jerrykobes

I used to know some programming but its been a while since I've done anything. I'm just looking for a language that has an easy learning curve that would allow me to do any fun web-based stuff. I'm not looking to do anything major, I just want to learn a quick language that has the potential for a lot of fun possibilities. Any ideas?

jamiemac2005

"fun web-based things"? if you want a web based language then start with XHTML, Javascript & CSS, the learning curve is very easy as theres an amazing online resource ( www.w3schools.com ) ... It's hard to know exactly what you want, Java is quite good as it can be deployed online / offline... the "web-based" thing is what i'm questioning, exactly what is it you want to do?

Cheers,
Jamey

jerrykobes

I wanna do more stuff with the back-end rather than create visual layouts. For example write a program that displays a random image. Or connects to a database to display my tasks for a particular day.

jamiemac2005

So you want a server side language? do you yet know XHTML, Javascript, CSS? it's a necessity to have learned at least HTML to be able to write server side scripts... If you dont yet know HTML then learn it at the above link(just the basics will get you going)... If you do know HTML then i suggest PHP as a server side language to learn... (Provided you need this to be web-based)...

Anyway, PHP is widely used with mySQL databases so that covers the database stuff, and the random image thing would be easy with some basic PHP aswell... If this is the route you want to take i have a few links for you:

1: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
If you're writing server side scripts you need a server to test them on, Apache runs on your pc as a server and XAMPP is a nice installer (installs Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl)... Which is (if you don't already have a testing server) the one i'd suggest[as it's easy to set up]...

2: http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
This is for once you have XAMPP(/or an alternative testing server) set up with PHP, w3schools is by far my favourite resource for web-language tutorials so i trust them with this one. The first part of the tutorial covers installing Apache manually if you'd rather not use XAMPP(but XAMPP makes life so much easier).

3: http://uk.php.net/manual/en/index.php
php.net has a language reference that i use a lot, so this link is quite usefull as it has a tutorial & full manual & reference...

I think that's about it... Anyway, that's my suggestion, i learned basic PHP a few years back and haven't used it in a while but it's always my server-side language of choice...

Cheers,
Jamey

shuuhen

Ruby and Python are both fairly popular for web and general programming. Personally I like Ruby. Either one should work fine for what you're wanting to do.

For Ruby web work you might look at Ruby on Rails: http://www.rubyonrails.org/

For Python web work you might look at: http://www.djangoproject.com/

Ruby's web site should have plenty of documentation about learning the language. The first edition of Programming Ruby is available online (for free!). There's another one on there that's supposed to be good. It's the one with foxes (you'll know what I mean if you read it - they're in from the start).

Python might have some decent documentation online, but I don't do Python programming so I can't recommend anything. I did see a Python book about algorithms online a while ago though (should be linked on their site).

__________________


Has it been a few days since I replied to your thread? Don't panic! I'm a busy college student and may forget a post if I'm extra busy (or it might just take me a while to be able to do a decent reply). If you still need help and are awaiting my reply after a few days, PM me about it.

When posting what errors you get, please give the full message. It makes helping you much easier.