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0 points
Submitted by AJHopke
over 10 years

Random, probably stupid questions

2 days ago i had no clue about coding, I had heard about it but knew nothing about it, I saw something about thins on TV so i was bored and I have always wanted to make a website so I decided to try it. I love it, its not near as confusing as i thought it would be. Im very new to this and dont know very many terms and I don’t have a broad understanding of the concept of coding other than what i have learned 89% through the html course. keeping that in mind my questions are; 1. How do I actually do this and where can I make a website with my own codes? 2.is it free or does it cost money?3. I am an aspiring entrepreneur and i have developed an idea for a company that would require a website, if i were to continue learning coding,would I be able to make the website on my own and it look as nice and modern like this on as opposed to a 1998 armature looking page? BTW I think what your doing is great! thanks for the lessons!

Answer 52a9470552f8637448000cfb

12 votes

Permalink

It will all depend how fast a learner you are. There is a mountain of stuff to learn when we’re just starting out; and I mean, a MOUNTAIN.

Any serious learner, especially one with your aspirations, will want to immerse one’s self in all the documentation that can be found at W3C, and elsewhere, as well as gain a complete understanding of Web Accessibility standards and recommendations. There is a lot more than meets the eye once we begin fashioning production pages for the web. Take three months and get down and dirty learning as much HTML and CSS as you can.

Build practice projects on your own system, or create practice projects on jsfiddle, jsbin, github and elsewhere. You don’t need to be scripting yet, but you can work on HTML and CSS alone. When you are comfortable with the two, then jump into JavaScript. Don’t hurry it, though. Make some nice HTML/CSS pages, first. Make lots of them, and set them to different layouts: one column, two column, three column.

Try to build a few pages with TABLE (people will cringe when they see this, but no mind) so you can learn the in’s and out’s of this form of layout. Yes, tables are for data, you’ll read this everywhere, but they can be used for layout, too. I’m not advocating, only suggesting you get this part of page creation under your belt, then move on to CSS layouts. You’ll thank me later.

Get to know all the sites that focus heavily on HTML and CSS, listapart, HTML Dog, HTML Doctor, SitePoint, to name just a few. Really immerse yourself in the discussions on various layout and positioning techniques, and the pro’s and con’s of each. Again, you’ll thank me later if you do. JavaScript means so much more when we are not grappling with HTML and CSS concepts. It’s pretty much a walk in the park when we can focus only on learning this part of the DOM, and how we can interact with the HTML and CSS.

points
Submitted by Roy
over 10 years

4 comments

Idris almost 9 years

thanks for your comment bro, you’ve said it all, exactly the kind of advice i needed.

Mohammad Daud Ibrahim over 8 years

@ ROY …….Is Learning HTML & CSS from CodeCademy not good enough to move on to further languages like JavaScript

Roy over 8 years

It’s enough of an introduction to be able to move on. Just an introduction, mind, so continue to dig in and learn more from other sources. Jump into the JavaScript track and the jQuery track. Pick up the fundamentals and build upon that. The learning has just begun so hunker down for the long haul. What you learn here is good enough to open a lot of doors.

Mohammad Daud Ibrahim over 8 years

Your words are insipirng . Thanks Mate .

Answer 52ab56b452f8631eaa003264

3 votes

Permalink

Roy, thank you for your response that really helped a lot. I will focus on only html for now until I am comfortable with it. I don’t know anything about JavaScript right now but i hope to learn it in the future as well. I consider myself a fast learner and since im an unemployed college student I have lots of free time, and use most of that time to learn about things that have nothing to do with my studies. So hopefully I can figure this stuff out, my goal is to make a website on my own for a company that I dream of one day opening. The website would be where most orders would be taken, so its going to be more complex than i can currently wrap my mind around right now. Would that be possible to do as an amateur? Or does something like that take years of schooling? If so I still enjoy it so I would still do it to keep my mind busy but if possible I would like to build the website on my own for many reasons.

Thanks

points
Submitted by AJHopke
over 10 years

4 comments

Roy over 10 years

It is possible to do anything as an amateur, so don’t worry that the bars are up, they are not. But more than barriers, there a pitfalls. We may be comfortable, we may be building awesome pages, yet we may also be falling into some of those pits. For a project as ambitious as yours sounds, a collaborative approach is a better one than going it alone. You may not ‘know’ everything your collaborators know, but you will understand. We need to be able to spot when we’re in over our head. Never underestimate the value of getting the right kind of help (and paying for it) when you need it.

AJHopke over 10 years

yeah I was wanting to keep cost down by doing it myself, and i dont know anybody who can code or script. I figure its extremely ambitious and know I cant do it myself but it would at least save me some money wouldn’t it?

Roy over 10 years

Most of the basics are pretty easy to do by one’s self. As long as your site is strictly a brochure (Read only) then you can do it all by yourself, though you might want to consult a graphic artist (unless you’re gifted that way, yourself) with lots of web experience, and who knows and understands CSS. It’s when you begin handling user data on the server that you need expertise, else find yourself in whole heap of turds when the server gets hacked and all your user data gets into the wrong hands. This bridge is a ways off, so keep forging ahead.

AJHopke over 10 years

ok that clears things up, thanks

Answer 54c66d31d3292f6cc700621b

1 vote

Permalink

i kind of think for a startup entrepreneur, it might be better to look for some website builder. like strikingly, wix, weebly, name it.

most of them have free versions. (without custom domain)—- anyway you will pay for your own domain even if you build the site entirely by yourself)

it’s always a good idea to learn coding, html or javascript. and as Roy said, it’s a mountain. i just think if you’ve got some good ideas, it would be better to execute it soon. let the rock roll!

p.s. you may use your own html skills to polish your site once you get hang on it.

points
Submitted by yybur
about 9 years