I am a C/C++ programmer with more than 10 years of experience. I also know python and perl, but I've never used this languages for a web development.
Now for some reasons I want to move into the web development realm and as part of that transition I have to learn css, javascript, (x)html etc.
So I need an advice for a good sources of information for such topics. For a while I don't want to read lengthy tutorials, I want something quick and dirty, something to start with.
W 3 Schools is a neat beginner/novice reference and tutorial site.
The site covers most technologies used in web-development.
The W3Schools site has a try it yourself section that i think will be perfect for you.
W3 Schools is always an excellent resource for entry into web development. It covers CSS, XHTML, Javascript and more. The examples are ready and you can alter and test them
Kind Regards,
Andrew
Since you are an experienced programmer, a good place to start with javascript might be Javascript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford. It is a brief but thorough tour of, well, the best parts of javascript (and pretty much all you'll need for quite a while).
Your approach to CSS and HTML will have to be very different. I suggest trying to make a static site or two, checking reference material if you get stuck. Pick a site that you like, and try recreating the basic layout in HTML. Got the layout? Try making it look pretty. Repeat.
I would highly recommend you look at Dev Opera, its full of up to date information with a strong focus on webstandards. In particular, the Web Standards Curriculum is a great resource for beginners to get started.
I really wouldn't rely on the W3 Schools site, its content isn't kept as up to date and the examples often show bad-practice. If you know what you're doing it can be good as a quick resource for a single technique, but for a beginner it could easily lead you down the wrong path.
My favourite CSS tutorial site has always been www.htmldog.com. The reason I like it so much is that not only does it teach you CSS, it also teaches you to drop any bad html habits you may have picked up over the years. In my view learning to write clean, semantic html is an important precursor to really getting to grips with css.
As for javascript, w3schools is probably best
You can learn style and best practices on A List Apart web site.
I found http://htmldog.com/ to be useful when learning HTML/CSS. It teaches w3c compliant HTML and CSS, unlike many other sites. Looking at other people's CSS is also really useful. CSS is pretty simple (ignoring all the browser incompatibilites), so even will little CSS knowledge you can figure out what other people are doing.
Javascript is more complicated. Javascript has a pretty strange object system (it uses prototypal inheritance), so it's best to pick up a book. Crockford's Javascript: The Good Parts is an excellenent book to learn the fundamentals of javascript. The thing about javascript is that are basically two parts to it: the language, and the DOM (document object model). Most of the time, javascript is used in the browser, which means it has to interact with HTML via the DOM. Many people don't realize that javascript can be used outside of a web browser. JS: The Good Parts will teach you the javascript core, then you can look up the DOM interaction elsewhere.
W3Schools is a good place to start.
However, you might also benefit by poking around the Mozilla Developer Centre (MDC), which has lots of information about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I now almost exclusively use the MDC for looking things up—it has lots of examples, lots of detail (if you want to go into it), and it shows you many different things that you can do with the item you're looking up.
Also, for JavaScript, after you've learnt the basics ("A re-introduction to JavaScript" on the MDC is a good place to start), Douglas Crockford's JavaScript page and John Resig's "Learning Advanced JavaScript" make for excellent reading.
Steve
I won't suggest w3schools for CSS and XHTML, but htmldog.com. I would suggest something about unobtrouse JavaScript for JS.
Install firebug.
Here is a nice article explaining the some features of firebug.
Opera recently put a lot of effort into getting people to write a bunch of tutorials. The quality is high, and they pay attention to feedback (unlike W3Schools). It covers HTML, CSS and JavaScript and I haven't come across a better starting point.