A Geek's Fantasy Study Guide
3-4-2003
Of all the things in this world to fantasize about, 'web-skills-to-study' is definitely a hacker thing. Oh well, it's not worth the effort to explain; either you understand or you don't. Here is a list of skills I'd like to immerse myself in:
- HTML 4.01 Specifications
- That's right! Good ole HTML. After all this time I still haven't read the complete manual; for that matter probably no one else has either. I just pick up what I need to know when I need it — and I know most of it at this point. But it would be nice to just sit and read it cover-to-cover someday so I can know it all.
- CSS 1 Specifications
- Ditto
- CSS 2 Specifications
- Ditto ditto
- Perl/CGI Tutorial at CGI101.com
- I started it in December 2002 but haven't completed it yet. Some say "why learn Perl?" — but I think it still has value at least as a foundation for learning programming. I'd like to do other tutorials for Perl too, but if I just get this basic one done that would be a start.
- SSI
- I know and use SSI fairly well, but I'd still like to go seek out and learn everything there is to know about it. It's sort of deprecated now that we have the PHPs and ASPs, but (like Perl) it seems worth learning as a foundation.
- PHP
- I'd like to know PHP inside and out. From the little I know about programming, PHP seems like a perfect all-around language to learn for the beginner and never grow out of. There are some good tutorials at webmonkey.com for starters, and then the php.net site is exhaustive. That's my fantasy — to study the php.net site "cover-to-cover."
- JavaScript
- "Will I ever learn JavaScript?" I ask myself. It seems less and less useful these days of server-side PHP-ASP-JSP-.NET-etc-etc. But a little browser-side programming is handy now and then, and JavaScript just seems like another language one ought to learn for a good foundation. For starters I'd consume Thau's beginner tutorial followed by his advanced tutorial. The script-tips at htmlgoodies.com aren't bad either. Someday.
- MySQL
- Don't forget that. "Websites are increasingly becoming database-driven," a friend told me recently. Database? What's that?
- Apache
- I'd like to read the apache manual cover-to-cover. I'm familiar with the basic use of .htaccess files, but there are so many more server administration-configuration tricks to learn, and it's surprisingly fun! (That's a geek thing.)
- ColdFusion
- Why the heck would I want to learn that? Good question. I know nothing about it at all other than that it's been around for many years and many other languages are modeled after it. For that reason alone it seems worth learning at least some basics.
- C#/ASP.NET
- I think that's the right way to refer to it. C# is the programming language and ASP.NET is the framework (whatever that means). They say you need to eventually specialize in a language, and C# sounds like a good one to run with. ASP.NET is supposedly the hot new product that many developers and employers rave about.
There's so much to learn and I've only touched on the surface. More later.
