Newbie HTML Questions

axion419 · 2009-01-25 22:25:53

I learned html years ago and never really did anything with it. I am now taking a web design class at uni and its very basic. I grew board and kinda googled html and found that building sites without tables was something you could due. So I created a bland little site without tables and I would like how do you create an easy way to update the site. I have a center <div> and I like the way it looks when you have a heading then a paragraph. Is there a way to use or write a program that you just insert in your post and it will update the website? like, I write the post, it then opens up the html document, inserts the formatted post above the previous post? If I didnt explain myself properly im sorry. I would just like a easy way to update a website without actually having to open up the document, edit it by hand, and then save it. I think this would be some sort of content management system?

SamC · 2009-01-25 22:29:05

Like one of those new-fangled "blog" things?

kevin89 · 2009-01-25 22:42:19

If you're aiming at a blog or something in the likes take a look at CMM's (Content Management System), e.g. Joomla.

initbox · 2009-01-26 15:34:39

The easiest way, I've figured, is to just make 2 files.

Copy everything up to the div into the first file (it never changes, right?) and then copy the rest into another file.

After that you can just file1 > thepageyouwanttocreate, add the content you want, file2 >> thepageyouwanttocreate.

But yeah, for truly simple editing you should use a content management system.

rson451 · 2009-01-26 15:44:18

If you want to just update that div, you could check out CushyCMS. It's hosted by them and you specify what you can change through them.

vis · 2009-02-07 22:20:13

Take WordPress. It can be customized in may ways. The best thing for the webmasters: You can still use real HTML syntax.

catwell · 2009-02-09 21:46:56

If you want to do this from scratch, shtml (Server Side Includes) could help you. It's a great way to let the webserver software do all the work for you...

aquila_deus · 2009-02-14 02:47:13

Yes. But you'd be better to learn a bit about server-side scripting, and PHP, which is widely used in open-sourced CMS.

Or you could try XML/XSLT.

Last edited by aquila_deus (2009-02-14 02:49:25)

dav7 · 2009-02-14 07:41:13

I definitely think that you, and anyone interested in getting into webdev, should jump on the "new tech" bandwagon, while learning about current tech too. So, learn all of the following - all slowly of course:

HTML 4 Strict/Transitional and CSS: what your class will probably teach you
XHTML 1.0 Strict/Transitional: these are the current new-fangled toys everyone's playing with, but it's mostly buzzword and boringness - nothing "deep". You may learn this at your class also.

HTML 5 and CSS 3: These are the next big things, IMHO. HTML 5 appears to be awesome, and in the upcoming months it'll slowly catch on. Microsucks IE is the sucky bottleneck here - it doesn't support HTML 5 properly, but the Web has pushed for standards over commercial control before, and it'll do it again, at which point I'm expecting these to explode. It might take a few years, but hitting the ground running can't hurt at all, especially in a time when there won't be all that many webdevs familiar with 5.

XML/XSLT: I have no idea what IE's support model is for these since I haven't used winfailure in months, and I'm not sure about Opera as well, but these are definitely a look if you want your site to be easily CMSified. They operate on quite a different model to basic HTML/CSS though, so you might want to get comfortable with those before you dive into here.

PHP: Learn this but regard it as the winfailure of scripting languages, so don't make it your "heart language", if you know what I mean. It's slow, it's a huge hack, but for some reason it's popular so it's everywhere, so you may as well learn it. You might like it, but I guarantee you that one day you'll look at yourself, your code, and what you want to be doing with your life, and say "hey, PHP doesn't work for me anymore."

Be sure to learn another language in addition to PHP, especially if you don't already know a programming language - here's a list:

- Ruby: I personally recommend this for its legibility.
- Python: I haven't tried this but it seems quite powerful and is general purpose.
- Perl: The UNIX scripted C. The emacs of programming languages. On all geek's workstations. Extremely rapid prototyping - there's a library for EVERYTHING.
- Falcon: I recently discovered this. Uses a VM but is also really, really, really fast. On my considerably slow computer, hello world takes 44ms to run.
- C, C++: Learn these. Just learn them. Even if they bring you to tears (they might not). You'll be a better programmer for knowing them.
- REBOL, Haskell, Io, Smalltalk, Lisp, haXe: these are all good languages to learn "further down the track". They'll teach you various ways of thinking.

-dav7

Last edited by dav7 (2009-02-14 07:53:44)

The Orange Peanut · 2009-02-14 18:47:12

dav7, what would you recommend to replace php as a server side scripting language? I can install basically whatever I want at work, but my own personal webspace and domain only has build in support for php, perl, and I think Ruby on Rails. Would learning Ruby and the Rails framework really be a significantly better alternative to php?

bavardage · 2009-02-15 12:24:23

Yes. PHP isn't majorly nice. I mean ofc django would be nicer than RoR, since python > ruby *hides from flamewar* but you have to remember RoR is a framework whereas PHP is just a language. RoR is going to be easier than plain php.

The Orange Peanut · 2009-02-15 18:18:07

The reason I ask is because Python isn't installed on my web server. My hosting company only offers it on the more expensive packages. I'd like to use Python, but I can't.

dav7 · 2009-02-16 08:01:06

The Orange Peanut, Absolutely. Definitely. PHP is a good equivalent to BASIC; nothing more. I admire its simplicity but it's exactly that that pulls it down. Anything below about 3k lines is sane; anything over is pushing it, IMHO. So play around with RoR and Perl and see which one you like the most.

Here's an offtopic random idea: if you can install whatever you want at work, throw various languages on the development server(s) - that'll give you (and your colleagues) an easy way to explore new languages, hack out quick scripts (solutions) in languages you know, and something to do if you ever get bored(...?).

You may also find http://hackety.org/2008/05/05/sneakingR … ngine.html interesting - it's the opposite situation to what you have, and doesn't provide any leads, but is interesting commentary nonetheless.

bavardage, well, is Ruby 1.9 faster than Python 3000?

-dav7

ixywas · 2023-09-11 14:07:07

dav7 wrote:

- Ruby: I personally recommend this for its legibility.
- Python: I haven't tried this but it seems quite powerful and is general purpose.
- Perl: The UNIX scripted C. The emacs of programming languages. On all geek's workstations. Extremely rapid prototyping - there's a library for EVERYTHING.
- Falcon: I recently discovered this. Uses a VM but is also really, really, really fast. On my considerably slow computer, hello world takes 44ms to run.
- C, C++: Learn these. Just learn them. Even if they bring you to tears (they might not). You'll be a better programmer for knowing them.
- REBOL, Haskell, Io, Smalltalk, Lisp, haXe: these are all good languages to learn "further down the track". They'll teach you various ways of thinking.
-dav7

should i be proud or worried about my health, because i know all of them exepct for falcon

2ManyDogs · 2023-09-11 15:39:53

ixywas, did you search for all the oldest threads to necrobump? This one is 14 years old. Please stop.

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-25 22:25:53

Newbie HTML Questions

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Re: Newbie HTML Questions

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