Hey guys well this is my first post in this section as never really understood the point of these sections on forums but....
Basically i left college a few weeks/months ago permantly as i just finished my computer technician course. I am now kinda stuck on what to do next in my life
i want to do some sort of website or coding or technician job however there are no jobs around my area for this line of work. And the jobs i do find i am not skilled enough in. I am good at various things but i am not a 'master' of any.
So what should i do?
What resources did you guys use to learn php, js, html etc? I can code basic programs and basic sites but nothing enough to be able to make money from it :'(
And how do you guys make money from this sort of work? Im not good at gfx so i cant create themes although i could probbably code it.
Thanks
Best way to learn is to practise. Join sites like Forrst and trawl blogs like net tuts daily. You'll be surprised how much you pick up in a short amount of time. As for getting work, sort out a personal site and build up a portfolio of work that really shows off your skills. A good way to build up your reputation is by doing work pro bono as people will likely talk about you if you do it well.
First of all, I'd say to pick one and stick to it. Don't try and learn them all at once. The thing is, they're all very closely related, so whichever one you choose, there's almost no doubt you'll come across the others at some point. Then, when that point comes, take a look at what you need to know, and learn it.
As for resources, there's a lot out there. Looking through the source code of open source projects really helps, but just looking at it won't do much, you have to play around with it and work out exactly what does what so that you understand how it works.
I'll probably get shunned for this (no links to 3wfools, please),
http://www.w3schools.com/ was a great help to me when I was learning. Yes, there are lots of errors there, and yes, there are some bad practices. But come on, no site is going to be perfect. I'm sure that if you were to make a website focusing on the good things about that site, you'd have a lot more content than 3w fools. And at the end of the day, you'll soon realise an example is wrong by the errors you are given.
(2012-07-15, 09:41 PM)euantor Wrote: [ -> ]Best way to learn is to practise. Join sites like Forrst and trawl blogs like net tuts daily. You'll be surprised how much you pick up in a short amount of time. As for getting work, sort out a personal site and build up a portfolio of work that really shows off your skills. A good way to build up your reputation is by doing work pro bono as people will likely talk about you if you do it well.
Hey Euantor,
Requested invite on Forrst,
Can't find any sites called NetTutsDaily do you mean this? http://net.tutsplus.com/ ?
Working on a personal site currently.
Any suggestions on where to advertise the 'free work'?
Thanks for the reply
(2012-07-15, 09:46 PM)Charlie Hadden Wrote: [ -> ]First of all, I'd say to pick one and stick to it. Don't try and learn them all at once. The thing is, they're all very closely related, so whichever one you choose, there's almost no doubt you'll come across the others at some point. Then, when that point comes, take a look at what you need to know, and learn it.
As for resources, there's a lot out there. Looking through the source code of open source projects really helps, but just looking at it won't do much, you have to play around with it and work out exactly what does what so that you understand how it works.
I'll probably get shunned for this (no links to 3wfools, please), http://www.w3schools.com/ was a great help to me when I was learning. Yes, there are lots of errors there, and yes, there are some bad practices. But come on, no site is going to be perfect. I'm sure that if you were to make a website focusing on the good things about that site, you'd have a lot more content than 3w fools. And at the end of the day, you'll soon realise an example is wrong by the errors you are given.
Thanks, I am trying to learn more advanced HTML and CSS currently
I will check w3schools although i did use that before and didn't help (i was younger then i seem to understand things better now that i am almost 19).
I like looking at the code of open source projects aswell so glad to hear you reccomend that.
I dont just ask for help with everything nor just copy and paste i do try to understand the code and how it works.
W3schools is ok although really i need a offline source.
Thanks aswell.
What's your email address (private message me, if you wish)? I have a couple of spare forrst invites that I wouldn't mind parting with.
(2012-07-15, 09:53 PM)Charlie Hadden Wrote: [ -> ]What's your email address (private message me, if you wish)? I have a couple of spare forrst invites that I wouldn't mind parting with.
