Learning Web Development

But to be honest, the kind of web apps that make use of Java are, in practice, hosted on your own servers, on which you have complete control.

Aye. That's what I was alluding to, most don't want to shell out for (or administer, if it's not managed) a dedicated server. (I don't know anything about Java, so should probably duck out the thread).
 
Aye. That's what I was alluding to, most don't want to shell out for (or administer, if it's not managed) a dedicated server. (I don't know anything about Java, so should probably duck out the thread).

Sure, but there are other alternatives, of course.

And if Java as a technology really suits the application, there's usually budget for the hosting. Otherwise, the use of Java should probably be re-evaluated.
 
That's where the term was coined. To be honest, you're better off looking for design patterns. Searching for design pattern references will give you fairly low-level information, whereas integration patterns will give you high-level information. The idea is to read a LOT and attempt to combine these ideas into one unified approach to development.

In all honesty, getting good at it takes actual practice more than simply reading and trying; until you've encountered a problem for real and realised "ooh, I can do xyz", you won't REALLY take it in and see the value. Synthetic prototyping can only take you so far.



Sort of...

They're tough because generally, your average host doesn't want to shell out for something like a Vega, or even Zing. And your average person learning how to do these things isn't that keen to shell out for dedicated hosting for these "toy" applications. But to be honest, the kind of web apps that make use of Java are, in practice, hosted on your own servers, on which you have complete control. Garbage collection on heavily loaded applications can be a problem in Java without Vega/Zing, too; another reason why many hosts shy away.

For learning, there's nothing wrong with hosting your stuff locally. In fact, I find that it helps people learn a lot faster, as they're more heavily involved in the complete process, right through to deployment.

But as I mentioned earlier, Java isn't the be-all and end-all; rather use whatever is best suited to the task.


That's the other thing ... the only practice I will be getting is my own prototypes ... and I hear what you're saying ... it's like my honours degree,
I can study all the theory and easyish examples until I'm blue in the face ... if I don't write those bloody hard long-ass questions and exams, I remember
nothing.
 
That's the other thing ... the only practice I will be getting is my own prototypes ... and I hear what you're saying ... it's like my honours degree,
I can study all the theory and easyish examples until I'm blue in the face ... if I don't write those bloody hard long-ass questions and exams, I remember
nothing.

That counts as "real world". What I meant by that was that, if someone (or someTHING; a book, say) says to you "oh, try to do xyz", and you run into a problem, it's largely synthetic. If, however, you set out to accomplish "xyz", and in the process run into problems, you end up taking a lot of time to read up on good ways to solve the problems. And if you do enough reading and experimenting, you'll eventually arrive at the "right" way of doing it. And you'll also be able to apply it to new situations, where a similar (but not identical) problem crops up.
 

Yeah exactly ... I need to get it done myself if I want to realise some of my ideas ... I know not all may be great ... but I did think of something like smokoo.co.za at the same time they did (based on their CC registration info) ... and I'm fairly good at the business end ... so now I need to be prepped for my next idea myself :P
 
Itunes University has a lot of tutorials on programming. There are a couple from MIT university (but I think those are more specialised). I've checked out their paralel programming one, which was quite informative, so the others should be great too. And I've downloaded some from Standford university last night, not sure what they are like yet. They cover methodologies and paradigms.

Just rereading this ... how do I get onto itunes university ... I cant' find it...
 
Cool, thanks man :)

I got tons of material now :) ... 4 video tutorials including two which follow on from each other, some OOP video tutorials and beginners tutorials your stuff, tutorials on working with Zend (For when I understand more) and a couple other stuff .... well over 1000 pages worth of nonsense too ... so a good while to study the stuff :P

Might seem silly to you guys, but I made myself a little app that creates random names based on a set of predefined instructions (so that you actually get decent names out of them), and at the same time automatically does a whois check on the name :)
 
There are many resources that are available online which help you to learn web development rather quickly. There are many video tutorials available that will teach you step by step process of creating a new web page or a website.
 
http://www.academicearth.org/subjects/computer-science

These are the full year courses from Stanford/MIT/Havard/Yale etc. It's like getting a Harvard education but without the paper to prove it lol. The course on Programming Methodology by Mehran Sahami is really good. He uses Java mainly, but its applicable to all languages including the Object Oriented abilities of PHP. That site (Academic Earth) is amazing. It hosts recordings of lectures for entire courses from start to finish, all for free, and covering a lot of subjects. Everything from Biology to Political Science. And its from good universities too.
 
These are the courses on Academic Earth in the Computer Science section. The second last one, "Understanding Computers and the Internet" is really good. It goes into web stuff like ajax and xml quite a bit. He also begins at the very beginning and explains how http headers work, and the rest of the nitty gritty that goes on behind the scenes in a web app. It's a very nice starting point for web devs.

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming
MIT / Computer Science
Eric Grimsom
John Guttag

Computer Science I: Programming Methodology
Stanford / Computer Science
Mehran Sahami

Machine Learning Course Course
Machine Learning
Stanford / Computer Science
Andrew Ng

Operating Systems and System Programming Course Course
Berkeley / Computer Science
John Kubiatowicz

Computer Science III: Programming Paradigms Course
Stanford / Computer Science
Jerry Cain

Building Dynamic Websites Course Course
Harvard / Computer Science
David J. Malan

Introduction to Computer Science I Course Course
Harvard / Computer Science
David J. Malan

Computer Science II: Programming Abstractions
Stanford / Computer Science
Julie Zelenski

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Berkeley / Computer Science
Brian Harvey

Introduction to Algorithms
MIT / Computer Science
Charles E. Leiserson

Understanding Computers and the Internet
Harvard / Computer Science
David J. Malan

Human-Computer Interaction Seminar
Stanford /
Scott Klemmer
 
Neverwhere, thanks for the link, never knew such a website existed, are there any others out there?
 
Well, take it from me, the hardest thing to do is to start, after that it is all down hill.

I will recommend the use of http://www.lynda.com There is a couple of basic video tutorials that will set you on your way and after you have mastered the basic stuff they have the Beyond the basics version as well. Kevin Skoglund is the Publisher of those tutorials and to be honest, he knows how to teach.

Hope this helped!
 
All I have to say is... RoR (ruby on rails) rocks!! The best free tutorial/ebook I found is this RailsTutorial.org It teaches you how to create a Twitter like service... Sure, you're not gonna become the next twitter, but it helps learning and teaches the basics well! From there, just do some research, and you'll find some good resources! But it's definitely the best, and fastest way to get a web application running!
 
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