retired prgmr wants to know best web publising software

[Ortica]

Hi All; its been a few years since I 've programmed but am interested in getting into the world of web publishing. I have experience in cobol, c++, java etc.. but am out of touch with whats hot in the world of web publishing these days. Can someone tell me where to start. i want to start out with basic pages but would like to move eventually to interactive pages for appt booking etc

any help would be awesome..thanks

[perkster]

well you can learn HTML easily and use notepad, site HTML goodies is very good for that.

next if you want to use dynamic sites you can use either ASP or PHP, if you are familiar with C++ youll probably find PHP easy, im more VB orientated so i enjoy ASP more.

if you want slick graphics you can use flash.

most websites benefit from CSS and javascript. there are many free javascript scripts to add to pages at www.javascriptsource.com

if interested in ASP or PHP there are many free learn PHP and learn ASP websites with guides, examples, code snippets and forums to help you

[mairving]

Hot things now are Ajax, Ruby on Rails, XML. You would still need to learn HTML, which isn't too difficult, CSS which isn't either. PHP and VB/ASP/.NET are still quite popular and there is an incredible amount of development going on.

[Ortica]

thanks for all the info. ..very helpful..one more question..does anyone have any comments on dreamweaver..as i was also considering delving into this

[mattmorgan]

Dreamweaver is a good program for starting out at web design, but it does have a nasty habit of messing up complex site. my advice would be to start by using this program as it allows you to see the code and design you write in real-time as well as having some nice functions and code snippets, but move away to notepad and more simple programs as soon as you feel confident enough as most of the well known web packages will add small amounts of code and other hazards that are most often un-necessary and slow down or break you pages for no good reason.

after one year of dreamweaver i now write by hand in note pad.

hope that helps.

M