Computer Science Canada

Newb question

Author:  LDR- [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 6:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Newb question

Hi. I'm very new to web design, but I am really eager to learn. I would like to know some names of some comprehensive text books that will help me learn how to put together a website. Any clues towards some good authors in the area or some names of some good textbooks is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Author:  RandomLetters [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:03 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth

Author:  LDR- [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

Expensive volumes. They've received very good reviews though. Thank you.

Author:  DemonWasp [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:10 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

I'm not sure what RandomLetters is banging on about; his suggestion is a book about algorithms with examples in a hypothetical assembly language (not useful for web development by any stretch of the imagination).

Book-wise, you'd be best to find an O'Reilly book (http://oreilly.com/) on the languages / technologies you want to learn and start there. You can pick up the required knowledge piecemeal by searching the Internet, but for a comprehensive education you need to read a LOT, whether in a book or on the Internet. Probably better to start with a book.

Author:  ProgrammingFun [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:52 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

My experience has been that the best resource for learning web design is looking and playing with code found on good looking websites (this can be done using "Inspect Element" after right-click in Chrome) and Google in general (I have designed and coded a few professional websites).

You should probably Google lessons on basic HTML (w3schools, although being boycotted, is pretty good), CSS (Google search and w3schools), PHP (Google), and optionally, JavaScript.

The best platform to start developing through would be WordPress because although they seem like a blog, they are also one of the most popular Content Management System (CMS) solution.

Author:  Brightguy [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:Newb question

LDR- @ Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:09 pm wrote:
Expensive volumes. They've received very good reviews though. Thank you.

You got trolled. (They are great books though.)

Author:  LDR- [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

What do you mean trolled?

I've already purchased them...

Author:  Tony [ Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:48 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

Great book for Computer Science -- theory, algorithms, programming, backend... not much on "design" though.

It depends on what exactly you want to be doing though.

Author:  LDR- [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:33 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

I want to know how to create web sites. I have some experience with photo manipulations in photoshop, though i'm not very good yet. Ultimately I'd just like to understand how to make an entire website from scratch. I want to have my own site .

Author:  Brightguy [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:Newb question

LDR- @ Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:32 pm wrote:
I've already purchased them...

They won't tell you how to create a website. Hit Wall

LDR- @ Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:33 am wrote:
Ultimately I'd just like to understand how to make an entire website from scratch.

To start with, you want to learn HTML. There are many, many books and websites on this.

Author:  Velocity [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:05 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

html is quite simple, i learned all the basics to make a simple website on my own and used w3schools to pick up the general skills, all round it took me about 30 mins to understand the main concept aside from my amazing memory... Now after 2 months with html, xhtml, and javascript i make my own website, and personally i find hava scropt very neat towards what it allows you to do with or to your or other peoples websites.

Author:  Tony [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:25 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

That's a good goal to have. It's also a long way to go, depending on the complexity of the website. This complexity comes in layers, depending on what you want a website to do.

- data-store -- could be a database, could be some flat files. Or something in between.
- application layer -- taking the data, and processing it in some way.
- rendering stuff to HTML, the markup language of the webpages
- client-side -- e.g. JavaScript; if things need to happen on the page, after it was delivered
- CSS, graphics, design -- making things look pretty

if the website is static enough, everything could be rolled into a single HTML page. Good place to start experimenting, but bad idea in practice.

Depending on what kind of a website you want to build, you'd need some or all of those layers.

Author:  Velocity [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:35 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

tony that is one organized post, oh and if you would still like to learn i can pm you a list of amazing video tutorials that have helped me.

Author:  LDR- [ Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:Newb question

Quote:
They won't tell you how to create a website. Hit Wall


Good thing I didn't get them.


I purchased the dreamweaver CS5 classroom in a book to help me along the way, but if you could PM me those tutorials that would be great too.

Author:  Velocity [ Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:50 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

ever heard of skidrow?

Author:  bcniweb [ Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:34 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Newb question

I recommend you:

Don't Make Me Think - A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability by Steve Krug.

This is a very popular book and it helps you to get a better idea of how a website must be created. Even if this is a usability book I find it very useful when you start to create a website.

Another book would be The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird. This book helped me a lot to get around on how a website should look and feel.

None of these books are about HTML or CSS both are explaining how a website should be.

Hope that you will find them useful.

Author:  kevlarsen [ Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Newb question

I've looked into this for a long time. I do have my own website at http://learningbridgespot.com

Books:
Learning Web Design, 3rd ed by Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Creating a Web Site, 2nd ed by Matthew MacDonald
Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML & CSS, 3rd ed by Ian Lloyd
Web Design All-in-One For Dummies by Sue Jenkins

Websites:
Team Treehouse http://teamtreehouse.com
Tuts+ http://tutsplus.com
Lynda.com http://lynda.com
The Challenge http://challenge.co <- for making a commerce website, free course, I used it to make my bridge website


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