I would avoid the dummies books. They are so unhelpful. They tell you the basics of basics and that is it. You are left hang to dry. Waste of time. I only say this with programming and hi-tech. The dummies book on Type II diabetes is superb.
wow really? I thought Dreamweaver was the best. I googled top tools used by web designers, and that always came up. I always see Dreamweaver everywhere I look. what tools do you use? If you dont mind me asking. It seems that notpad is good for me to start with, but I also have evernote and that shows me the results of the code ive typed. what do you think?
It's like fake UI programming. I mean there are a lot of companies that use it. But I hated it. I use eclipse as my IDE (interactive development environment). But initially I used Notepad++. I also used Netbeans but prefer eclipse now.
After starting with Dreamweaver, I went on to use Blueprints, which is nice but confused me. These days I hand craft everything since it is the best possible worlds for me by making the UI easier and more straight forward. Especially when you start using javascript, jQuery, Ajax, etc.
This becomes a bigger issue when you get into what are you really creating: a website or a web app. With web app, avoid Dreamweaver since Dreamweaver is more oriented for static content.
If doing a website, there are plenty of other choices: drupal, wordpress, joomla.
Personally I would rather use a php framework even then such as cakephp, codeignitier or non-php: Django or RoR since they are robust and have lots of plugins to make most features needed easy to implement.
Thanks for your thoughts! One project or my main project is going to be like facebook for an untapped market. So with that being said, can Python help with that? I thought python was similar to Java. Just programming apps or software, not websites? Do you think i should start looking for a tech co-founder agian?
Everything you learn about programming will help you if you decide to find a technical cofounder.
"Facebook for an untapped market" already exists, its called facebook. But really, you understand how facebook works and so making this site is a reasonable thing to play around with-- well, making the very basics of a site like this would be a good start.
Programming languages are like speaking languages. You don't have specific languages for specific types of books, right? So you can write websites in any language, or shrinkwrapped software in any language. That said some are easier than others.
Python would be a good choice because it is easier than java and popular for web development.
Others recommended PHP which I understand is very easy, but not good for getting good programming practices under your belt.
I think you should build a static website (which is just HTML and maybe some CSS) and put it on your domain. This would be a good first step.
Then look at making a little more interactivity.
You might check out google app engine. Free hosting and they have lots of tutorials and they have a simple web framework written in python you can use. (I learned what I know of python by working thru the app engine tutorials. prior to that I hadn't used python.)
Thank you. Now for finding a tech co-founder.. do you know of any sites? Would a NDA need to be present? What percent of the company should the tech have? They are doing most of the work.
ok, this is the problem. Nooooo. You will be doing a shit load of work too. Why?
You must validate the market and make sure there are users who will take money out of their wallet for this: either as direct or indirect (advertisers).
Your job will be to find what is working and not working.
Forget programming, make pencils sketches even - then talk to the people that will be using this. You will be working twice or more harder than the programmer.
I already recommend a slew of programming books. Forget reading. Don't be like me. I read and read and read. I do actually do but I read too much. Just do it.
What is the problem you are solving?
Why is they a problem?
How much does this problem cost?
Who is looking for a solution to this problem? Is it a problem they already know is a problem for them. Do they recognize they need to do something about it? What happens if they do nothing about it? Why bother changing from status quo?
Where are they? How will you find them? How will you get their attention.
Now do it. Call them, meet with them, ask them is this a really a problem.
Show them the sketch, will this solution help them with their problem.
How is this problem affecting their life.
What will their life be without the problem.
Now ask them how much would they pay $5, $15, $30 (give only 3 choices).
I am sorry I do not know shortcuts. I only know grunt work.
