Web design, eh?

Learn to keep your emotions hidden. Because on a daily basis, management and fellow employees are going to make "helpful" design suggestions and ridiculous demands. Your insides are going to scream, "No, that's a perfectly awful idea and I hate you." And yet you'll nod encouragingly, keep your rage from your face, and respond, "Hmm. Maybe we could try that." Practice this.

This looks great. Real great. But can we see it in pink? Oh, and move this over here. Oh, and it would be cool if the homepage opened with a movie every time you visit. Then you click through. Also, make sure you get everybody's email address before they can see any content. Also, the news link is a little subtle. It's news! Think zing and pep. maybe a little star that says "new" so people know when there is new news? Also, I found this really cute panda photo on imgur. Can we put it here? Let's make searching medical records fun.

edit:
Hey, also, can we make our tags not span multiple lines? Because then people won't accidentally make large italicized regions by mistake!

Well for what it is worth I had in mind html5, c++, and java. But a lot of the classes cover these sorts of things already but differ. Like for instance there are classes for specifically databases but they don't cover web design. I can take some kind of web design class but they only cover the basics of programming so far as you need for html and stuff.

My goal:
I want to make databases easier to manage for websites like say Amazon; where they have literally millions of things to keep track of and probably thousands of people working around the clock.

I wan't to make a program that allows much smaller groups of people to edit and access databases like these. But this requires a website be built around the software that I have in mind. The end product would be much cheaper to use then traditional methods.(at least that is my hope)

I could take one of each course for the three things I think I will need but then I don't get any kind of degree to show for it.
I NEED a college degree.
See my above post.

This.

I learnt C++ at uni, 20 years ago ;-(
I was taught by two veteran C programmers that couldn't understand object orientated programming.

It didn't go well.


Later during the dotcom boom I made the mistake of signing up for a remote study course in JAVA. by the time I got to the class based part of the course I knew more than the teacher (by many many levels).

We were also being taught an out of date API too.

I have agree with the earlier post. Go for practical, the more hands on and more stuff you can make the better for the real world. However there is a lot of underlying principles.

If you've got the basics, its easy to swap language later on.

I am allready working on a website but I'm using wordpress so it don't really count imo. Though I can relate to the whole "I want x thing changed on the website" and how when the person I am making the website for makes a request I have to fight tooth and nail to get them to NOT make a change to the website in the exact way they want when it's a bad choice.

If you are good at maths and physics and you can visualize things in your mind then go for .NET, C#, C++.
A good programmer doesn't always need PC output.
You should be good at logic.
A good logic based program saves your time and makes programming easy.
Algorithms are also compulsory as it works as layout for program.
Maths and physics are needed only if you want to go for gaming or graphical work.

For web designing go for recent languages HTML5.
You will have to learn PHP, html , CSS and java.

Believe me if the lecturer is not innovative then your classes will be boring and all you will run for good grades.
It's not always necessary that a good programmer gets good grade.
Most important thing at college is don't lose your creativity.

A web designer:
Focuses on look and feel of a website
Uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Is competent in color scheming, graphic design, and information flow
Creates a great user experience
Is right-brained: Strong intuition, creativity, & imagination
Portfolio is worth more than a degree
Median salary: $47,820

A web developer:
Creates the inner workings of a website
Is competent in programming languages (PHP, .NET, Python, C, Ruby)
Develops the user interface
Is left-brained: logic, linear thinking, technical
Hands-on coding experience is required (either your own products or github)
Median salary: $85,430


Good luck.

Something I'll add for when you do get into the real world.

Depending on what you end up doing, but if your go into internal systems (devloping/maintaining in house system) there will be a point when a manager will ask you to make the system do "X".

They'll go into great detail how they want it to work and how the system works around it.

Once you've got the concept drawn out make sure you go to the actual staff who do the work and talk to them.

On my first real job I spent 6 weeks designing and coding a system based on the manager's specification.

I demo'ed the new module to the bean coounter that did the work, Turns out he didn't actually know how the system worked. the entire thing was a waste of time and needed to be redone.

the new module was much simplier and was coded, tested and running 2 weeks later.

For what its worth, good luck with the studying. :D

Quick note on salary.
With my skill set I should have been raking in £40-60K, but never hit higher the £30k.

the big money a bit of a myth from my view. it is there but requires sacrifice, relocation or long commutes.

Not everyone is a PHP fan: http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/

That sounds like hell on Earth...

Heh, that sounds like the class descriptions of a CRPG. :D Can I multiclass? Are there any level caps? Who would p0wn the other in a PHP duel - the web designer or the web developer? ;)

Personally, I recommend that you start with Python (preferably Python 3). The language is easy to learn and it teaches some good habits (most notably, indentation) and, unlike Java or Scheme, doesn't lock you into a specific programming paradigm. (In particular, while Python supports Object Oriented Programming, you don't *have* to write your code that way.) Not having much boilerplate code is also really helpful; "hello world" is a simple one-liner in Python.

Also, you can easily experiment with Python without having to create and save a file; just run the Python program and enter commands into the Python shell.

Furthermore, there are enough libraries available for Python that it can be used for serious programming; it isn't just a "beginner's language" or a "teaching language".

Once you know Python, you can then go on to other languages. C makes a good second language; it teaches you more about how computers work and can be useful if you ever need to make code run fast. It's not used much in Web Development, but it is still worth knowing, as you might need it.

By the way, if you want to go into writing code that will run on a server, I strongly recommend learning your way around the Linux shell. Sometimes running a GUI is impractical. (In fact, sometimes servers don't even have a monitor in the first place, so you need to ssh in.)

PHP is a class tree of Web Developer, while it counts as a cross-class tree of Web Designer who thus has to spend skill points to learn it, and then the cost of leveling it up is doubled compared to Web Developer.

Also PHP skills below a certain level (relative to the current PHP level of the character) costs no mana of Web Developer, while they still have a cost to Web Designer (even if said mana cost is lower lower than PHP skills closer to the character's PHP level).

The opposite is true of CSS.

Lol because as I said I'm already working on a website using wordpress for someone I know and even though i'm not even using programming to do it, I've already had this exact expierance several times.

So there is this guy who use to be a electrical engineer. He was renowned in his day (the man is in his 80's) as being extremely thorough in his breakdowns of all the parts in the things he was working on.
so he says to me. "hay Jake, the website looks great but I need you to have a list numbered from 1.0/1.01/1.02/exc exc/2.0/2.01 exc exc for EVERY SINGLE LITTLE THING built into the website for users to navigate easily. oh and by the way every time I make a change in the website I want this document (as he calls it) on the website to change in accordance with this"

So I'm like ok . . . so then I work on it and get that part of the site all up and running and he's like "no no no, you have to indent it the same exact way I have it written" But I smile while raging inside because the template he chose does not allow indenting the way he wants it to. If I was to change the template then the whole site goes to shit.

I smile while trying to explain why his request is stupid. and all the while I never wanted to put the whole numbered document thingy in the site to begin with because most people are use to a traditional site map that is simple to use and groups things so you don't get a huge ass wall of text.

Aaaany ways I ended up convincing him to hire a programmer to make a algorithm so that any time I edit something or add something to the website it automatically updates the document and also the guy somehow got only that page to be formatted properly.
Ima nerd and I hope classes are taught like this lmao.