What now?

[Sentinel010]

Hello everyone.
I just finished HTML/CSS course on Codeacademy.com and I would like to test my..knowledge
What would be the best way to do this?

[Killervalon]

Start learning PHP or Ruby on Rails. (Probaly best to learn PHP first though)
Also this belongs [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1250244"]here[/URL]

[Sentinel010]

I'm planning on learning PHP, But I would like to see what I can do first..
Should I simply open up notepad++ and get to coding?

[KmartSqrl]

Don't learn PHP first because PHP will teach you bad practices unless you are VERY VERY careful about what tutorials you follow (and if you are just starting out you won't know how to spot the difference). Learn something sane like Ruby.

As far as testing your knowledge goes, find some free psd files of designs and code them up if that's the kind of practice you're looking for.

[Sentinel010]

Thank you Kmartsqrl, the practice I'm looking for is building very basic websites from scratch(inserting photos, links, lists, tables and stuff like that)
I've heard about Adobe Dreamweaver but I'm not too sure that's a very good idea for a beginner, what are your thoughts about that?

[Killervalon]

[QUOTE=Sentinel010;39970995]Should I simply open up notepad++ and get to coding?[/QUOTE]

Try sublime text. You can use it for free, it will just pop up with some thank you for using this - please buy it every 20th save or so.

[xmariusx]

[QUOTE=Sentinel010;39971115]Thank you Kmartsqrl, the practice I'm looking for is building very basic websites from scratch(inserting photos, links, lists, tables and stuff like that)
I've heard about Adobe Dreamweaver but I'm not too sure that's a very good idea for a beginner, what are your thoughts about that?[/QUOTE]

Sublimetext 2 > Notepad++ > Dreamweaver

[Sentinel010]

I already have Sublime text2, Thank you all.
Another small question, is Jquery useful?

[KmartSqrl]

Sublime is what I use and I do this for a living, so I definitely recommend that. It's a great piece of software, especially when you take all the plugins out there in to account. Dreamweaver is pretty shit next to sublime, but it's not the worst editor you could choose as long as you're not using the WYSIWYG stuff at all.

jQuery is incredibly useful, but make sure you know javascript as well, because jQuery is just a Javascript framework and learning to use a framework without learning the underlying language is a bad idea (which is also why I said "learn Ruby" instead of "learn Ruby on Rails".)

[Sentinel010]

Thanks KmartSqrl
Mods please close this thread, thank you.