Coding Resources
Coding is powerful. Whether your goal is to earn a living, create a product that changes the world, or just share your perspective on your very own blog, coding makes it possible. Learn how to code and you’ll have the ability to take any idea and turn it into reality.
Coding is for everyone. Kids can learn a skill that can propel them towards a bright future and simultaneously develop problem solving skills that will serve them well in any future endeavor. Coding is a great subject for students because there are more coding jobs available than coders ready to fill them. Even established, working professionals can benefit from learning to code by developing an in-demand skill with immediate value that can be leveraged to jump from a career stuck in the mud to a shooting star.
There are lots of good reasons to be interested in coding. Whatever your reason for being interested, coding is a topic we love to talk about around her at WhoIsHostingThis.com.
We blog about coding and we also spend a lot of time putting together technical resources for webmasters, developers, and coding students. If you’re looking for information about programming languages and detailed resource guides for learning to code, then you’re in luck. We’ve got everything you need to select the right programming language and get down to the business of coding.
Building Websites
The majority of modern websites are built with a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. However, that doesn’t mean you can build a professional website without knowing any code.
Think of a CMS as the exterior frame of a house. It defines the overall shape and style, but no one would consider it the whole house. It would fall down, for one thing. You need interior walls, surface finishes, cabinets, and appliances — which would correspond to themes, plugins, and extensions. Even then, a house isn’t a home until you’ve moved in and decorated. To truly make a website your own, you’re going to need to put the finishing touches on with code.
When it comes to building websites, there are a lot of different programming languages and applications to look into:
- HyperText Markup Langague: start with HTML. No matter what other language you use or the CMS you select, knowing HTML well is non-negotiable.
- Cascading Style Sheets: CSS is used to style websites and is second only to HTML in terms of being an indispensable tool for website builders.
- JavaScript: more than 90% of all websites use JavaScript. While not every website builder needs to be a JavaScript pro, you do need to know enough syntax to make minor adjustments and to understand what you’re looking at when you open up a file ending in .js.
- PHP: the most common server-side web programming language is PHP. It’s what’s under-the-hood of every major CMS and available on every industry-standard web server. The most common version is PHP 5 but PHP 7 offers major performance improvements and is gaining ground quickly.
- MySQL: MySQL is to database management systems what PHP is to server-side programming languages. Used by every major CMS and available on every industry-standard web server, MySQL is ubiquitous and useful.
- Content Management Systems: We already mentioned them in passing, but no website builder is fully-qualified until they’ve tried out WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Cutting Edge Tools
While HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP may be the most common tools used to build websites, many cutting edge applications are built with very different toolsets. Here are some of the tools being used by cutting-edge industry-leaders:
- JavaScript has moved onto the server with Node.js and is used by some very big names like PayPal, Walmart, LinkedIn, and Netflix.
- Ruby and the Rails framework are loved by beginners due to their simple syntax. However, Ruby is also a powerful language used by well-known startups like Basecamp, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and Airbnb, as well as established industry powerhouses like Twitter, GitHub, and Bloomberg.
- Python has been around since the late 1980s but really took off in the last decade. As comfortable on a mainframe as a web server, Python is used for things as diverse as the Disqus web commenting system and the Integrated Planning System at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. If there was ever a do-it-all programming language, it’s Python.
- Want to make an app for Android? You can use Java for that. However, Java is also used to build products as diverse as Minecraft and enterprise software.
- If you want to write software for Microsoft systems, you’ll need to get up to speed with the .NET Framework. In addition, many popular websites such as w3schools, Microsoft, MSN, and xBox.com are also built with the .NET Framework.
Resources, Resources, and More Resources
We can’t possibly list all of the resources available on this site. So if you don’t see a link on this page to a resource you were hoping to find take a look at our massive Programming: Languages, Timeline, and Guides. There you’ll find more than 150 detailed resource guides that will help you learn almost any programming language you can imagine.
Coding is here to stay. It’s the most in-demand skill of the 21st century, and with a little perseverance you too can call yourself a coder.