What's the best order for me to learn the following languages?

PHP, Flash, ASP, Perl, and CSS

And what should I start off with, MySQL or Apache? I normally ran all of my Web coding through one of those crappy angelfire sites but now I want to run some of it through my house or other providers.

I would say, start with CSS and PHP--those are going to be the foundation of a more modern website. They'll also be easiest to move to from basic HTML. You can do a lot with just those two, in fact. Then maybe perl or asp, depending on what kind of back-end processing you want to do. Or flash, if you'd rather do that.

MySQL and Apache are actually very different. Apache is a web server program (this is what you'd run if you're running from home, and is probably what your current provider is running. MySQL is a database program, and is a convenient way of storing data which might be accessed or changed by a php, perl, or asp-based page.

If you're looking to run off your home machine, you'll have to look at apache before anything else--you'll need this in order to publish any kind of page, even basic html pages. Then other programs can basically tie in to or be called by apache as needed.

at least, that's my half-cent set of directions. ;)

I agree completely. Depending on what kind of site you'd like to build, maybe read up a little about MySQL while you learn about PHP, just so you can keep in mind what direction you want to take your PHP education. MySQL (as far as I know) is great for utilizing PHP, so try to keep one in mind as you learn about the other.

Alright.. I've done a little more reading on this now.

Make sure you've got a basic grasp of XHTML and CSS first.
Learn about PHP, and understand how it works.
Then learn how to make PHP utilize MySQL.

Don't learn ASP (its just PHP you have to pay for), and Flash doesn't have so much to do with web design, unless you've got dynamic website programming down.

Action Script would always be useful after you learned Flash, and dont learn ASP, its slower then PHP and its owned by microsoft. I recommend Javascript, its very easy and nice.

ASP is just PHP you have to pay for.

Posted by .(ian_evil) Alright.. I've done a little more reading on this now. Make sure you've got a basic grasp of XHTML and CSS first. Learn about PHP, and understand how it works. Then learn how to make PHP utilize MySQL. Don't learn ASP (its just PHP you have to pay for), and Flash doesn't have so much to do with web design, unless you've got dynamic website programming down.

Do you have any recommended books for learning php/mysql in the same book at the same time? I have a forum software and gallery program and I have no Idea on how to install them, or use them in an html/htm/xhtml page.

I just picked up the Visual Quickpro Guide: PHP and MySQL For Dynamic Web Sites 2nd Ed. by Larry Ullman. I like it, and I would recommend it. There are probably a few decent PHP/MySQL guide books at your local bookstore, that would work fine. Even PHP and MySQL for Dummies looked like it was worth picking up.

I got mine for $20 at Borders: http://www.amazon....0?%5Fencoding=UTF8

The one warning I have about buying a tutorial book, is that the examples are VERY simple and straight forward. Most of the time you learn a feature of PHP without any explantation or examples of what its really capable of. So, my recommendation is that once you get into the chapters where you start programming things: Complete the example excercise in the book, and then build something on your own, from scratch, using what you've just learned. Try and think of a way to utilize the functions you've just been taught. (If you were in a PHP class, they'd do it this way.) Otherwise you're going to have a website that echo's "Hello world!" on ten different pages, and that's it.

So.. after completing the example in the book for calculating 'tax' on a 'quantity' of 'widgets', I built this:
http://www.kaoscor....com/printcalc.php
Its a bit more complicated, but uses all the same features.

Posted by .(ian_evil) I just picked up the Visual Quickpro Guide: PHP and MySQL For Dynamic Web Sites 2nd Ed. by Larry Ullman. I like it, and I would recommend it. There are probably a few decent PHP/MySQL guide books at your local bookstore, that would work fine. Even PHP and MySQL for Dummies looked like it was worth picking up. I got mine for $20 at Borders: http://www.amazon....0?%5Fencoding=UTF8 The one warning I have about buying a tutorial book, is that the examples are VERY simple and straight forward. Most of the time you learn a feature of PHP without any explantation or examples of what its really capable of. So, my recommendation is that once you get into the chapters where you start programming things: Complete the example excercise in the book, and then build something on your own, from scratch, using what you've just learned. Try and think of a way to utilize the functions you've just been taught. (If you were in a PHP class, they'd do it this way.) Otherwise you're going to have a website that echo's "Hello world!" on ten different pages, and that's it. So.. after completing the example in the book for calculating 'tax' on a 'quantity' of 'widgets', I built this: http://www.kaoscor....com/printcalc.php Its a bit more complicated, but uses all the same features.

Sweet, thanx!

And what is with computer text books using the term widgets? the office 2003 book I bought for my parents uses it all the time.

I have a Sams Teach Yourself PHP,Mysql, and apache book. Its great.

