Learning Good Form

[jayemvee]

I am sure many people in web design learn by trial and..er HOPE and ERROR :p . That is how i learned and it was pretty much by necessity.

The order I learned what I know is.

PHP
Web Design ( just in dreamweaver )
Simple Scriptaculous Stuff
XHTML/CSS the right way <~ current step

I assume I learned so much, so backwards partly because my first project was so massive. So maybe this is a good resource for someone who is new could really see what they are getting into and the best way to ease in.

How did you learn? And if you had to go back would you take a different approach? Classes? Tutorials? Any thoughts would be interesting.

[oracleguy]

Well, I've always believed that the best way to learn a programming language was to have an idea of something you wanted to build. That is the best way to truly learn a language in my opinion.

And I've found over my years of programming in general, talking to other people that are good at it can be useful so you have someone to bounce ideas off of if you aren't sure which way to do something. Or are you think there might be a better way of doing things.

[jayemvee]

Well, I've always believed that the best way to learn a programming language was to have an idea of something you wanted to build. That is the best way to truly learn a language in my opinion.

And I've found over my years of programming in general, talking to other people that are good at it can be useful so you have someone to bounce ideas off of if you aren't sure which way to do something. Or are you think there might be a better way of doing things.

I agree 100%, I have had a few people help me through but other than that, I'm the only one interested in web in my circle. I am happy to have found this site because I got a lot of ideas but there's no way I can complete them all on my own I'd go mad.

[phpnewb]

I first learned html and css, then php. This forum has also been a great help. Without it, I don't know how many of my problems would have remained unsolved.

[vinyl-junkie]

My approach has been pretty simple really. Learn one thing at a time, learn it well, then move on to the next thing. I started out learning basic HTML, then classic ASP, procedural PHP coding, then OOP PHP, and finally ASP.NET. Somewhere in between all of that, I went back and refined my HTML skills and learned CSS. My design skills suck, so I stay well away from that. I'm primarily a book learner, although I do use resources like w3schools and video learning resources. And yes, this forum has been a great help as well.

The main thing I think anyone needs to do is focus on one thing at a time. Don't try to learn too many things at once, or you'll end up not learning anything well enough and being frustrated because of that.

[jayemvee]

My learning is unfortunately very A.D.D. ooh this is cool.... oh wow this is sweet too.. =/ Drives me MAD sometimes.

[rpgfan3233]

My learning is unfortunately very A.D.D. ooh this is cool.... oh wow this is sweet too.. =/ Drives me MAD sometimes.
Believe me when I say that I know how you feel. It is like "but maybe user interaction might be nice here... in that case, many users have client-side scripting turned off so the only option is server-side scripting, which means PHP and MySQL...". Basically, I learned what little bit of PHP and MySQL that I know because I felt it was an essential part of a site. Prioritizing and choosing what is actually necessary is very difficult. My recommendation is to do your best. :thumbsup: