For a Starter in Web Design Whats the Best Code to look into?

**seattle-west** · 03-24-2007, 10:10 PM

i was wandering whats the best code to look into for a noob to web design. I know a little in html, but i was wandering is there a certain new language that might be really popular in the future maybe the newest language for web design? thanks....and also please include if you could a website to help you learn it

basic html codes i know
<html>
<b>
<i>
<u>
<img src="" width="" height="">
<a><a href""> Text Here</a>
<center>
<font size="">
<font color="">
<head>
<title>
<body>
<p>
<hr>

and probally some more

**mburt** · 03-24-2007, 10:30 PM

I know a little in html, but i was wandering is there a certain new language that might be really popular in the future maybe the newest language for web design? thanks....and also please include if you could a website to help you learn it

To be honest, all webpages (even today) start with basic HTML markup.
Other languages you can learn have different functions that apply to HTML. There isn't an alternate language as of now.
Some you could look into are (listed in order of importance):

-CSS: not technically a language, but helps you with the "style" (hence Cascading Style Sheets) of your page. Like color, font, layout, size, etc.
-PHP (also other languages, like ASP): the "server-side" coding which processes data from page to page, and manages databases
-JavaScript: deals with "client-side" coding (calculations, animations, menus, etc)

You should validate your code:

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<b></b>
<i></i>
<u></u>
<img src="" width="" height="">
<a href="foo.htm"> Text Here</a>
<font size=""></font>
<font color=""></font>
<p></p>
<hr>
</body>
</html>

Look up a good html tutorial, most of this is invalid.
Hope this helps.

**boxxertrumps** · 03-24-2007, 10:36 PM

xhtml will hopefully gain more popularity, and HTML 5 has yet to be released...

But you should learn CSS to style your document, instead of font tags and other presentational markup.

center can be replaced with this...

#cent {text-align:center;} -CSS
<div id="cent">This text is centered...</div> -HTML
and <b/i/u>
#wow {
text-align:center;
font-weight:bolder;
text-decoration:underlined;
font-style:italic;}
<div id="wow">This is centered, bolded, italicised, and underlined... </div>

and mburt, that was only a list of the tags he knows how to use...

**djr33** · 03-25-2007, 01:46 AM

From what I have heard, html 5 won't ever exist. The next big step is xml, but, from what i've heard on the forum, xml isn't good/ready yet/etc. so no real clue what's going on.
For now, it seems that standard html 4 is probably just fine.

I will also note that I disagree partly:
CSS is great for overall styling, especially if you want to use a stylesheet for multiple pages.
However, for an individual item, it'll take a lot to convince me not to use a tag around that item, rather than a specific css style for just one thing.

**boxxertrumps** · 03-25-2007, 01:57 AM

You mean xhtml, which is xml formulated as html.
xml is already fully developed.

ive looked around, and cant find anything about html5 at w3's website...
so its xhtml from now on.

**djr33** · 03-25-2007, 06:24 AM

Oh, I wasn't aware that xml and xhtml aren't the same. I'm just too lazy. Yes, I did mean that.

**Twey** · 03-25-2007, 12:14 PM

ive looked around, and cant find anything about html5 at w3's website...

That's because HTML5 isn't being developed by the W3C, it's being developed by WHATWG. The name of the specification is "Web Applications 1.0," and it will certainly exist -- the latest versions of Firefox have (as usual) jumped the gun and started implementing it already, even though it hasn't been finalised yet. The specification outlines implementations for both HTML (known as HTML5) and XHTML (known [probably unwisely] as XHTML5).

from what i've heard on the forum, xml isn't good/ready yet/etc.

XHTML is perfectly ready. It has all the capabilities of HTML, and more besides. Unfortunately, what it isn't is well-supported. Internet Explorer does not support it at all, which, unfortunately, is between 60% and 90% (depending on who you talk to, what phase the moon is in, &c.) of the users on the Web. Thus, unless you're intending to drop support for IE, you shouldn't use XHTML yet. There's a large culture of people who completely fail to understand the way that MIME types in general and XHTML in particular work, and think it's just another DOCTYPE. These people tend to write an XHTML document, then serve it with the text/html MIME type, causing browsers to render it as invalid HTML instead of true XHTML.

Oh, I wasn't aware that xml and xhtml aren't the same. I'm just too lazy. Yes, I did mean that.

XHTML is a specific profile of XML.

CSS is great for overall styling, especially if you want to use a stylesheet for multiple pages.
However, for an individual item, it'll take a lot to convince me not to use a tag around that item, rather than a specific css style for just one thing.

When you've done a huge site, with lots of includes, dynamic content, symlinks, &c., and your employer 'phones you to tell you that s/he wants you to tunnel your way through this rabbit warren to find and change the colour of a single paragraph, then you'll understand.

**djr33** · 03-25-2007, 12:44 PM

Yeah, but if you want a specific element to be bold, then just put tags around it (I'll let you pick <strong> or <b>

), but there is no need no matter how huge the site to create a CSS style for bold, etc. if you only need it for one shot.

**pcbrainbuster** · 03-25-2007, 01:03 PM

Your not getting the whole picture

, CSS was created so you won't have to keep repeating the same stuff on same tags (eg every image at 100x100 - you won't have to keep repeating that size on every image, imagine you had about 356 pictures on one page ! and you wanted to repeat the same thing over and over that could make you do the work for over 1 extra hour but with CSS you can set 100x100 to every image in less then a minute)

But sometimes it is used to create themes (well mostly not sometimes)

edit// - oh sorry i didnt read exactly what you were saying, and i agree with what you are saying but still you may not remember that for example you want to make every header bold so when you go into creating your next page you end up forgeting all the theme and this my friend could take your sites "ratings" down

**Twey** · 03-25-2007, 01:14 PM

Yeah, but if you want a specific element to be bold, then just put tags around it (I'll let you pick <strong> or <b>

), but there is no need no matter how huge the site to create a CSS style for bold, etc. if you only need it for one shot.

OK, so, we have our little <strong> tag with no class or ID, lost in the mists of time, developed over countless times, and your boss tells you to change the colour of that <strong>. So, you go through template after template after sub-template looking for it, then realise that your code has been modified to be generated by a compiled CGI script written by the late Jim-Bob McGee for which no-one has the source. What do you do?

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