What should I learn after HTML?
Asked by
spendy (
1449
)
April 26th, 2008
I’ve been interested in programming and have taken on the task of learning HTML. I’m still in the process…and loving it. I’d basically like to get into web design but have MUCH to learn. What’s next? XHTML, PHP, CSS, something else entirely? What’s my sequence and what’s truly necessary or not? I don’t want to spend time learning things that are outdated or that don’t give me a stepping stone to the next level.
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14 Answers
i guess PHP is interesting to learn, but i didn’t like it though..
i would follow HTML with XHTML since its just a tweaked version of html. Following that, CSS and eventually php
yeah, CSS is next then PHP. But PHP is different, it’s a language – unlike XHTML and CSS which is just markup.
mirza and Breefield are right: you should expand on your knowledge in the realm of HTML if you’re enjoying it. CSS is the compliment to (X)HTML and, after you’ve got a good handle on those two you can begin to learn some basic PHP programming to make your creations more dynamic and make your life easier when developing sites. Good luck.
I agree too, but I would also learn some xml and it’s uses on the side since it’s a markup language also that is expanding in use even though it is very simple.
Definitely, stay clear of the Assembly path.
You haven’t learned modern HTML if you don’t know CSS yet, in my opinion.
Oh, by the way, HTML is not really a programming language but a markup language, i.e. you markup (surround with tags) elements to define what those elements are, just like <em>this</em> is emphasized text.
Then PHP would be nice to try, though alternatively you could also try one of the more recently popular scripting languages Python (which Fluther is written in) or Ruby. Either of the three is probably fun :)
I’ve never used Python, but I’ve heard both good and bad things about Ruby / Ruby on Rails. Ruby is daunting, I haven’t even been able to get it working without using RoR.
I would go straight to PHP. It’s not that different from HTML syntactically, but it allows you use programming variables and loops.
@timothykinney, I’d have to disagree – HTML and PHP are syntactically very different.
HTML:
<ul><li><a href=”/”>A Link</a></li></ul>
PHP:
for ($x = 0; $x < $max; $x++) { $objects[$x]->update() }
That’s a good point, actually. I should clarify what I meant.
PHP is similar to HTML in that PHP code happens inside of brackets. ie:
<php
some php code
?>
This is the same pattern that html follows.
<html tag>
some text
</html tag>
What makes PHP work well for web-apps is that it is literally inserted into a webpage that has headers, text, images, and so forth. C and Python don’t do this. So if someone is familiar with HTML, PHP is a good step-forward into the programming world.
Thanks for keeping me honest, paulc.
@timothykinney, don’t take this the wrong way but I’m disagreeing with you again :) I think that the fact that PHP is so easily mixed into HTML is detrimental. One of the best lessons in programming, in my opinion, is to ensure that each part of your application is responsible for one function and nothing more. Mixing your display and application logic together is a recipe for unmaintainable software. Most frameworks use templates to create the separation (Python has Django and I don’t know of anything on the C end).
lol, wow. I’m so confused. I guess I’ll move on to XHTML and then ask again when I’ve gotten that far. :) All I really want to do is design webpages/websites. Any advice taking this strictly into mind?
HTML4 is what we currently use. It is soon to be replaced with HTML5 which will supplant XHTML. Personally, I do not consider HTML as programming per se, it is only the presentation layer. As suggest PHP would be a good place to start for something akin to “real” programming. Then move on to Perl, Python or Ruby.
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