

    May continue once I understand JS a little better nad CSS is a little easier.

  • telephonetelephone Member
    edited August 2012

    @eastonch Look into Twitter Bootstrap. It's very versatile, and can easily be themed.

    If your focus is on the backend, then Bootstrap or even Foundation allows you to rapid prototype so you don't have to spend hours on a new design for each project.

  • I've looked into it, never saw what the big deal with it was.

  • It's the same reason why developers use frameworks (JQuery, Zend, Laravel, etc), it makes life easier.
    The main purpose of it is rapid prototyping as I mentioned. Instead of spending hours scrounging around for a suitable theme, and then coding it, I can spend under one hour designing the whole site.

    Thanked by 1jcaleb
  • @eastonch said: @ JCaleb I had a great idea, something that would tax every skill, with logins, Database connections, support tickets, everything. I just never got into it that far, I got all the framework completed interms of a functions include that i'd use, some header includes etc...

    Start with simple project first. Something that need shorter codes. Maybe some simple game.

    I suggest you don't use framework for now, so you understand the lower level. It helps your debugging skills later, when you go more advanced. In real projects that you will use in production, you can use and study framework later.

  • Btw, I suggest have a goal first. It will guide you on decision making.

    Like for my case for example, since Java are paid much higher here at our country, it is what I studied. Because my goal is $$$.

  • Simple game, such like a quiz? I'm looking for some form of "project" but I can't find anything that would suit my current skills, do have any examples?

    What i'd do, is learn the project, build it, then start optimising it, making shorter codes, includes rather than a large block of code, etc.

  • @telephone said: @eastonch Look into Twitter Bootstrap. It's very versatile, and can easily be themed.

    Thank you @telephone this is so useful.

  • If you seriously want to build big systems, I suggest that you go into software development life cycle. Topics included there are geared towards enterprise-level systems but once you understood them fully, you can adopt some concepts that will fit how you develop systems personally.

    I also suggest that you look into frameworks, design patterns and MVC. Those are very useful things to learn, although, it can take plenty of time before you fully grasp them.

    Reading security-related books and putting them into practice is also what I highly recommend. When I write scripts, especially those that will be accessed publicly, I take security into consideration a lot.

    Lastly, I've only learned to try this lately but I suggest that you understand how your systems affect your hardware resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) and setup (harddrive, network). Know how your OS, server and scripts interact with each other.

    I hope that helps.

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