Which web technology[ies] should I learn?

Question

Hey guys,

I have never done any web development but am very interested in learning some web technologies. I believe I have a fairly solid understanding about programming, so I think picking up different languages/technologies shouldn't be too difficult. I am a junior in college, majoring in CS, and would like to work on a couple of small projects on the side. One of the first ideas I'd like to work on is a web app (game), where you join a room and play a simple game (roll a dice, do something, wait till your next turn -- repeat until there is a winner). Basically, my question is what technologies should I learn that will help me implement this idea in the best and most easy way?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Well it depends heavilly on what you want to develop as you learn. That idea for a game could be realised with many things like Flash of course, jquery if its not too heavy graphically, or canvas on html5 if browser support is not an issue. Or just plain html with text/images but that would be ugly and not very good at learning you stuff.

As for the backend php is easy to pickup but it depends on your style and background. Some peoples hate php if you are like that then look into asp or ruby or some other language there are many.

Look at how similar projects where built it should help you chose a language/technology.

If you want to use Ruby on Rails you might enjoy these videocasts

Answer 2

Javascript is the way to go, though you will find plenty of games in Flash, Silverlight and Java. With Javascript, there are plenty of helpful libraries you could (but don't necessarily need to) learn, like JQuery.

For your server code, you can pretty much take your pick. PHP, Python, Ajaxian, Ruby, ASP.NET, etc. are all fine. It's just a matter of what you have support for on a host and what suits your fancy.

MySQL databases also tend to be handy.

Even if you pick something obscure or wonky, there's no harm in trying things out for yourself, so go nuts!

Answer 3

If you're interested in a rich interactive client experience you should give SproutCore a look. It's written entirely in JavaScript and supports all major browsers. In many cases it can do what people would normally do with Flash. Also, the newest versions have full touch support for mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. You can get more information at sproutcore.com. If you have questions be sure to check out the IRC channel at #sproutcore and the mailing list at [email protected].

Answer 4

First you will have to decide based on your background whether you want to go which way in terms of .Net/Java/PHP and couple more out there. If you choose Java (as I am from Java, so easier to answer), you can pick JSP-Servlet/JSF/Wicket/Spring MVC/GWT etc. A good choice can be roo to start with.

Apart from this a good grounding on HTML/CSS/Javascript and HTTP protocol is invariably required