Question

I am just dipping my hands into web technologies. I started with HTML and now JavaScript and PHP. I have a variety of questions in my mind. I am a hardcore .NET Windows developer and earn my living with it. But now I want to go deep into Web and so here are my queries:

(1) I started using PHP. I also want to learn Ruby with Rails. Can I learn both side-by-side?

(2) What type of sample projects I can develop to learn well these technologies? I just have in mind to make a web log, that it.

(3) I am using Aptana Studio 2009. It is very good but not the best IDE. Which other IDE can speed up my design time? Any tool that separates the design with business logic automatically?

(4) What other things I must learn to bring myself to the front in web technologies?

Answer 1

Firstly, I applaud the initiative in learning Web technologies. Frankly, going forward, I think programmers will increasingly find it harder to not know Web stuff.

To answer your questions:

1. I would advise sticking to one at least for awhile. I’d suggest that one be PHP. Why? Ruby on Rails is a language and a framework. I’m a strong advocate of people having some understanding of the underlying technologies, including HTTP, before they throw frameworks on top of it that may confuse or hide issues a developer needs to know about. Stick with vanilla PHP and don’t confuse it by throwing something like CodeIgniter, Kohana, Symfony, CakePHP or Zend on top of it;
2. A blog is a fine learner project. Whatever you pick shouldn’t be something terribly complicated, something you can get something out of relatively quickly and something you should be able to add features you want to (you’ll be more interested this way);
3. Jetbrains new Web IDE is coming along nicely. It’s what I’ve switched to. PhpEd, Eclipse PDT and Netbeans all have different merits;
4. HTMl, CSS and Javascript. Additionally I’d also recommend jQuery.