I have a liberal arts background, and never really studied higher mathematics or computer science. However, I have got into designing basic websites for people lately, using Dreamweaver and some other WYSIWYG programs. I know I need to break out of that, and start learning the programming languages necessary to design dynamic websites and interactive e-commerce solutions. How do I get my head around programming languages like PHP, though?
I’m not sure about Perl, since I’ve never done it, but these sites may be useful.
http://us3.php.net/ – PHP’s manual. Unlike most manuals, this is REALLY helpful.
http://www.w3schools.com/ – A GREAT website with examples and explains things thoroughly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ – I use this a lot for MySQL. Just go to an article like this: “Syntax (SQL).” For instance, for the INSERT syntax, it would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_(SQL)
I would strongly suggest taking a beginning programming course. Be careful on that, because many beginning classes just show you how to put buttons on a MS Visual Basic form. That’s not what you want. Find a class that shows you how to sit down and write code.
If you want to teach yourself, find a PHP tutorial – like this one.http://us2.php.net/tut.php
if want to learn the PHP, MySQL, Perl, CSS, and XHTML the best and easiest way check this site http://www.w3school.com. trust me i use to used this site when i was still in college, since i’m a BS computer science student.
w3schools is excellent but for a beginner a more structured approach is needed. One which starts with basics and doesn’t require any prior knowledge. A book is the best option but there are also many tutorials on the Web which will help. My own website at http://www.yourwebskills.com is one example.