html or xml

[QuietC]

any suggestions on learning html or xml, any specific books or anything?

[joshua]

Well right now the latest standard is XHTML which is HTML in XML.

You can use http://www.w3.org/ for reference on specific tags and for learning http://w3schools.com is a good start. As far as books go, the oreilly ones are usually the best:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/html5/index.html
http://xml.oreilly.com/

Depends on your needs, but if you are jut planning on making websites then learn XHTML. If you plan on doing something a bit more complex then you can learn XML itself to generate your own XML file formats.

[SuperChuck]

I suggest ANSI C :)

What are you trying to do? What's your goal?

For the most part, XML is just a Data Definition Language. It can be a good way to organize data (which means different things to different people).

HTML is technically a subset of XML used to make web pages (technically, it's for organizing hypertext data, but that's another story for another time)...

XHTML (correct me if I'm wrong) is just HTML that fits into the strict XML format. Most web browsers are lenient and will display stuff that is not well-formed XML, so XHTML is used to mean "HTML that is well-formed XML". (I just call well-formed XML)

[Corona Gigante]

If you just want to make simple web pages, html is pretty easy to pick up.

For a quick start, I've always found the Sams Teach Yourself _____ In 24 Hours series to be very useful. There's enough information to get you going without bogging you down in too much detail.

I have an old but not obselete book at home. I forget the title right now. It's a hardcover 1200 pages with cd. Cost me $50 or so a couple of years ago. I haven't used it in a while and I'd be willing to let you have it for the cost of shipping. Unfortunately it weighs 6lbs. You'd probably be better offer ordering the SAMS book in paperback from amazon.

[Kenyth]

Making simple web pages is easy. As a matter of fact, most word processors and office apps. will do it for you. You end up with an html page, and a directory of supporting files, such as graphics. Simply upload both to the web directory of your choice.

[Jonsey5484]

I think I still have a couple of books lying around from when I went to school. My major was Micro Computer Speacialist and I had to take a whole class on HTML and XML. If you would like, I can try and dig up my books. They should not be outdated, as I just took the class a little over a year ago. Send me a PM and I can send them to you.

[hex1848]

Making simple web pages is easy. As a matter of fact, most word processors and office apps. will do it for you. You end up with an html page, and a directory of supporting files, such as graphics. Simply upload both to the web directory of your choice.

*cringe*

While Word, and some other similar apps will output documents as HTML, it’s pretty damn ugly. I’m a purist. I like my (X)HTML to be neatly formatted and free of the crap that most of these apps auto generate.

http://www.htmlhelp.com is a great resource. As mentioned http://www.w3schools.com is great as well. I generally learn what I need to learn online. I rarely use the books that I’ve bought over the years. (looking at the shelf of dusty O’reilly books that I never use) .

What do you want to learn HTML/XML is the main question I have. We can point you in the right direction once we know.

[QuietC]

I basically want to be able to make any kind of website. I'm taking a javascript/perl class right now, yet I don't know html.

[SuperChuck]

So, yeah, (X)HTML would be the route to go down...

As a personal suggestion, learn PHP. Perl is a thing of the devil.

Perl has a lot of cool stuff it can do, and it's really great when it comes to string manipulations, but reading it is like reading incoherent Greek.

In fact, there's an old practice amongst perl programmers to write a small program to obfuscate the phrase "I am a Perl Hacker" to the point where it is completely unreadable. These small programs (2 or 3 lines at most, perl programmers are of the old-school "I can write the entrire system in 1 line of code" mentality) would be included in signature files and would actually stand as your prowess with perl, your ability to make something that cannot be understood by any programmer alive (including yourself).

[hex1848]

Yeah, I remember the perl days back in ~1996/97. I didn’t know the first thing about programming (still in high school) I was already coding basic HTML so I said what the hell and I picked up a book to try and learn. I think when I got to chapter three and they started covering regular expressions I said fuck it and started learning PHP (which at that time was PHP/FI).

But back to the thread, yeah, I would learn XHTML and CSS before venturing too far into the backend programming, you really should understand the client side first if your going to be writing web applications.

[QuietC]

I'm thinking of going with the xtml for dummies. Are the "for dummies" books any good?

[Jonsey5484]

The "Dummie" books are great. We always used them along with our textbook in school. They really helped.

[QuietC]

alright, thanks for all the help everyone, I think a book and the websites some of you suggested should come in handy.

[Corona Gigante]

I think when I got to chapter three and they started covering regular expressions I said fuck it and started learning PHP (which at that time was PHP/FI).

What can this mean? Regular expressions are the mutt's nuts. I couldn't live a day without regular expressions.

[hex1848]

What can this mean? Regular expressions are the mutt's nuts. I couldn't live a day without regular expressions.

It means that the mind of a 17 year old with zero programming experience was admittedly too lazy to figure it out.

[SuperChuck]

What can this mean? Regular expressions are the mutt's nuts. I couldn't live a day without regular expressions.

The ORA Regex book is the most important tool I have in my office!

Without it, papers would be flying everywhere!

[stjohnroe]

I find myself digging into the O'Reilly Regex pocket reference almost daily. Regex has to be one of the greatest things ever devised, saves so much time when working in Java, .NYET and now Oracle too.

[SuperChuck]

In my last job, I was able to convince a coworker to write me a regex to grep only lines that stared in C or M (cvs -qn update | grep ^[C|M]).

Now in my current job we COMPLETELY overuse regexes and I've learned to pump them out like they're english... I haven't figured out if that's a good thing or a bad thing.