Useful web development technologies to research?

Downlinz

I'm a recent graduate and in the difficult position of looking for entry level positions in the IT sector, so while I wait I thought I'd try and gain some skills on web languages.

I have some ground level knowledge of ASP.Net, SQL and have worked with basic html linux servers and the associated maintenance and transferring with that.
Not really specialised in anything, what languages or technologies would my time be best spent working on? i.e. which are the most relevant to employers?

Was thinking PHP but I'm not sure if ASP.NET with C# is more desirable these days, any advice welcome.

srsly78

HTML5 and WebGL.

jester77

Well, if you are looking for web language skills then have a look at Ruby on Rails or Python/Django.

TonyStark

Node.Js is worth a look if you want to look at something more 'alternative'. :-)

For example a neat little web server:

var http = require('http');
 
http.createServer(function (request, response) {
    response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    response.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(8000);
 
console.log('Server running at http://localhost:8000/');

General General

TonyStark wrote: »

Node.Js is worth a look if you want to look at something more 'alternative'. :-)

For example a neat little web server:

var http = require('http');
 
http.createServer(function (request, response) {
    response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    response.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(8000);
 
console.log('Server running at http://localhost:8000/');

Node.js... now recommended by Iron-man.

stevenmu

Personally I'd think ASP.Net/C# would be a great way to go. First off, you already know some of it, so you can focus on diving into the advanced stuff rather than relearning the basic stuff in a new language/environment (though to be fair that shouldn't be a huge deal). Secondly, while it's probably not quite as popular as PHP on the web it's not a million miles behind either, and it's used very extensively in business applications giving you two separate paths to go for. Thirdly, your C# skills will help you out in the rest of the MS ecosystem: Windows Forms/WPF, Office, SharePoint, Windows Phone etc.

dvpower

Agree with that last post. Look into ASP MVC3 (and 4). Also jQuery.

Edit: There is a very good set of free MVC training videos here, which would get you up and running in a couple of days.
http://www.asp.net/mvc/pluralsight

Aswerty

dvpower wrote: »

Agree with that last post. Look into ASP MVC3 (and 4). Also jQuery.

I'd just say to make sure your familiar with html, css and javascript before hopping into jQuery because otherwise you won't fully understand how it works.

Dboy85

+1 for webGl, websockets/Nodejs and Javascript. I'm trained in C++/C# games development but seem to get more and more work in these because of the advancements in html5, chrome and firefox. I made a demo for a project I'm working on to show off here

srsly78

Is that baldy fellah rendered in webgl? :P

Dboy85

srsly78 wrote: »

Is that baldy fellah rendered in webgl? :P

The Kinect can't handle god objects... Buddha reincarnated

irishdude11

Dboy85 wrote: »

+1 for webGl, websockets/Nodejs and Javascript. I'm trained in C++/C# games development but seem to get more and more work in these because of the advancements in html5, chrome and firefox. I made a demo for a project I'm working on to show off here

But how wide is the support for stuff like HTML 5 and css3? There were plenty of css3 features that I would have liked to use in a past project but when I saw the compatibility charts I said what's the point using it when it is (was) not supported by the such a large % of browsers, and I thought that was the way most people operated. So I used to just use to just use images for rounded corners and drop shadows for all browsers rather than having css3 for the browser that supported it and the images for the browsers that didnt.

But I haven't done much serious web development in 2 years so I am probably not up to speed on the current state of things. Is HTML 5 now ready for the mainstream, will 90% of users out there have browsers that can use it? And what about css3, is this used in the mainstream nowadays?

Dboy85

Haven't used css3 so idk what the cross browser support is like. From a games dev point of view the browsers seem to be accommodating the capabilities for making better games utilising HTML5 and in the near future webGl. We have target browsers because we're deploying on a set top box so my knowledge of web dev stops at chrome and firefox.

Giblet

HTML5 and CSS3 are designed to degrade and many features have degradation paths / or shims which provide the functionality. While you can't design a website fully in HTML5 & CSS3 and expect it to work in every browser, you certainly can choose your battles.

srsly78

Microsoft are basically refusing to support webgl whatsoever tho.

