Web Design 2020, Part 3

[dewline]

I studied several Skillport video tutorials two or three months ago covering Drupal, PHP and SQL as part of an ongoing process of trying to update and expand what I know of web design.

So when I saw these on offer on trashnothing.com, I figured that - outdated as these books may be - this was a chance to further build on whatever I learned from the Skillport videos.

Comments

[victoriankitsch]

https://websitesetup.org/build-website-drupal/

[dewline]

Thanks. Hoping to look into that further as the week goes on.

[victoriankitsch]

Np Dwight. :)

[mtbc]

At least it shows you have the ability even if there might be a bit of updating-time if hired.

[dewline]

One thing I worry about is over-reaching. Just looking at these 1980's-phone-book-sized things gives my brain a jolt of intimidation.

When I was a kid, all I wanted was to draw cartoons.

[mtbc]

Definitely good to focus as much as possible on what you want to do.

[malovich]

There's a bit of a 10-90 rule in effect here.

You're going to use 10% of the information in those books 90% of the time. The question is, which 10%?

Ah, Drupal. Never got into it. It *is* one of the big website builders out there; your info is going to be relevant to other people's experience and you can sit comfortably in the ecosystem.

The 'Practical PHP and MySQL' is what I started on way back when. It's a book I'd recommend to anyone starting out. While the language versions are out of date, the concepts are evergreen, so it is definitely worth a read. I'd just keep php.net and dev.mysql.com handy as I read it.

Network Security Monitoring... is outside my job but something I am aware of. I'll look into that title.

All that's missing is a general book on coding. The one I started on was a programming for beginner's guide using pseudocode and I cannot recall the name of it but it was very good. The pseudocode part is important so you don't get stuck on syntax; solving problems in terms of logical processes then figure out how to implement that process in the language you are using.

[dewline]

The 10-90 ratio reads as just about right. I expect you'll be right about that.

Some friends of mine got into Drupal over the years, and I've been long-term, low-level curious ever since finding out. I think one of them was dduane?

I've got a couple of books on HTML 4 and 5. Would that cover "general book on coding"?

[malovich]

Yeah, that'll work. HTML is for the browser to interpret and display. You'll get a solid grounding and anything new you'll fill in as you go. HTML 5 is where a lot of features are being introduced, like the canvas tag, that have a lot of power to them.

[thewayne]

I'd never heard of that web site, it might be a good way to get rid of some books rather than binning them.

[dewline]

It certainly let me help someone else avoid sending some of their books to the recyclers!

[thewayne]

I just found there is an Alamogordo group, so I'm going to see what I can do.

[dewline]

Cool!

[tcpip]

That's a mighty fine collection.

This said, although I've been a Drupal fan for many years, these days I find myself praising more basic markdown for most of my needs.