It was not too long ago when I first decided that I wanted to build a website. Actually, its been about two years to be exact. I had always had an interest in computers and had wanted to learn a programming language. Back then, I thought that HTML was a programming language. So that is what I started to learn. I downloaded a copy of
Visual Web Developer Express, a free program for Web Development, and started out searching the net for tutorials to help me out. There are a ton of them out there, but in the end I decided to pick up a book on the subject.
After reading into it a little a came to a couple of realizations, html is not a programming language, but instead is just a way to mark up a page, the other was that web development would be something that would take a lot of time to learn, but has become one of the biggest aspects of my life. Let me just make this clear, I am not a university student, I do not have a job in web development, I am just a hobbiest and love programming. I know what your thinking, didn't I just say that html was not a programming language. Yep, but that is not where I stopped. From there I learned CSS, Cascading Sytle Sheet, or in other terms how to make the website pretty! Still not programming, but it was a step in the right direction. Finally I got my hands wet with JavaScript. I was actually programming, but still it wasn't enough it was just a scripting language and at that time all I knew was using it client side. Later on I found out about this technology called ASP, or Active Server Pages, this was much better I had access to the server and databases. My websites had moved from static pages with a snippets of JavaScript to dynamic data driven web applications. However, I was a bit to late, ASP was already obsolete due to this technology called ASP.NET. What was this .NET added on the end and what did it mean to my websites.
I was hesitant at first, I liked my classic ASP pages. I was in my comfort zone, but I knew that if I wanted to progress I needed to site down and tackle this beast that was ASP.NET. Then I got the book, and started transferring over my website to this new technology. Wow, is all I can say. ASP.NET is by far the best thing I have ever worked with. Yes, there is a little more to it than static html, or classic ASP, but as far as manageability and power, nothing else compares.
I know that is a lot to cover, but what I keep checking back and I will provide you with some tutorials to help you along the path of becoming a web developer. Trust me, it will be worth your while. The satisfaction you get from having your own domain is great, Is your own piece of the web, and the best part about it is that you created it.