On a side note, he software your installing has install.php files. If you uploaded everything correctly, running them will do everything for you. I'm not even sure if your host will support that stuff though.

If you're just learning it for fun I would agree, however ASP and ASP.net are great to put on a resume. For some reason people get buzzwords like that in their head and don't give a shit if PHP is better and easier.

Posted by Crazydeep74 I recommend Javascript, its very easy and nice.

I agree 100%. You can do some pretty awsome stuff with JavaScript. It would be a good idea to learn and know the Document Object Model if you're going to get into JavaScript. From there you can branch off into cool dynamic content, AJAX, verification scripts, etc...

Also, when doing PHP coding, I highly recommend you grab the PHP manual from php.net. It may not teach you syntax, but it documents 99% of the functions you'll use and it has a lot of excellent code samples.

-Me!

Does anyone know of a good Javascript language reference online? All the ones I've seen are riddled with ads or disorganized (or I've been spoiled by php.net's documentation )

Posted by Mr. Motts (or I've been spoiled by php.net's documentation )

Same... I'd kill to have a decent JavaScript documentation resource like that. In the end, though, I usually just google like a madman until I find what I need.

-Me!

http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
This is a usefull javascript guide.

Posted by ian_evil Alright.. I've done a little more reading on this now. Make sure you've got a basic grasp of XHTML and CSS first.

I agree on CSS, but XHTML and XML are completely fucking bunk in my eyes.

In order to have a properly good website, learn some advanced HTML techniques, then start working on CSS. Move on to PHP when you're comfortable.

To help you with syntax, here's a programme I use myself for editing files:
http://sourceforge...ects/notepad-plus/

It's the greatest tool I know of. That in conjunction with the Firefox extension Web Developer (You can get that here: https://addons.moz...S/firefox/addon/60) can help you build a truly wonderful website.

Good luck, mate.

since we're talking extensions, firebug, is also uber useful, I dont have a link, but It's easy to find.

I'd basically just echo what you've already heard above.

Learn XHTML and CSS, to build a semantic website, and once you are comfortable with that, you'll get the most bang for your learning buck from Javascript, and then PHP. Javascript first though, since it is hugely useful, and you will need to have a pretty good understanding to do all the cool AJAX stuff that is big right now, with the whole "web 2.0" thing. Once you have a good understanding of how javascript works, php will come easy, any programming language is pretty much the same as the next, the code just looks different.

One thing I would say is a must to learn if you want to impress future employers or clients, or whatever, is the understanding of seperation of content, style and functionality. That means, for example when using javascript, try and avoid using onclick or onmouseover... event handlers in the html. Instead learn to use the DOM effectively, and you wont need that. For instance, check out this collapsable list that has no javascript built in.

http://benniaustin...ts/colapseList.php

Pretty neat huh. Don't just learn a programming language, to make it do what you want. Figure out the best way to make it do what you want. If you keep functionality, style and content seperate, it makes updating all of those easier in the future, independantly.

As for books, I wouldn't know, I have never read a programming book in my life, I tried to read a PHP one, but gave up, and taught myself using google and gotapi.com (just indexes w3schools, php.net etc....)

Perl.

Posted by Wabbit since we're talking extensions, firebug, is also uber useful, I dont have a link, but It's easy to find. I'd basically just echo what you've already heard above. Learn XHTML and CSS, to build a semantic website, and once you are comfortable with that, you'll get the most bang for your learning buck from Javascript, and then PHP. Javascript first though, since it is hugely useful, and you will need to have a pretty good understanding to do all the cool AJAX stuff that is big right now, with the whole "web 2.0" thing. Once you have a good understanding of how javascript works, php will come easy, any programming language is pretty much the same as the next, the code just looks different. One thing I would say is a must to learn if you want to impress future employers or clients, or whatever, is the understanding of seperation of content, style and functionality. That means, for example when using javascript, try and avoid using onclick or onmouseover... event handlers in the html. Instead learn to use the DOM effectively, and you wont need that. For instance, check out this collapsable list that has no javascript built in. http://benniaustin...ts/colapseList.php Pretty neat huh. Don't just learn a programming language, to make it do what you want. Figure out the best way to make it do what you want. If you keep functionality, style and content seperate, it makes updating all of those easier in the future, independantly. As for books, I wouldn't know, I have never read a programming book in my life, I tried to read a PHP one, but gave up, and taught myself using google and gotapi.com (just indexes w3schools, php.net etc....)

You don't need Firebug if you have Webdev. There's a CSS/HTML validator included in it, you just click and it validates it via W3.

firebug is much more useful than just a validator. A lot of the features of webdev and firebug overlap, but it's nice to have them there. plus you can fire off functions, and check variables on the fly. You can see exactly what is being returned for ajax calls, and play with the dom.