Do You Folks Mind Beginners Here?

• Ahr Aitch

  SSC-Addicted

  Points: 414

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  February 12, 2025 at 9:38 pm

  #4536328

  I just joined and posted a brief profile.  This is my first post.  Please be gentle.  It'll take a minute for me to learn the ropes.

  I'm retired from IT having entered the field in 1965.  I'm 83.  I haven't done much more than use canned apps on a PC for the last couple of decades.  Recently I decided to fight boredom and try my hand learning new tools for web development.  I'm working on a family website.  I've got the frontend fairly well started which meant learning a bit of HTML and CSS and VS Code.  I've begun a tutorial on javascript and will probably look at php as well.  Having got the core of my front end coded, I've turned to the backend.  That starts, for me, with designing and creating a database.  After a few false starts, I've settled (I think) on MS SQL Server (MSSS?) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).  I've only just managed to get them installed and begun to experiment with them.

  I've not taken any formal classes but have relied on tutorials and videos available on the web. It's been a bit of a struggle;  so I've searched around for places to ask questions, seek suggestions and share ideas.

  My questions:  Have I come to the right place?  Do you have suggestions for a geezer trying to learn these tools (ie, good tutorials, resources available, an approach to learning in order to reach the goal of having a website)?

  Be kind. Be calm. Be generous. Behave.

• Ken McKelvey

  SSCoach

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  February 13, 2025 at 7:27 pm

  #4536985

  This is a MS SQL Server site so will not normally deal much with web developemnt. It may be best to look at https://stackoverflow.com although you had better check the site rules and only post specific questions.

  If you want to learn web development you may be best to concentrate on one of the Stacks. With PHP it is probably best to use MySQL or MariaDB as the database to be part of the LAMP stack. LAMP has been around a long time so there are plenty of resources for this. eg:

  https://alison.com/course/design-deliver-and-administer-web-applications-using-lamp

  There are more modern stacks but I am not sure how easy it is to find cheap hosting options for them.

  If you just want a simple website, a lot of hosting companies have templates to allow small businesses to quickly build a reasonable looking site.

  https://www.w3schools.com/ has good tutorials for coding basics.