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Web designer learning to program?

fustini

In a recent discussion (http://www.element14.com/community/message/79513#79147), Qasim Ahmed

asked, as a designer who only knows HTML, what would be the best programming language for him to learn.  I wrote the following:

 

Since you are interested in web development, then I would suggest that you learn Javascript.  It is heavily used on the "front-end"/UI of websites (Facebook, Gmail, Google Maps, and even this very one, element14 Community).  CodeAcademy is a great site to learn it:

 

http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/javascript

 

The Khan Academy also uses it to teach Computer Science:

 

https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/tutorials/programming-basics

 

Javascript can also be used to interact with the physical using the BeagleBone Black and the Bonescript javascript library (control LEDs & motors, read sensors, more!):

 

http://beagleboard.org/static/bonescript/bone101/#(8)

 

Javascript is also used to create servers and full web applications these days with node.js:

 

http://www.nodebeginner.org/#javascript-and-nodejs

 

My suggestion for your second language would be Python:

 

http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python

 

It's used often to write the server-side ("back-end") of web applications and all kinds of other softwar, too.  It's a favorite for automating processes too (e.g. scripting).  Google is also a huge user of Python (in fact the creator, Guido, works for them).  Raspberry Pi tutorials for programming and electronics projects also heavily features Python (http://learn.adafruit.com/category/raspberry-pi).

 

Cheers,

Drew

  • It would be interesting to see the original code  to see how confident the OP is with HTML and the javascript needed to run the functionality presented in the screen shot. image

     

    As for knowing which language(s) to learn, it boils down to what it is you're trying to achieve and how it will be delivered to the user. From my understanding, languages are fairly similar in that they follow and execute a set of procedures, and often similar syntax (C, C++, Perl, Java, PHP, el al), but it is variations in the syntax (words and structures) used and the language's capabilities that differ. If you learn one language it should be relatively easy to learn another, it is not like learning Chinese and then learning German. Decide what it is you want to achieve and then look at the tools other people use to achieve the same thing; you will find that some languages can do a job better than others.

     

    I learned Pascal in school but had no problem learning HTML/CSS, and PHP in my spare time by playing around with the code, as you only need a basic text editor and a web browser it is something anyone can learn. There are so many tutorials, templates and tools available to us that even the toughest of endeavours are achievable now. Two weeks ago I thought it would be out of my reach for many years to come, to be able to design, program and build a microchip embedded system - but that was before finding out about the Raspberry Pi and all of the development kits available to us. image