New to Web Development (career change)

Gorilla Rising

Hi all,

Just looking for an experts opinion on a couple of things. I want to change careers and start in web development.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to go back to college.

First is - which book(s) for HTML, CSS and Javscript? I had a look in the recommended books thread, but didn't see anything up to date for these.

Also, is it achievable without doing a course of some sorts? I'm fairly handy tech wise anyway..

Thanks.

Cork Boy

fortune wookiee wrote: »

Hi all,

Just looking for an experts opinion on a couple of things. I want to change careers and start in web development.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to go back to college.

First is - which book(s) for HTML, CSS and Javscript? I had a look in the recommended books thread, but didn't see anything up to date for these.

Also, is it achievable without doing a course of some sorts? I'm fairly handy tech wise anyway..

Thanks.

Check out here and here. There are other offerings out there too from other colleges.

philologos

fortune wookiee wrote: »

Hi all,

Just looking for an experts opinion on a couple of things. I want to change careers and start in web development.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to go back to college.

First is - which book(s) for HTML, CSS and Javscript? I had a look in the recommended books thread, but didn't see anything up to date for these.

Also, is it achievable without doing a course of some sorts? I'm fairly handy tech wise anyway..

Thanks.

I'd also look into a server side language. Node.js would be perfect as it's Javascript based (saves on learning if you're learning Javascript anyway) also look to the express MVC framework.

Other than that PHP or ASP.NET are still very much standard.

You need to decide if you're better in UX design or development also.

PrzemoF

http://www.w3schools.com/ is one of the best sites for learning html

Gorilla Rising

Wow, Thanks for the replies.

Some cool resources there!

Any recommendations on a book? Even just to have down the road as a reference...Thanks.

Colonel Panic

PrzemoF wrote: »

http://www.w3schools.com/ is one of the best sites for learning html

Nope...

http://w3fools.com/

Try this instead:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

Gorilla Rising

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Nope...

http://w3fools.com/

Try this instead:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

Excellent. Thanks.

Flimbos

fortune wookiee wrote: »

Any recommendations on a book?

The Headfirst series of books are usually pretty good (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-HTML-CSS-XHTML/dp/059610197X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363046749&sr=8-2).

Also check out www.lynda.com, they have some decent video tutorials.

Gorilla Rising

Hey,

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice here.

I'm flying through that 'Head First' book. Also using been using various web tutorials.

I'm sure web development will get a lot more difficult later on, but I'm finding it a lot less daunting a task.

I genuinely love it! Never thought I'd find something 'work like' that I like doing so much.

KonFusion

http://css-tricks.com/ - I'm usually on this at least once a day. His screencasts are great too.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

http://teamtreehouse.com/

http://www.codecademy.com/

http://tympanus.net/codrops/

http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/htmlcssguide.xml

As for books, pretty much all of the books in the A Book Apart series are great (thought not all pertain to code, so filter as neccissary).

And then there's always good old http://thenewboston.org/tutorials.php

Podcasts:

http://5by5.tv/bigwebshow
http://5by5.tv/webahead/

There's loads and loads more, but it's pretty late and my memories not the best. I might have a .doc somewhere with a more comprehensive list. I'd be happy to share if I find it.

Edit: Almost forgot, free javascript book: http://eloquentjavascript.net/

And RWD resourses: http://bradfrost.github.io/this-is-responsive/resources.html

Gorilla Rising

Wow that's a great list! Cheers for that.