Want to learn about SQL, Java, or XML?

[stugster]

Hey all,

I studied these in 1st and 2nd year at Uni, and the interactive tutorials are all online and publicly available.

They're absolutely fantastic, and they're a great way to get to grips with the technology.

If you're interested, the links are as follows:

ProgZoo - Progzoo (for Java, and soon, other languages such as C, VB, C++ etc.)

A Gentle Introduction to SQL (for learning about databases and specifically SQL)

An Introduction to xml (XML )

 

[Idea15]

There are some great e-classes at IWA:

Website Design Classes Offered by IWA-HWG

Click on "open class list". Those are American prices, so cut those figures in half.

After the lazy snooze that was UWS's CIW program, IWA has been like a cold bucket of water over my head!

 

[stugster]

Thanks for that Heather!

There is a free alternative to IWA though, which can be found here: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials

I'm not sure which one is better, and what the quality is like of either, but if your budget is really tight and you want a base to start, the w3schools site might be a good place.

 

[toby]

<quote>
which can be found here: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
</quote>

I'm pretty new here and haven't even introduced myself, but the urge to post anyway was too great.

W3 being the governing body of web standards it is safe to say that their information is accurate. If you haven't then you most definitely should bookmark their site and read several pages of it regardless of depth of knowledge. They provide excellent introductions to the basic concepts of many technologies and extensive reference materials which are very useful in every area. I would say however that they are a brilliant way of getting a feel for things before you decide to invest huge amounts of time in them and a great tool for when you know things, they are not to way to fully learn anything. If you want to learn to code php (or just about anything else) they will tell you how, if you want to be a php programmer buy an O' Reilly book.

 

[stugster]

Hi Toby,

Thanks for that! O' Reilly is a great resource, as is Sam's Teach Yourself.

Why haven't you introduced yourself yet? Introducing yourself and your business is a great way to get your business some visitors, and potentially some custom!

Welcome to the forums by the way!

 

[toby]

I only just joined and previous to joining I started reading and one thing leads to another...

Sams is a good resource. O'Reilly is my favourite for completely technical subjects (programming languages or unix/apache bla bla bla) sams and also Wiley's bible series are my preferred options for stuff that crosses borders like flash, director, 3d modeling etc balancing technical, planning and interface issues. Previously I would have said that books like sams or the bibles are better for highly technical stuff for people with little to no experience in the area needing a more gentle introduction(for example for someone wishing to learn html but had no experience in web technologies what so ever) but their new "Head first" series is absolutely excellent for such a case.

 

[Mark]

W3Schools isn't run by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Sorry, I had to clarify that! It was mentioned 3 posts up.

W3Schools does however provide some good tutorials and cover alot of the fundimentals. The W3C specifications in comparison can be very concise, but perhaps too technical if it's new territory.

 

[toby]

Ah someone led me under the impression that it was and it seemed easily to agree with it being a teaching site of theirs. Sorry for the misunderstanding that I had. However that aside it is a good resource and accurate to W3C standards, the rest of what i said was through personal opinion of my experience and therefore is accurate on a semi-subjective basis. The W3C site is fairly difficult to make your way around even with a fairly strong technical background unless it is specialist or you are looking for news in a specific area.

 

[pdu]

Hi, I too am new here, having been bugged by stugster to sign up and do a test post. Whilst here, I figured I may as well give a few more links. For SQL stuff, honestly, mysql's own website is outstanding, MySQL :: MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual and covers the lot, indexing, views, triggers, backing up, clustering, the list goes on.

As for PHP, again, back to the authors here, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor has a full blown online manual for everything, as an added bonus, developers share code snippets and improve each others work in the comments underneath. As such, its not just a good site for a language reference, but those comments can actually help show you the difference between badly thought out code and elegant solutions.

As for HTML stuff, its not a massively complex arena, so for normal people, yes w3schools is good. For CSS, alistapart and cssplay are good resource sites, see the examples and then view their code etc..

As for JavaScript and AJAX type stuff, JavaScript tutorial - Important guidelines is another fantastic resource. Hope they help.

 

[IT Training UK]

what are your thoughts on online learning compared to traditional classroom learning? Do you not feel that with elearning, it takes alot more effort from the student as opposed to learning in the classroom?

I would like to hear your opinions

Scott

 

[pdu]

Hi, I always feel these things are very mixed. I have attended evening classes in a couple of subjects and find, unfortunately, that even 'adult learning' isn't much more adult than school was, so it's not always the most conducive environment to learning. Also, the Government do seem to enjoy dumping the unemployed into these classes, you might care and be paying for yourself, but they aren't and can be a destructive influence. Maybe I just had bad experiences.

I find a mixed approach works best, I tend to start with a book on the subject and pretty much follow it, page by page, example by example to build up a familiarity with the language, then attempt my own Frankenstein, having a goal makes the process easier. Remember that books are only so big and you haven't learned the lot, and whilst creating your first project, google around the function names and see if others have contributed ideas and notes. Chances are you'll produce something 'complete' but almost immediately have the benefit of realising where you could have made vast improvements.

Like I say, methods of learning are extremely personal, but the most general advice would say is to use a mixed approach regardless, buy a book AND attend a class, or some other combo. Remember subject specific forums are also good whilst learning, something as simple as "Hi i'm learning Javascript and wrote this function, it does X and I wondered if it could be improved, could anyone provide feedback" can often be good.

Hopefully something of use in there.

 

[Murdoch Websites]

Cheers for all the links

here's mine,

firstly if you want to learn Ruby on Rails, and who wouldn't, then go here:
Railscasts - Free Ruby on Rails Screencasts

for flash:
gotoandlearn.com - Free video tutorials by Lee Brimelow on the Flash Platform - exellent free videos on how to do flashy stuff well

for php, just buy yourself a bottle of meths and some tablets :lol:

java, same as above,

for everything else: Learning @ Your Own Pace® - lynda.com - although there is a subscription fee for this site, you can share your login with upto two other people so it works out pretty cheap in the end.

ok, peace out

 

[GarryHeavens]

Thanks stugster it's really cool links. Thanks for sharing post.