html or xml

[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.