Ask YC: Learning Web Development, were should I start? • Hacker News Board

I'm sure you'll get downvoted for that because of the l33t crowd here, but I'd have to agree that if you don't know conventional programming, a super straightforward language like PHP is better for learning web programming, as opposed to languages like Python/Ruby that are general purpose languages suited to programming.

Re: Ask YC: Learning Web Development, were should I start?

#55

Post by tzury » Wed, Feb 27, 2008, 9:40 PM UTC

SQL is a language that will take you half a day to learn and you will use it for the rest of your life. Since it varies from platform to platform you better pick the one you are going to use (Postgres, mySQL, etc.) -- Don't fall into those ORM which hides the database behind a "nice" api. for programming I would suggest you Python. The best place to start is by looking at http://webpy.org which is a compact yet robust web framework in Python.

good-luck

Re: Ask YC: Learning Web Development, were should I start?

#56

Post by iamelgringo » Wed, Feb 27, 2008, 11:28 PM UTC

nickb wrote: post #12

rapind wrote: post #9

Ruby on Rails. I recommend following a screencast tutorial, like the ones at lynda.com http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=324 Sure rails hides a lot but it'll introduce you to some best practices, like the concept of MVC etc.

I agree. Rails is currently the way to go. It's much more mature than Django and has more flexibility and more mature gems/plugins. Lynda tutorials are great. I'd also recommend free ones: http://railscasts.com/ http://www.akitaonrails.com/2008/2/1/rolling-with-rails-2-0-... And for-pay ones at http://www.peepcode.com Also, grab "The Rails Way" book by Obie Fernandez (it's THE BEST book on Rails.. when you learn the…

I'd disagree for someone unfamiliar with programming as the author seems to be. Ruby isn't a good starter language, IMO. It has a bit too much magic for beginners for my taste. It's absorbed a bit too much from Perl in that it's a lot easier to write than to read. When people are first learning a language, I'd suggest a language that has a little more structure to it than Ruby. That's why I suggested Python and Django.

I really don't have anything against Ruby and Rails. I really like the Rails framework and there's a lot of great stuff there. I just don't think that Ruby is a best first language to learn.

Re: Ask YC: Learning Web Development, were should I start?

#57

Post by mkumm » Thu, Feb 28, 2008, 12:49 AM UTC

bprater wrote: post #39

tel wrote: post #3

Write a toy web server. It'll get you up to par with how the requests actually happen which is a good base for understanding CGI and the more complex systems.

He is just figuring out HTML. You are joking right?

I actually agree. I have been programming for the web for about 8 years now and looking back, I wish that the web server had not been such a mystery - it would have been helpful.

Re: Ask YC: Learning Web Development, were should I start?

#58

Post by german » Thu, Feb 28, 2008, 2:51 PM UTC

iamelgringo wrote: post #56

nickb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Rails is currently the way to go. It's much more mature than Django and has more flexibility and more mature gems/plugins. Lynda tutorials are great. I'd also recommend free ones: http://railscasts.com/ http://www.akitaonrails.com/2008/2/1/rolling-with-rails-2-0-... And for-pay ones at http://www.peepcode.com Also, grab "The Rails Way" book by Obie Fernandez (it's THE BEST book on Rails.. when you learn the…

I'd disagree for someone unfamiliar with programming as the author seems to be. Ruby isn't a good starter language, IMO. It has a bit too much magic for beginners for my taste. It's absorbed a bit too much from Perl in that it's a lot easier to write than to read. When people are first learning a language, I'd suggest a language that has a little more structure to it than Ruby. That's why I suggested Python and Djang…

I'm going for Python. :)