Where did you start?

om39a said:

You can learn coding. There are 1000ds of tutorials out there. but, you need to understand that coding is only 20% of the software. You need to be specific in your goal in what you want to become. You want to be a programmer or a software designer or something called software development. Programming is easy but designing one is difficult. Take the same example which you took "is there any software to generate code?" The answer is yes, You do have tools to generate code. But to generate a code a design is the base. The architecture of your software is the base. So, thats y your goal is important. to be a programmer, take some tutorials and get the design from the designer and code it. You get money. If you want to be a designer, take a order from some clients who are looking for a software system, design it, hire some coders and finish it of. You get 10X money. So now what you want to be???

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I feel you are making it unnecessarily complicated for him. In order to run, one needs to learn to walk first. Once he programs a few websites/apps, he'll start seeing the bigger picture!

LongBanana said:

Well, I took a class in highschool on very basics on HTML.
You have to start looking into HTML and CSS, I would recommend using w3schools.com as a source to learn those two.
Then, as you progress, ease into Javascript and Ajax.
After that, if you want to get into the development / backend side of websites, go into PHP and MySQL

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That sounds like a practical and perfect plan. Learning a bit of Photoshop basics will help too.

Thanks for all the input! I basically want to make a ecommerce site.

i'm also interested in coding and will start a new project, there's a lot of good info in here.. thanks bhwers

I started with HTML/CSS. I know how to code in visual basic, but I took a course for that. I used a book by Head First titled, "HTML with CSS & XHTML." It was quirky and funny, which made learning easier.

Now I'm trying to learn PHP so I can tweak my WordPress Themes, and possibly create themes myself.

Start with HTML/CSS. That will give the site a layout and make it look pretty. HTML and CSS are extremely basic and should only take you a week max to learn. Memorizing it all will take longer of course.

Next take up PHP. This will let you make your website dynamic and process information. Do not get like 50 books, read them all and start going to town. Books are good for helping, not teaching. I'll give alternatives later.

Now you should be learning MySQL. This will allow you to store information in a relational database. MySQL and other databases go hand in hand with PHP.

Lastly, you have javascript and javascript libraries. Most of what you will use is in libraries like jQuery, Mootools etc. Learn jQuery before plain javascript. It'll be easier and you get most of your needs.



Once you get the basics down on all of those, think of a project you want to do. A calculator, a signup form, membership site etc. Then get to work on it. Reading books does not make you a good coder, you need to actually put it to use.
If want aid in coding, look for an IDE (integrated development environment) as they normally have code completion. I'm partial to PHPStorm.

Once you have that down, you can learn about OOP (object oriented programming) and try to apply it to PHP. When you have a basic understanding, try using some frameworks like Cakephp, Codeigniter or Zend.

Started with an html book my uncle left....

Then there was visual basic for the first steps as a coder.

Now i'm in php, javascript and java. Still doing web solutions...

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