Essential Requirements...

So friends, how are you all today? Sorry for a late post. I had gone out of the city today for something important. I hope you all must have downloaded and installed the essential softwares by this time. Today I will tell you about some of the basic requirements you must fulfill to learn PHP effectively. Following is the list of technologies you must be familiar with:

• HTML : This is the basic language everyone who aspires to do web development or designing must be familiar with. Don't worry if you do not know anything about it as all you intelligent people reading this blog can do it in less than a day from any of the tutorials available on the net. Soon I will start with another blog for HTML too. Till then you can quench your thirst with some of the following really good tutorials:

1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here. This is one of the best tutorials available on the net.
2. W3Schools: You can visit the tutorial here. I rate it at number 2. Though some people prefer it, I think this is for somewhat professionals. For those who wish to learn quickly and goto PHP fast, Tizag is best as it is somewhat like a summary for W3Schools. You need not to go into a lot of detail for HTML to learn PHP as you can increase your HTML knowledge side by side as you learn PHP.
3. W3C HTML 4: You can visit the official specifications for HTML 4 here. I would recommend the beginners to go for HTML 4 rather than HTML5.
4. W3C HTML 5: You can visit the official specifications for HTML 5 here.  For those who know some of the basics for HTML, I would suggest them to upgrade to HTML 5 by spending a day on it. It would help them to work in Web2.0 and hence the later versions. Beginners do not get confused after reading this, it is important for you to learn the basics first and then later on, may be after a month when you are well versed with HTML, you can upgrade to HTML 5.

The first tutorial is enough if you want to give HTML a quick review. Here is the quick list of HTML which you can print and keep in your pocket for a quick review anytime you are working.

• Javascript: This is another language you need to know. Though not an essential to start learning PHP but it helps make your designs look good and is needed for client side verifications (Client side verifications are the verifications done by the visitor's browser on his PC before any interactions with the server. For example when you fill a form online and it gives an error message for a field which requires atleast 4 characters ).
  
  
  
  
  
  Some of the good tutorials for javascript are:
  
  
  
  1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here. Just a quick reading of a few pages of the tutorial is enough. You can learn javascript also slowly alongwith PHP. I intend to start a tutorial for javascript too but it would take time. Till then enjoy with any of these good tutorials on net.
  2. W3Schools: Whenever listing tutorials for anything related to web, w3schools is a must. It is one of the finest and most visited group of tutorials for web. You can visit the tutorial here.
   
• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets, I would say are one of the best things available at the disposal of a web designer. They help you keep all you code separate from the design. This means just change the CSS file and you can have a new theme for your website. A well written CSS is one that is free from all kinds of browser wars ( Browser wars are the defects that appear in the design of the website in different browsers. This occurs mainly due to different interpretation of various tags by different browsers ). 

Some of  the good tutorials for CSS are :

1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here.
2. W3Schools: You can visit the tutorial here. 

Tizag and W3schools are the best place for anything you don't find on this blog about web development.

The next post will be by Monday. Till then brush up the basic requirements. Those who are not familiar with any of the above given technologies, try learning them during the weekend.

It is time for me to sleep now. Have a nice weekend...........

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples' models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open

-Shakti Gawain