by just.Luc

Question by cdoglite: What computer languages and techniques should I learn in order to create a highly profitable website?

The website, would have members, host audio and video files, make transactions, and probably more. Basically I want to learn how to construct a professional website in my garage, all the setups required, all knowledge that needs to be learned ect…. Where is a good place to start? I am already learning HTML and purchased Dreamweaver. I think I’m going to need to learn some computer programming languages as well. What are the popular programming languages that create small software applications for the web?? What knowledge needs to be learned to start up a computer server in your garage?? Please don’t respond with going to college and getting a degree, I know there is plenty of information on the internet and in books for the knowledge to be learned




Best answer:

Answer by Tim
Right now, you are going to hear a lot about "AJAX". But, don't worry about AJAX.

What you need is member logins, sessions, etc. What you will need is a server-side scripting laungage and a database. HTML and CSS is only the end, what the user sees.

You have a choice of what langauge and database to go with. But if you want to do it yourself, you will have to learn some real database and website programming. This goes a ways beyond HTML with like Dreamweaver. One plus is, all the langauges are very simula in how they are used and, for the most part, even syntax. Once you have a good grasp of one, you can handle the others.

Which langauge and DB you choose, depends entirely on what your host is running. A good stable host with the right support and DB is going to cost money (unless you want ot host yourself, but then you gotta handle the server, db admin, etc. yourself aswell as bandwidth.) Also, sounds like you want a lot of webspace...that's oging to cost more.

Anyways, In conclusion i'm going to link to the top langauges used for programming websites.

First, Microsoft. Programming ASP Web Applications with the .Net framework, in Visual Basic or C# syntax. Microsoft has it's own SQL Server. This is most expensive hosting, but pretty high-end.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

Java! Another langauge, kindof simular to C in syntax. Java programmers consider it by far the best for web apps. Might be more difficult to find a host, but you probably could get it for a little cheaper than .net.
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/

PHP is the freeware way to go. Linux + Apache Server + PHP + MySQL hosts are also the cheapest. This is also the way you'd go if you were to setup your own server for free. PHP is designed to be very simular in syntax with C/ASP.
http://www.php.net/
http://www.mysql.com/

I oughta mension PERL. A very popular more oldschool style of scripting. It can give you a lot of control though. Hosting will cost a little more than PHP usually.
http://www.perl.com/.

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