> a fairly long-lived and large code-base Such could be spaghetti on any platform. To understand web programming, I wouldn't start with something big and old.

> a fairly long-lived and large code-base Such could be spaghetti on any platform. To understand web programming, I wouldn't start with something big and old. I've been doing web programming for more than a decade, and I still don't get the majority of web frameworks. Start instead with the basics, and work your way up: 1. HTML. Don't view the source of websites and web apps to understand HTML. Read a good book or tutorial. HTML Dog is a good one. 2. CSS. Likewise. 3. JavaScript. Definitely don't try to learn JavaScript by viewing source either. Instead, maybe HTML Dog. There's also Douglas Crockford's _JavaScript: The Good Parts_ and David Flanagan's masterpiece, _JavaScript: The Definitive Guide_. I don't know how I would have ever understood JavaScript if I had not taken the months to read Flanagan's book cover to cover. That takes care of the client side. For the server side, it should come much more easily. Basically you have a database, like I'm sure you're used to. Then you need a web server, like Apache or Nginx, and some kind of glue language like Python or PHP. Many people put a lot of code here. But I like to keep it pretty thin: like the database and the browser just talking to each other. Even so, just running this side of the affair can be a full-time job in itself. I recommend at some point familiarizing yourself with the HTTP protocol in general: all the headers, request methods, etc. Basically once you can use Telnet to imitate a browser requesting a page, you'll feel more comfortable with how simple it really is.