[cutebeast]

1. Do you really need to do programming to make an excellent site?
2. Will you be better doing marketing and sales work than programming?
3. Will the time spent for programming be better put in place to sharpen your current knowledge?

If you answer no for #1, yes for #2 & #3 then i think you should just out source it. Why do you want to do something that you are not good at when you could have sharpen your skill in the area that you are good at. Leave the programming work to those that is good on that area. At least that is what I will do.

[hockey97]

If you just want to make a database for your website I suggest working your ya to php. But you need to know html first before doing any advance website. php may use html to get inputs so if you don't know html then php will be useless and ya php stands on it's own but you can have html pages and use php to grab inputs from them and get prccessed and store values in the database.

I use mysql database and php , I use php to grab inputs from my html pages and put them in the mysql database.

that's if you just want an existing database and using a programmning lang to use it in the your website.

If plan to also make the database yourself meaning make your own mysql you will need c++ or python to create from ground up your very one website.

but I suggest you to first learn html and then get into php and mysql since I think that is the most simple form to learn the over all proccess.

IF you don't know html then it will take time to get to a point where you will understand php and mysql if your not learinging it from the class.

It takes longer to learn from the internet on your own then it does in a classroom becuse the teacher must know alot and could guide you from your errors and explain it. They would give you the shortcuts on doing things.

But when learning on your own It takes a while to get answers to where you made mistakes and trying to get a good grasp of the programming language.

good luck.

[NYAC]

I certainly appreciate your answers, they were insightful and helpful. It has given me a place to start. I don't need to make a living doing this, I have several businesses that do just fine, I simply want to learn more, put another tool on my belt. You can never know enough and I like to take on new challenges.

Rich, thanks for taking the time to answer, I've already found a night class that I was able to fit between my law classes that I think will help with the basics of what you said.

[anuragsharma]

First of all I would like to mention that C/C++ is not a web language. You cannot use them to create websites. Unless you are not specifically looking for Web languages C/C++ is not the right language to learn for web development.

But, the irony is if you learn C/C++ then you can probably learn every other language with great ease. I don't consider HTML as a programming language. It's is not even a language for me except for the thing that you have to think for it and then write the formatting tags around your content. And, of course you cannot handle database with HTML.

Programming language for me is something that lets you have the power to play with variables, loops & functions at least. I will suggest you to go for Javascripting first. It will give you the perfect blend of learning a "language" along with understanding how it plays around with the browsers to achieve things over the web. Of course you should know HTML.

If u have never ever coded before then probably you can go ahead with HTML as the appetizer and then gradually go to Javascript, learn the basics and then jump onto PHP. ASP.net needs a lot of understanding of the whole .Net framework that makes it difficult at times for programmers to debug and deploy if you directly jump on it.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any doubts.

[HarveyJ]

Like anuragsharma says, you need different languages for different things.
HTML isn't a programming language, it's a markup language (as in it alters the way text behaves... it's just gotten a bit more advanced than that in the 20 years since it's been around).

If you want to learn a really basic language, just to make basic programs to help you with your work, then there's nothing wrong with MS VisualBasic. It makes programming for interaction with a database a snap, and can do a lot of other things to.

If you're wanting to learn to program for games, then you'll need C++ and maybe Lingo skills. There are also a number of game engines that have proprietary languages that are meant to make it easier to script in them.
Chances are you'll also need to learn something about parent scripting, which changes from language to language, as a way of making the graphic and audio files work with the game.

If you're wanting to learn programming for the web, than PHP is a must for almost everything.
Coldfusion and Perl are great for database driven websites. ASP is useful for more things that require a dynamic catalogue. etc etc.
HTML and CSS are just markup languages, which can be mostly automated in their use if you have a good development platform. Knowing the mechanics behind them helps, a lot, but is not entirely essential.

But in the end, the best thing to do is probably go to your local tertiary education facility, and ask a course adviser to help you figure out which would be best for what you want/need to do with it.

[hockey97]

yes html is a markup language and c++ is for making programs so making your own database needs a programming language that can make an app.

I think javascript is harder than php there are alot of tutorials online for php and javascript but I think php is easier than javascript.

[jrperina]

I have programmed in many differnet languages, but in the long run I have stuck with Microsoft.NET. To be perfectly honest I think they make learning to program a lot easier by giving you a lot of building blocks to start with and the Visual Studio Development Environment is probably the best available. You can just "add" a database and get started making tables.

Plus you can get the express editions for free, which include everything you need unless you are becoming a very advance user. Download visual studio 2008 express and get started.

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions