Hi,

I just wanted to share some concerns that I have as a newbie in the website development area.
The first thing that I notice is that there is a lot of technology with fancy acronyms. AJAX,CSS,HTML,PHP,Javascript,MySQL,Apache - You need to learn a lot of new things if you want to design a functional and attractive website.
But if you want to develop application software, you just need to learn a language - thats it. Any one language is sufficient for you to develop a full featured application - VC++, C++, Qt, Java or any other language depending on the platform.
Why can't a simpler solution be possible for website development as well. How can we reduce the complexity of developing websites. I an talking from the view point of a lone programmer who wants to develop a website.
Any views on this ?

You are completely wrong about only having to learn one language for application software development. First of all, for an application to run a gui you need to learn WinAPI, for 3d-graphical applications you need to learn DirectX or OpenGL, etc. For the underlying application you may only need one language but many programs are written in multiple languages. The one company my dad used to work for, the had a java application with embedded c++ since c++ does mathematical operations faster than java. For AI programs, you use java or c++ or c# with lisp embedded in it since lisp is all recursion and can do graph / tree search must faster than a normal modern language.

i am talking about ordinary application development.
i can develop a complete linux application by only knowing c++.
similarly i can create a complete windows application only by knowing visual basic.
i am not talking about complex application using java with c++ and all that.
Java is more than good for doing any job without dragging c++ into it.

Well you can say the same then for web site development. For a basic site all you need to know is just HTML or CSS. I mean it's really the same thing if you think about it. People can use just HTML for a web site as they can use just Visual Basic. Sure I use Visual Basic and make some pretty decent programs but I can make it more advanced if I wanted to by adding another language. Same with my website, it's just HTML with some images from Photoshop and I can also add PHP to it to make it better.

Simplest thing in web development is XHTML and CSS.
I have no idea how to develop applications, C++ or Visual Basic, all I know is that they are difficult to develop and that it is too confusing

Anyways, I think that if you don't know web or application development, they are equally as difficult.

If you're designing a web page using HTML, it is much much easier than designing an application. If you don't want to learn HTML you can always using a web designer like Microsoft FrontPage or WebEasy 6 by VCOM. Then it makes it really simple .

Really, if you think about it, all websites are based on HTML anyway. So basically, writing an all HTML website wouldn't be too difficult. You wouldn't have the most fancy looking page probably, but a nice starter page. I'm reading a HTML book called Head First, and they run you though making whole web pages in HTML that don't look bad. I've never developed software, but I'm sure its the same with that.

In terms of programming:

HTML-once you mastered the basic ideas of html then css, xhtml, dhtml gets easier.

PHP AND Javascript-once you have mastered the basic ideas of javascript then learning php will get just as easy.

C++-their are many compiler languages that oyu can learn to get a good grasp of this, but if you put in alot of effort then it will be just as easy as anything else.

Thought i would share some points on this interesting topic.

To develop a simple webpage, you need HTML and to develop a simple Java application, you need Java. It just comes down to that. However if you are looking for an enterprise style of application, an application which is going to be sold on the market, you won't just be relying on that simple Java application would you? Alright, take for example my application.

I am doing a Community Calendaring based application suitable for use in a J2ME Mobile phone. This could be classified under the Application Software Development. Other than the common Java lanuage, we have had to have other IT skills such as Photoshop (GUI of the Application), JSP (Server side component of the application), SIP also known as Session Initiation Protocol (For the initiation of chatting between 2 users). So to make this enterprise Application Software, it took the knowledge of 4 components other than the normal Java.

Similarly for a website dealing in server technology like asp, you would need other things such as CSS (Faciliate the usage), ASP (Server side component) and even Photoshop apart from the normal HTML. So for me, it all depends on what kind of standard you are going to set yourself, a normal small application can be used through 1 component (either Java or whatever language you prefer).