DescentBB

Well, I was thinking about jumping back into the world of web-programming. I guess along the path at some point I dropped it off to make the load lighter to pack. However, a pretty good oportunity has shown up recently so I thought I might pick it back up.


So, what programming langauges are the best out there at the moment? I know PHP at least was the big deal a few years ago. I'm not sure if it still is. I also need some good web programming books. Can anyone give me some good recommendations?

PHP is still a big deal, especially with the OO improvements that came in PHP5. If you're going to use PHP, it should be with PHP5.

A lot of enterprise-level applications are beginning to use ASP.NET with VB.NET or C#. To be honest, I've done no more than dabble, but the wholly OO approach ASP.NET shares with JSP is a good deal.

PHP and/or Ruby on Rails. Rails is complicated but does a lot of your work for you if you're writing a complicated RDBMS-backed application. PHP is wonderfully simple.

I was able to pick up enough PHP to get by from the PHP home page. Most Rails programmers get started here.

Rails also gives you some Ajax features, but for real Ajax programming GWT kicks ass. It lets you write client-side code in Java, debug it in a Java environment, and then compile it into JavaScript to deploy.

If you're really gonna get into it, yeah, try everything. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of PHP, ASP/VBScript, ASP.NET, JSP, & Ruby on Rails, plus anything else that sounds interesting.

There are so many people ignorant in the industry about development methods/lifecycles that it's almost sickening. Read about MVC architectures (page vs. front vs. application controllers), code generation techniques and usage (RoR, XDoclet, etc), n-tier design (domain model, service layer, etc), and more will come as you go.

Each technology offers something different, and/or similiar techniques via ported libraries (or stolen ideas, LOL).

Good stuff! Go hither & have fun!

P.S. If you want to make good money, ASP.NET (C#) and Java/JSP (J2EE, Struts, & Taglibs) are the way to go.

Learn all the tools like Verran stated so well above and then find the tools you are most comfortable at using to get better at things.

You will find that sometimes you will have no choice but to mix several things into the same page... VB Script, Java Script, etc.

On thing I like about ASP pages is that the actual ASP is not shown on the resulting page because the server side includes take care of things nicely.

Here's an example:
http://www.stormtracker.net/FotoMover.a ... 39&COLOR=1

The above web page is actually made up of 3 different ASP files that all cooperate with each other.

First one drives the web page. It parses a directory tree then allows whomever is browsing the web page to choose from a list of users that have images, then allows selecting a date tree under that user, and finally allows selecting time directory tree that is under it.

Second one builds thumbnails on the right and can change which thumbnail is presently being displayed in the slide in the center of the page.

Third one controls the slideshow presentation. It has a built-in timer to allow a smooth slideshow presentation on the web.

Enjoy!

Saw a demonstration yesterday (August 31, 2006) here in Oklahoma City where a Microsoft Team Programmer showed us the very nice and new features available.

One of the extremely handy things shown for web page development using Visual Studio .Net 2005 was an emerging technology known as Atlas... It is part of ASP.

Here's a link to Atlas:
http://atlas.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabid=47

Wheeeeeee!