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Subject:SUMMARY: which web development language to learn? From:"Michael Sussman" <msussman -at- earthling -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L List" <TECHWR-L -at- LISTS -dot- RAYCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 28 Feb 2000 23:56:41 -0800
Thanks, all, for the many comments and suggestions in response to my post.
Here is a summary of opinions. There was no consensus, but I was able to
prioritize skills or groups of skills based on replies. See also the
comments following.
First learn CSS, JavaScript, and DHTML. Note that CSS and JavaScript are
actually integral to DHTML. Also note that CSS does not now have full
browser support.
Second, or alternatively, learn ASP (Active Server Pages). ASP was not in my
original list of examples. Only a few respondents suggested ASP, but they
did so strongly.
Third, learn XML. The response on this was mixed, in that some responses
felt XML is "for the future." (Personally, I think the future arrives very
quickly these days.)
Fourth, learn CGI and Perl. Some comments were that Perl is just one way of
writing CGI scripts, and Web development is moving away from CGI anyway.
Last, learn Java.
Additional comments:
- What skills you acquire depend on what you want to do, who you want to
work for, and your programming ability. I did not mention my programming
abilities, so perhaps Java was downplayed.
- VBScript or JScript may be worthwhile learning, at least if Internet
Explorer is the browser to be used.
- Also mentioned were ColdFusion and JSP, whatever that is.
For another perspective, I did a search through the Monster job board for
"technical writer" in the USA, with subsearches on each of the following,
with these results:
Total USA: ..................314,000 jobs listed
technical writer jobs....over 1000 listed
Java..............................95
XML..............................45
JavaScript....................44
ASP..............................37
Perl...............................22
CGI...............................14
DHTML..........................9
CSS...............................5
In my opinion, the time it takes to learn any of these is roughly in reverse
order to the demand (I don't know about ASP).
I hope this is helpful to some of you. It is to me, and again thanks to all
of you who sent in your suggestions.
- Michael
>
> Which language(s)/skill(s) do you suggest I learn first? For example, CGI,
> Perl, JavaScript, Java, DHTML, CSS, XML...
>
> Thanks.
>
> - Michael
> msussman -at- earthling -dot- net
