What to learn?

[Bokehman]

Would appreciate some insight from people on the learning curve for all this web stuff.

I’m a long time print designer (25 yrs.) and am trying to learn as much as I can on the development side. I think I have a decent handle on HTML and CSS. JQuery I’m really struggling with, for some reason.

Is there a particular area, or order I should be learning things here? Would learning WordPress be more important than JQuery? That sort of thing. There just seems to be so much I’m finding it difficult to focus.

Thanks in advance.

[Roxon]

I would hit jQuery first, just because you can do all sorts of things with it when developing WordPress themes. Google up some tutorials on jQuery – what part are you struggling with, specifically?

[Bokehman]

I don’t know if there’s any one specific thing i’m finding difficult with JQuery – i’m just not enjoying it as much as CSS. I think I got used to how clean CSS looks, and JQuery seems more intimidating to me. I usually learn a few different ways, books, lynda.com, blogs, and this site, of course.

I find a lot of the tutorials dive into coding right away, and I’d like a little background on how it works, semantics, etc …

I just haven’t found my “a ha” moment in JQuery yet.

[DboG]

Just by wanting to do it and persisting you’ve already done half the work.

Have you worked with JavaScript before? If you haven’t, it’s probably a good idea to start there and learn the fundamentals. I know some folks who have tried to jump into jQuery without getting at least a basic handle on JavaScript and it proved challenging for them. Because it’s a scripting language it can be more complex than style sheets or markup languages, so I think there’s definite advantages to taking the time to start from square one.

[Bokehman]

I considered learning JS first and decided to go with JQuery. Maybe that was a bad idea. I know Chris and others might disagree, but I think I need the background.

I also thought I’d “just” learn Dreamweaver to start, then hit a roadblock at CSS. So I cracked the books on CSS, then got stuck on HTML. In the end, I wound everything back to the very start and learned by hand coding both HTML and CSS. Haven’t touched DW since.

[TheDoc]

This seems to come up quite often. Dreamweaver is a perfectly acceptable program to code by hand in, I do it on a daily basis when I’m stuck using a PC at the office.

Personally, if you feel like you really have a grasp of HTML and CSS I would start looking into WordPress.

[Luminated]

I’m with Doc. Dreamweaver has nothing to do with a unique style of building websites unless you don’t know how to code (in which case all it does is use pre-made templates, there’s no proprietary code).

“Learning” Dreamweaver can be a lot more than just using the templates and the Design view. It’s INCREDIBLY useful for coding by hand. Shortcuts, code snippets/hinting, file organization & management, direct FTP access, it’s my best friend for coding.

I also agree about WordPress being next. jQuery is incredibly useful but you can easily learn that alongside WordPress. At the end of the day, you can build a total solution web presence utilizing HTML/CSS/Wordpress…but you can’t build an entire site out of jQuery.

[Bokehman]

Thanks for all the input.

I splurged when I re-started my homework and got Espresso and CSS Edit.

Love them.

[furrball1383]

Umm I guess what he’s trying to say about DW is that it didn’t really build up his knowledge of HTML and CSS as it does quite a bit for you. I found that out myself which is why i used to code in notepad when I was learning. Once you are semi proficient with the languages then DW helps in speeding up the creative process and since you already know how to use different attributes and tags etc dream weaver is helpful. If one didn’t know they would rely too heavily on the premade templates and this would jsut stifle their creativity. I’m currently on learning Js and JQuery and its not giving me a hard time, but I find I’m missing that aha moment. For example I can go through something someone else has made and have it do what I want it to do. That being said, I can’t go off and make my own JQ plugin from scratch and I certainly don’t have any ideas for using JQ creatively. I haven’t even touched word press yet, but i shall real soon. I agree with DboG on learning Js first before tackling JQ.

[Bokehman]

re. Dreamweaver: I found all the palettes, templates and GUI got in the way of me really understanding what what going on beneath. I resisted going the hand-coded route, as that (to me) was only for hard-core developers.

Now I know better.

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