Dboy85

srsly78 wrote: »

Microsoft are basically refusing to support webgl whatsoever tho.

Pissy fookers, nobody uses that dribble anyway.

Placebo

irishdude11 wrote: »

But how wide is the support for stuff like HTML 5 and css3? There were plenty of css3 features that I would have liked to use in a past project but when I saw the compatibility charts I said what's the point using it when it is (was) not supported by the such a large % of browsers, and I thought that was the way most people operated. So I used to just use to just use images for rounded corners and drop shadows for all browsers rather than having css3 for the browser that supported it and the images for the browsers that didnt.

But I haven't done much serious web development in 2 years so I am probably not up to speed on the current state of things. Is HTML 5 now ready for the mainstream, will 90% of users out there have browsers that can use it? And what about css3, is this used in the mainstream nowadays?

You should be using CSS3 at the very least, if not HTML5 as well.
Depends on the demographic but Google have stopped supported ie6,
Chrome has actually exceeded in usage than Internet Explorer.
Just because a few OLD browsers dont support rounded corners, doesnt mean you should waste your time doing them as images etc
You should use Modenizr, this way you can target older browsers, so for any browser that doesnt support rounded corners, you can have alternative CSS there that modenizr will apply automatically.
You can also use HTML5 tags, that older browsers will understand if you use HTML5shiv, (this is included in modenizr)
Modenizr also allows for fallback for other things like, input DATE tag, you could have a jquery fallback plugin for older browsers.

Good overall article: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/using-modernizr.html
Whats safe to use:http://html5please.com/
alsohttp://css3please.com/
also you should start using boiler plate here, good starting point http://html5boilerplate.com/

As mentioned previously its called graceful fallbacking, in these times. It means developing a site for the most capable browser then testing it on older browsers at the end of the development cycle, allowing for passable experience. If someone is on ie7, they dont need necessarily need the box shadow.

Also dont forget you can use things like
http://css3pie.com/ [this allows Internet Explorer 6-9 capable of rendering some css3 properties, rounded corners/box shadow etc]
Theres also http://selectivizr.com/ so you can use atleast css2 queries, not properly supported in ie7 even ! Or you can avoid the overhead of another script and try some of my methods : http://iamhtml.tumblr.com/post/22848645612/last-child-or-first-child-or-adjacent-selectors

starlit

What is WebGL never heard of it? I prefer HTML, CSS and PHP, (a bit of VB) for web programming languages creating websites but haven't studied any other web programming language.

Is Javascript, Ajax and Jquery popular as web programming languages?

Colonel Panic

WebGL is 3D graphics in a browser. You interface with it via Javascript. Ajax and JQuery are both Javascript APIs that enhance webpages.

srsly78

WebGL is for hardware accelerated graphics in a browser, not specifically just 3d graphics.

Colonel Panic

The last thing I want is to get dragged into nerdy pedantry over something I don't give a crap about, but while one can, and I do, use these APIs for 2D graphics, their primary use is for 3D stuff.

srsly78

Sure, but people have actually said to me before that it's not for 2d graphics All those 2d apis people use are actually built on top of opengl / directx / whatever.

chakotha

irishdude11 wrote: »

But how wide is the support for stuff like HTML 5 and css3? There were plenty of css3 features that I would have liked to use in a past project but when I saw the compatibility charts I said what's the point using it when it is (was) not supported by the such a large % of browsers, and I thought that was the way most people operated. So I used to just use to just use images for rounded corners and drop shadows for all browsers rather than having css3 for the browser that supported it and the images for the browsers that didnt.

But I haven't done much serious web development in 2 years so I am probably not up to speed on the current state of things. Is HTML 5 now ready for the mainstream, will 90% of users out there have browsers that can use it? And what about css3, is this used in the mainstream nowadays?

Placebo has some great pointers above.

And check out a few of Paul Irish's YouTube videos. He's a big advocate of HTML5/CSS3 and is the lead developer of Modernisr/HTML Boilerplate and was on the jQuery team.

John_Mc

SignalR