[thelist] how did you learn?

Shawn K. Quinn skquinn at xevious.kicks-ass.net
Wed Jun 30 10:06:53 CDT 2004


On 2004 June 29, Tuesday 00:40, Paul Bennett wrote:
> OK, I have a question for all those developers out there who
> didn't spend 3 years at university / college to gain
> professional web development skills.
>
> How did you first begin your learning? Did you pick up a book?
> Go to online forums? Ask a friend? Take a short course?

I think I looked at a few pages as examples and went from there, and 
later with the W3C's finalization of the HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0, and CSS 
level 1 specifications, read them to keep up on what was new. (I 
haven't actually gone through the entire CSS level 2 specification 
yet.)

The first editor I remember using was WebWriter/2 which I still miss, 
but had to abandon once I finally realized OS/2 was a dead end (my move 
was to GNU/Linux, not Windows NT, and I am very glad I made this 
choice). Later, I used Emacs with html-helper-mode (now a customized 
version I renamed html-writer-mode planning to release it). 
Unfortunately most other editors like it haven't been updated to get 
rid of the obsolete HTML 3.2 presentational elements/attributes as I 
think they should.

Though to be fair, if I were to do it all over again today, I can't be 
sure I'd do it the same way. I would definitely not take any shortcuts, 
and actually learn HTML as standardized by the W3C, though.

> The reason I ask is that I am considering developing a training
> product and want to see if it is at least viable before sinking
> countless hours into it :)

Possibly, but if by "training product" you mean something you plan on 
charging money for, do realize there are free alternatives.

> I took the 'short course' option, although it was 9 months and a
> bit more focussed on sys admin stuff than I needed. (I still
> have dreaded memories about setting up and configuring NT
> server)

I took a short clock-hour course about setting up and being a Webmaster, 
supposedly under the horribly misconceived notion I'd learn something 
new. The course should have been called "Windows 95 for Webmaster 
Wannabes" (that's how long ago it was, I think this was close to, but 
before, the release of Windows 98) and was a pathetic joke. I have 
quite long since forgotten what I learned, except that GNU/Linux or one 
of the BSD variants make much better Web servers than Windows ever will 
(especially if you hate being forced into using a GUI to maintain 
everything).

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn


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