what coding should i learn?

[Zokoli]

tell me what i should learn.
apart from html xoxoxoxox

[Mentor]

xhtml, css and javascript.
Once you can put together a basic static site, then maybe move on to php/perl/asp/ruby on rails etc.

Php is my personal recommendtion though :P

Also, you may wana start looking at framworks for the js too, dojo and jquery are both great :)

[Zokoli]

xhtml, css and javascript.
Once you can put together a basic static site, then maybe move on to php/perl/asp/ruby on rails etc.

Php is my personal recommendtion though :P

Also, you may wana start looking at framworks for the js too, dojo and jquery are both great :)

Thanks!
+rep if possible.

[BoyBetterKnow]

Don't bother learning xHTML, HTML is fine.

[Josh-H]

Forget about javascript at the moment, html+css first then basic php.

[Fehm]

I agree with the above post. Maybe learning the basics of MySQL [You kinda pick up on these when your learning PHP anyway] and you'll soon get the hang of it :)

I prefer PHP though :P

[Mentor]

I still say learn to make a basic page properly, then worry about the backend.

Knowing php/sql/ruby/perl/cold fusion/etc is all well and good, but if you cant even put together a valid xhtml/css/javascript page what good are they really. The backends nothing without a front end.

Html 4 has huge limitations and will become almost totally useless as xhtml and html 5 start moving in. You cant do these things without javascript and a probabaly a good framwork to handle the dynamic elements, unless you think you can find jobs developing web 1.0 pages for companys who like there sites to seem as if they were built in the 90's.
JS and xhtml (even though html5 is likely the future, the style and form you learn from xhtml are invaluable) are very important :)

[Iszak]

Html 4 has huge limitations and will become almost totally useless as xhtml and html 5 start moving in.
I don't really agree with this, HTML 4.01 doesn't have huge limitations - we've been using it for many years and in fact for a lot of people it's no better than using XHTML. As for XHTML the team are going to stop development at the end of this year to focus on HTML 5 (http://www.w3.org/News/2009#item119), so what does that say about the future of XHTML? HTML 5 is the future!

As for what language(s) to learn, as most people have suggested getting down the basic is best HTML/CSS then if you want to move to back end PHP probably has the easiest learning curve. If you want to get into JavaScript then definitely learn the syntax and then try a framework (I recommend jQuery) and knowing CSS will help as most JS frameworks use CSS selectors to select elements.

[Mentor]

I don't really agree with this, HTML 4.01 doesn't have huge limitations - we've been using it for many years and in fact for a lot of people it's no better than using XHTML. As for XHTML the team are going to stop development at the end of this year to focus on HTML 5 (http://www.w3.org/News/2009#item119), so what does that say about the future of XHTML? HTML 5 is the future!
In the same way html5 is taking over from html 4, xhtml 2.0 is also underdevelopment to take over from xhtml.
The big advantage of learning xhtml, which is in most ways essentially the same as html is purely for good style. You learn to close and order your tags properly as well as adhere to good formatting conventions such as lowercase attributes. All great if your going to be developing sites that isn't just for yourself.
Plus you do at current get a massive advantage in browser support - xhtml 1.1 dtd will actually look the same even in ie6 (no other dtd i've used has managed this)

Equally though i do think html5 is the way to go, xhtml 2.0 is pushing the xml bit a little far for me which is resulting in some funky code :P

[Iszak]

The big advantage of learning xhtml, which is in most ways essentially the same as html is purely for good style. You learn to close and order your tags properly as well as adhere to good formatting conventions such as lowercase attributes. All great if your going to be developing sites that isn't just for yourself.
Seems like you're caught up in a lot of the XHTML myths, check this out and it'll clear it up - http://www.webdevout.net/articles/beware-of-xhtml


xhtml 1.1 dtd will actually look the same even in ie6 (no other dtd i've used has managed this)
I believe that XHTML 1.1 has to adhere to the content type of "application/xhtml+xml" which isn't supported in any Internet Explorer browser - so I don't know where you got your results from. When you send XHTML as "text/html" to many browsers it's often (and IE is one of them) it's rendered as broken HTML check that link for more information.

[Mentor]

Seems like you're caught up in a lot of the XHTML myths, check this out and it'll clear it up - http://www.webdevout.net/articles/beware-of-xhtml


I believe that XHTML 1.1 has to adhere to the content type of "application/xhtml+xml" which isn't supported in any Internet Explorer browser - so I don't know where you got your results from. When you send XHTML as "text/html" to many browsers it's often (and IE is one of them) it's rendered as broken HTML check that link for more information.
The results are from ie6 and most those myths contradict each other, the comments on xhtml validation is an outright lie and it does enforce styling constraints which after claiming it doesn't then goes on to say it does, but this is now somehow a bad thing?

Equally html 5 borrows alot of stuff that was developed as part of the xhtml specification, so yea its kinda true when it says xhtml 1.1 isnt future proof in terms of xhtml 2.0, but it neglects to mention xhtml 1.1 code is more future proof in terms of html 5 than html 4.1 would be. The rest of the myths i've never heard of an expect were just made up so the article writer had more to disagree with.

[Dentafrice]

That goes on to prove; that just because some random article says it.. doesn't mean it's true.

[Iszak]

Caleb a lot of what it says in the article is true, and it's a well respected article by a lot of professionals at CSS, you should consider reading it too.

[Dentafrice]

Well considering the link is down..