InsideTech

It is limited, tho : www.w3schools.com/

this is great except its just a reference place not really a tutorial place im looking more for a place to tell me why im doing it. i compare it to algebra, i was failing it until i knew why i was doing it or how it worked than i did it my own way. im looking for the whys or the hows not so much the lines themselves but thanks

MChristophe says ...

It is limited, tho : www.w3schools.com/

 

Well, HTML only help you arraging text, without allowing you to o anything, so far, javascript will only you to create script on the client-side, php will do the job on the server and the client-side also in some case.

You can do more than text. That's why.

Does that help you ?

Try this link for JavaScript tutorials:

http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Java/CatalogJava.htm

hahahaha

EZapata says ...

java != javascript.... pfffffff!

 thanks man. and you bring up a good point. books. if there isnt any good tutorial sites does anyone know of any good books? there are the O'Rielly books but i heard that was just a good reference. maybe im going at it wrong because another good point brought up is the fact of learning the basics of any language. maybe something would teach me some good intro to programing?

 thanks again man

My favorite javascript book was 'Danny Goodman's Javascript Handbook' published in 1996 via IDG. A must have office book.

As for your AI files, this is recommended:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XnView

Hi,

I wonder whether you're aware of the site

http://appjet.com/

They have a beginners guide to programming (in JavaScript) and you can write little programs and try them out there.

Also they have a http://etherpad.com/ which might be useful for letting someone else see your code and get advice.

I learnt the first time from a dummies book, but since I've not had much practice recently, I've just got 'Javascript : the good parts' which is a much smaller book to learn from.  I think the big O'Reilly book (JavaScript: The Definitive Guide) is a very readable reference which discusses a few more advanced topics. 

Hope that helps,

Matt. 

 thanks again all. this topic exploded with some great information for me and i really do appreciate it. thats why i love this site.

 I make a living as a professional freelance web developer. I never attended a single class or any other formal training; IMO it's a waste of time and money. You're right, you can learn everything you need to know off a few books and any of many great web references. I learned HTML, XML, Javascript, PHP, C, C++, and Ruby that way and I don't consider myself exceptionally intelligent; anyone can do it. Besides that, there's a reason your teacher is teaching javascript and not making a living writing javascript, and to give you a clue: it's not that teachers get paid better, or that teaching is more fun. Anything your teacher does happen to know is almost certainly dated to the time she learned it, and 6 months is a lifetime in web programming, so in other words she's the equivalent of several lifetimes out of date.

What you learn in school when it comes to web design & development is probably not going to be remotely applicable or useful in real life beyond a basic understanding of the language. Don't wait for them to tell you how things are or should be done; they don't know - and if you ever hear "this is how it's done in the real world" run screaming, because they have -no means whatsoever- of knowing that and are always, always wrong. At least, that's my experience working with formally educated newbies :) It usually takes more time to unlearn the nonsense than it does to learn from scratch.

The one and only reason to get a formal education in an emerging field like web development is if you're looking for a corporate job right off the bat, in which case just endure the waste of time and make sure you spend your electives in fields relevant to what you actually want to do. Psychology is really helpful when it comes to UI design, for instance.

So anyway, to the sites, a lot of good resources have already been listed by others. For practical guides on accomplishing particular tasks I highly recommend any of the big names in the web development blogosphere, such as http://www.sitepoint.com, http://www.alistapart.com, and keep an eye out on aggregators like http://www.cssbeauty.com as well for good interdisciplinary information. Sitepoint also sells quite a few pdf/hard copy books on various design & development topics, I put them right up there with O'Reilly in terms of content quality and value. Head First is another great series, in that they really try to make use of scientific understanding of how the brain learns rather than just presenting you wtih a lot of dry, technical text or on the flipside the mind-numbingly patronizing approach of the Dummies/Idiot's Guide series and their ilk. You'll find the javascript book at: http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-JavaScript-Michael-Morrison/dp/0596527748/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239830097&sr=1-1

One of the toughest to comprehend and most useful features of Javascript and other programming languages are regular expressions; a few good resources for learning them and testing them are: expressions.info">http://www.regular-expressions.info/, http://www.quanetic.com/Regex, http://regexlib.com/.

For javascript libraries which will enhance your productivity once you grok the basics of the language, check out:

http://www.jquery.com

http://www.prototypejs.org

http://script.aculo.us

http://www.mootools.net

I can't recommend these enough. I prefer jquery personally, but any of them will vastly cut down the amount of code you have to write. JQuery has a UI suite as well which provides some shortcuts for common UI features like tabs, accordions, dialog boxes, etc. Also have a look at http://www.raphaeljs.com - this is a library for providing interoperability between IE and other browsers' vector graphics implementation, meaning you can easily generate images on the fly using javascript. Really handy and has a lot of potential.

In advanced topics, one of the most useful mental tools for writing in any objective or object-oriented language like JS are object-oriented design patterns. http://www.amazon.com/First-Design-Patterns-Elisabeth-Freeman/dp/0596007124/ref=pd_sim_b_2 : head first design patterns is written for the Java langauge, not Javascript, but it's the best introduction i've encountered to some of the most common and powerful patterns. Put this on your reading list before anything else once you get past the basics!

Last but not least, good luck and stick with it. It will be maddeningly frustrating at first if this is your first programming language, but if you stick with it you'll quickly get past the frustration and into a wonderfully rewarding and entertaining experience.

 i just had a talk with someone yesterday and ironically they told me (which i forgot somehow) those who cant do teach, or they just really love to teach haha. makes sense. love all this great information btw guys thanks. 

You should inform your school about the teachers lack in ability. If you can get several of the studetns to back you up then the teacher will get fired and others will not experience the same pain. =-)

James

 we actually got a group together (28 now) and we have really tried and tried. we have gotten a few things changed but we dont expect to get everything changed right away. its a slow process but oh well. i have now finished the class for javascript and got a c+ but i still dont know javascript. so, during any of my free time i am going to try and teach myself what i need to know