3 ms·

Yup,but I have been exposed as Product Manager to the process of programming.

techiferous 16y ago
If this is your first language, then keep this in mind: it is like learning a new human language in that you have to learn the grammar and you have to learn vocabulary. Let's say you choose Ruby on Rails. Ruby is like learning grammar: you've got to understand the core concepts of the language and how to put things together. Rails and the domain of web programming is like the thousands of vocab words you need to know: HTTP status codes, the CSS box model, Rack, XHTML, Ajax, cross-site scripting, etc. Web programming encompasses a lot of knowledge. You may be able to pick up Ruby pretty quickly, but it will take a while to learn all of the web programming knowledge you need to know to program a web app adequately. Time and time again I've seen people think it was easy, dive in, and realize it was really hard. I'm not trying to discourage you, but realize it's going to be a lot of work (probably similar to the effort of learning a new human language).
- jonjonjon 16y ago
  I understand. I do now HTML and CSS and have played a bit with javascript. But yes, I a am aware how difficult and time consuming this will be. Would you then recommend RoR over PHP?
  - techiferous 16y ago
    I wouldn't recommend Rails as a starting point. The ecosystem has become quite large and there is a lot to learn. Plus, it's in transition from Rails 2 to Rails 3, so you'll be learning a moving target and the ecosystem is a bit unstable as a result. If you'd like a Ruby framework to start with, I'd recommend Sinatra. It has less moving parts but is still plenty powerful. http://www.sinatrarb.com/ http://www.sinatrarb.com/ If your web application is mostly a web site with some dynamic features sprinkled in, then PHP would be a good choice because it's easy to embed straight within the HTML. If you're building a full-fledged web app (lots of dynamic content, database-backed, user accounts, etc.) then I would choose a web framework. I don't know how PHP web frameworks compare with Ruby web frameworks since I haven't used a PHP web framework myself.

If this is your first language, then keep this in mind: it is like learning a new human language in that you have to learn the grammar and you have to learn vocabulary. Let's say you choose Ruby on Rails. Ruby is like learning grammar: you've got to understand the core concepts of the language and how to put things together. Rails and the domain of web programming is like the thousands of vocab words you need to know: HTTP status codes, the CSS box model, Rack, XHTML, Ajax, cross-site scripting, etc. Web programming encompasses a lot of knowledge. You may be able to pick up Ruby pretty quickly, but it will take a while to learn all of the web programming knowledge you need to know to program a web app adequately. Time and time again I've seen people think it was easy, dive in, and realize it was really hard. I'm not trying to discourage you, but realize it's going to be a lot of work (probably similar to the effort of learning a new human language).

jonjonjon 16y ago
I understand. I do now HTML and CSS and have played a bit with javascript. But yes, I a am aware how difficult and time consuming this will be. Would you then recommend RoR over PHP?
- techiferous 16y ago
  I wouldn't recommend Rails as a starting point. The ecosystem has become quite large and there is a lot to learn. Plus, it's in transition from Rails 2 to Rails 3, so you'll be learning a moving target and the ecosystem is a bit unstable as a result. If you'd like a Ruby framework to start with, I'd recommend Sinatra. It has less moving parts but is still plenty powerful. http://www.sinatrarb.com/ http://www.sinatrarb.com/ If your web application is mostly a web site with some dynamic features sprinkled in, then PHP would be a good choice because it's easy to embed straight within the HTML. If you're building a full-fledged web app (lots of dynamic content, database-backed, user accounts, etc.) then I would choose a web framework. I don't know how PHP web frameworks compare with Ruby web frameworks since I haven't used a PHP web framework myself.