

Ask HN: Where did you learn Web Development? - shahedkhan30

A lot of (young) people ask me where I learned HTML/CSS, and front end web development. I tell them to check out W3schools or tizag.com, but they often ask me if theirs an easier way, and something (not-so-boring).<p>So I asked myself whats a better spot than HN to ask this question?<p>Where did you guys learn basic (and moderate) Web Development?
How did you guys practice programming? (Create websites, watch tutorials on Youtube, etc)<p>It will be interesting to learn from the community itself.
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rickr
As someone who taught himself programming at a young age, perhaps my
experiences may be helpful.

My first two "languages" were HTML and qbasic, both of which were learned
loosely from books. HTML was "HTML for dummies", and basic from whatever was
available at the library at the time. While HTML is not a programming language
it was a way for me to type in "cryptic" text and see meaningful output, which
as a youngin' was enough to give me the bug.

I say loosely learned from books because with each language I had a project in
mind while learning it. I was gifted with a domain and webhost which I was
determined to put to use, animated gifs, frames and all. It also provided me
with something to brag about to friends, which again was enticing at a young
age.

As for basic, I still distinctly remember procrastinating my real homework and
studies to write simple programs that I figured would benefit me in the long
run. Things like random math problems, vocabulary tests, practice history
tests etc.

While this may not be directly related to web dev, it may be useful for those
younger folks itching to get into programming. Try to point them in a
direction of a problem in their lives that can be automated, simplified or
enhanced through the learning of a language. I understand that things are a
bit different today but if someone truly wants to learn I think that may be a
good road to travel down.

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kls
I started writing for the web shortly after it was invented less than a year
for sure I learned to develop by hitting gopher (kind of like the web)
documents. It was pretty easy back then. It was just pages, then CGI was added
and I started doing CGI/C perl became popular for it and I taught myself Perl.
Then the frameworks came out ASP, JSP, ColdFusion etc. So for me it has been
an evolution as the industry has evolved. Being in it from the beginning I
must say I have very happy to see the web finally morphing from page base to
application to a more application centric development model with JavaScript
applications. It is what the web should have been a long time ago. But there
was a period where people became client phobic due to Microsoft's grip on the
client. It stymied the industry by a few years for sure.

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duiker101
I they think that Web Development is boring, i would say them: "quit, now, and
never try again.", Developing, anything, it's not boring, it's thinking,
working, studying, you always learn something, you can always make better.

Developing isn't "fun", but it's great to build something on your own and see
you product to evolve.

As i said, you never stop learing if you are a hacker and not just a
programmer that can only make those couple things he was teached, so there is
only one way to learn:

Find something you like,

Check how it's done,

Try do it yourself, try to UNDERSTAND what a code does.(you do not really
understand something untill you think it's obvious)

Make it better.

Repeat.

If you are not passionate about what you do you will always find it boring.

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bo_Olean
First day I opened a web browser was IE6 back in 1998 and the first site was
Google. Somebody explained to me that I can find whatever I wanted using
Google. Voila! But at that very moment I had only one question to ask - "How
_this_ (Google) website was made ?"

I learnt, when I began searching for _how to develop websites_.

When people ask about web development give them keywords to begin with and
hint them to search unless you are being paid to teach them.

Edit: phrases

