What do I need to make a website?

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Yeah, what language do I need to make a website? PHP and Javascript. Any thing else?

And what are Visual Studio 2013 Express for Web features? Does it have PHP, JS and everything else I need?

Thanks in advance.
HTML and CSS are languages too. All PHP does is generate the HTML, and all JavaScript does is modify the HTML.
what language do I need to make a website?
Any. There is cgi-bin for pure C. However I would not suggest it.

PHP, Perl, Python are good for web if you really need dynamic pages. If not, static HTML will do the trick.

Aside from web language you need HTML and CSS knowledge. If you want your pages to be dynamic, you need to know JS too.

Also you will need hoster (or home machine and DynDNS), probably a domain (or use a free one or use direct IP)

Does it have PHP, JS and everything else I need?
JS is in your browser. You will need to install web server and PHP (or another language) interpreter yourself and configure it to test what you have wrote. You may write code without interpreter at all.

I did not hear about anyone who writes any web stuff in VS.
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Basics: a text editor, HTML 4/5, JavaScript, and some JQuery.

To start, just start coding your website- i.e. index.html in HTML and go from there. There is a ton of tutorials available on the 'net for this.

As to the viability of HTML5, I consider it a very new technology. So new, that a lot of people have IMO not upgraded their browsers to be able to take advantage of it.... HTML4 is probably the way to go for now.
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As to the viability of HTML5, I consider it a very new technology. So new, that a lot of people have IMO not upgraded their browsers to be able to take advantage of it.... HTML4 is probably the way to go for now.

Nah. Who cares about those people. Just do them a favor and give them a warning that their browser needs to be updated if you're that worried about it.

If they are using old browser versions then there computers have security vulnerabilities anyways and for this reason browsers usually automatically update.

Just only use HTML features that are well supported on up to date browsers.

If you don't need PHP then you can build and test your HTML, CSS, javascript, webpage without a server. You just need a good text editor like sublime text and a browser.

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what language do I need to make a website?


HTML, and thats all.

Hosting it is another story. I made this site the other day: http://www.thegoldenlog.droppages.com

It is a static page, just HTML and CSS. The hosting is done by Drop Pages, which accesses file I have on my Drop Box account. It is the easiest way to get something on the real internet ( and free ).

The internet, in a nutshell, is requests for information from databases. Your computer sends an HTTP request to a server, the server routes the request into a back end, and the back end queries a database for the information you requested. The back end then formats the database query and responds to your computer in HTML.

There's many languages for the back end, PHP, Ruby, C, theres even Javascript back ends.

There's many types of databases, but typically you will use SQL.

This is a Ruby on Rails application:
http://sqlexample.herokuapp.com

When you go to the site, your are presented will all of the information in the database. The form at the top changes the content of the HTTP request you send to the app ( the address bar will show you the parameters you sent ).

The first line of the orange box is the way you talk to the database using Ruby on Rails. The second line is the actual SQL query that gets created.

( we used bootstrap for styling that site ).

Javascript is the language of the future for web pages. Home computers are powerful enough at this point to maintain entire MVC frameworks on client side. Backends no longer have to respond with HTML, they can respond in JSON format. This means less work for your server.

Travis uses Ember for a client side MVC: https://travis-ci.org/

Btw, the SQL example site I linked to is hosted on heroku.com. Heroku is free hosting for RoR, NodeJS, or PHP sites ( and perhaps others too ).
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when i make a website i use php, dart, and c++ cgi (for quick stuff python cgi) and use LAMP servers
I've learned PHP and Javascript (all the basic) , jQuery (just have started). What languages are recommended for me?
Making a website is easy if you want a premade template. There is wordpress, and wix. But I wouldn't recommend the latter if you want to experiment with things. Use the internet, it is the ultimate research tool. I learned some basics of HTML and CSS in 2-3 weeks. How long it takes you depends on your experience programming, period. I tried wix, it didn't give me enough control.

Making a website that is not static html seems like it would take a lot of time. Because you would have to deal with setting up a server and getting hosts.

I still have to learn JS, PHP for making custom stuff. Php seems like its as complex as c though. but with different symbols I have to memorize :{. Not fun.

What's with all the $'s #'s and so on??
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php is incredibly easy. if you know c++ then you can learn php easy. the $'s in php are for variables. ie they are almost exactly like python variables, except they have to have a $ with everything. can you show me where you see the #'s because ive never seen that
My feelings about PHP:
http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/
http://phpsadness.com/
On the upside you will know what T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM means.
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Ultimately it depends on what he is wanting and what his target is. Simple page then use just HTML. When I used to have a portfolio site, parts used HTML, PHP, CSS, XML, SQL, and JS. Was kind of a hodgepodge of things.
@miinipaa: a lot of that is just objectivity. for example, he doesnt like that more than one style is evident. that doesnt make it bad
Multiple styles is bad, in fact it's very bad.
You have to realize also that modern browsers, processing power, and internet connection speeds, are advanced enough that the web browser is now a strong platform for applications, including full fledged video games, and most applications you would normally think of as desktop applications.

And also, computers are fast enough and javascript is powerful enough that it's better do more on the client side instead of on the server side when it's possible.

Also you can mostly replace PHP with python, and there are a lot of options for using languages that can compile to javascript.

I think if I were to start on a new web application, I would probably use python, and maybe DART instead of javascript directly. I like javascript in some ways, but I don't like it in a lot of other ways. I would rather use a language that supports a more object oriented approach.
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Multiple styles being "bad" is a personal opinion. The only thing "bad" about multiple styles is that it affects readability.

My issue with those links comes in on the first link:
LinkOne wrote:

There is no way to declare a variable. Variables that don’t exist are created with a null value when first used.
PHPNet wrote:

Variables in PHP are represented by a dollar sign followed by the name of the variable.
$varname is a variable. I'm confused by his statement.
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BHX, there is no PHP equivalent to the C++/Java declaration statement. The first use of a variable in PHP determines its qualities...but its first use can be anywhere, even places you don't want or expect.
LB wrote:
but its first use can be anywhere, even places you don't want or expect.

I can't say I've ever used a variable in a place I didn't want nor expect. Though, I can see it being a beginner mistake or someone that didn't bother reading a tutorial or book to learn PHP properly.
You're completely misunderstanding. Variable names in PHP can be "infected" with permanent properties that cannot be changed.

Also, I am scared to ever use PHP again:
http://use.perl.org/use.perl.org/_Aristotle/journal/33448.html
What I'm getting at is that the two links above are two years old and your link is going on seven years old. Basing your fears on things that may have been fixed by now is like saying you are scared away from C++ because of something that was in it seven+ years ago. Not to mention the cases from all three links are fairly remote cases as most web designers I know use PHP primarily for connecting to sql databases and uses CSS, XML, HTML, JS, jQuery for the rest of the functionality of the site. I've been doing PHP websites since 2001 shortly after joining allegro.cc (which is done in PHP last I knew) and uses XML, CSS, and JS too.
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