PM'ed
EDIT: i found a offline zip of the w3schools site
Thanks for the invite
Take a visit around
Codecademy. You might know HTML or CSS but knowing and understanding them are two different things. Moving onto bootstrap or boilerplate would probably be your next step for a new starter IMO. The world, after that, will seem a less intimidating place.
(2012-07-15, 09:54 PM)fma965 Wrote: [ -> ]EDIT: i found a offline zip of the w3schools site
Which you should delete as it's not really all that good. It's known to have mistakes and flat out incorrect info and they've either refused to correct it or are taking their sweet lime time to do so. They are also not related to the official standards organization w3 and IIRC have refused to clarify this on their site.
For PHP you're better off reading the official site directly. If you know the basics of programming (i.e. what's an if statement, how do loops work, what's a function) most of the learning curve is purely syntax. MyBB's code is written with readability in mind (to a fault, I would argue; there are some things I think are needlessly verbose) so you might look into it's source.
One tip I have is to come up with a project, break that project down into pieces, and only learn what you need to implement a particular piece. This keeps you from being overwhelmed, and gives you practice to see how things are used in the real world rather than a do nothing add-two-numbers program. I have no idea how to use 90% of the C++ std:: library, and have to look up how to write templates, but that's okay since 90% of the time I don't need the extra stuff. You don't need to have the entire PHP default distribution memorized. Just the useful stuff. Anything else, and that's what Google's for.
As far as making money, most of what you see around here is graphical, as that's what most people around here want. There are plugins that people pay for as well, but they're mostly by big name people with proven quality (not to say newbies shouldn't try, though).
(2012-07-15, 10:07 PM)Tomm M Wrote: [ -> ]Take a visit around Codecademy. You might know HTML or CSS but knowing and understanding them are two different things. Moving onto bootstrap or boilerplate would probably be your next step for a new starter IMO. The world, after that, will seem a less intimidating place.
Thanks i have gone through nearly all of that already its to easy for people who understand some html and doesnt get very advanced - unless they added new tutorials since i checked a few weeks/months ago.
never even heard of boiler plate or boot strap. I do know and i am pretty sure i understand HTML although i think i could learn more about HTML5 and CSS3
(2012-07-15, 10:12 PM)Firestryke31 Wrote: [ -> ] (2012-07-15, 09:54 PM)fma965 Wrote: [ -> ]EDIT: i found a offline zip of the w3schools site
Which you should delete as it's not really all that good. It's known to have mistakes and flat out incorrect info and they've either refused to correct it or are taking their sweet lime time to do so. They are also not related to the official standards organization w3 and IIRC have refused to clarify this on their site.
For PHP you're better off reading the official site directly. If you know the basics of programming (i.e. what's an if statement, how do loops work, what's a function) most of the learning curve is purely syntax. MyBB's code is written with readability in mind (to a fault, I would argue; there are some things I think are needlessly verbose) so you might look into it's source.
One tip I have is to come up with a project, break that project down into pieces, and only learn what you need to implement a particular piece. This keeps you from being overwhelmed, and gives you practice to see how things are used in the real world rather than a do nothing add-two-numbers program. I have no idea how to use 90% of the C++ std:: library, and have to look up how to write templates, but that's okay since 90% of the time I don't need the extra stuff. You don't need to have the entire PHP default distribution memorized. Just the useful stuff. Anything else, and that's what Google's for.
As far as making money, most of what you see around here is graphical, as that's what most people around here want. There are plugins that people pay for as well, but they're mostly by big name people with proven quality (not to say newbies shouldn't try, though).
yeah but i don't find any other detailed advanced html guides and information other than w3schools
I understand basic things like you mentioned e.g loops, if, functions etc as i code basic things in vb.net and c# and javascipt/jquery
To be honest HTML doesn't ever get advanced
. The tags are all pretty simple to understand even the new HTML5 ones.
If you feel you have that down start getting into CSS which again isn't complicated but when combined with HTML is pretty powerful.
Then if you want to stay with the front end get into javascript/jquery which are going to be harder to wrap your head around.
Or, if you want to work on the backend start learning php/mysql.