I am finishing up learning Javascript what should I learn next?

Question

I am finishing up learning Javascript what should I learn next?

Answer 1

Don't worry about ajax yet, if you don't know a server side language, then ajax isn't going to help you very much. Plus there just isn't a lot to ajax, its a special way of requesting a webpage from a serer or requesting\posting data to a web service.



Jquery is a pretty nice javascript framework, it'll allow you to easily add effects to your webpages without a lot of coding. HTML 5 supports a canvas object which allows you to utilize javascript to draw images and curves into an html element. Y! pipes uses it, and its pretty cool.



If you want to make flash games, then I highly suggest you just pick up a copy of adobe flash and start exploring. HTML really doesn't have much to do with flash other then to say I want my flash movie\file here. Actionscript is a lot like javascript, so you should find yourself at least understanding the basic syntax. PHP is only important if you wish to store information about users (like high scores or equipment or something permanent). Photoshop and\or GIMP skills are a definite plus in creating games.

Answer 2

I'm with the guy who said don't worry about javascript. Ultimately, js is only dynamic within the given page. If you want your site to have a database backend, or be truly dynamic, you'll need a server side language like Rails or PHP. If you are interested in that, then I heartily suggest a little framework called Sinatra (http://www.sinatrarb.com/) that code on the front page works, and if you run it, will set up a server that catches a http get request to the url '/hi', and returns the string "hello world" So it is very easy to get started with Sinatra, and the majority of what you learn doing Sinatra will prepare you for Ruby on Rails, which is a lot to learn when you first get started (Agile Web Development With Rails was way over my head when I first started). If you are interested, there is a wonderful hour long screencast by Peepcode for $9, at http://peepcode.com/products/sinatra And they cover a lot of ground. They also have RoR screencasts, but I'm not sure how up to date they are. If you're really interested in rails, guides.rubyonrails.org is probably the best online resource I've ever seen (better than Java API, even, IMO).



Anyway, since you're interested mostly in flash games, you probably don't need to go all out on a back-end language, so Sinatra would make a lot of sense, something simple and dynamic that you know how to work with, and will serve as a nice framework to serve up your flash programs. You can always take it further later, and honestly, you can learn the basics of Sinatra with that screencast with a week or two of playing around, then jump into Flash.



It is also possible to do the entire thing in ActionScript, but this is usually frowned upon these days. That was exciting and common when WEB2.0 started out, but now people realize that too much animation, sound, etc, make for an annoying site, and Flash doesn't talk well with the browser, which can cause navigation misunderstandings. But, gotta do what's right for you :) And maybe ActionScript right away is that.



As far as Javascript, I'd not worry about it for now. AJAX is, as one of the other guy said, just a fancy way of making a request (it can talk to the server without reloading a page) and the javascript libraries seem like the kind of thing you should wait to learn until after you know some sort of server-side language. Otherwise, they don't seem like they'll be all that useful.

Answer 3

Your best bet is to learn AJAX, since you've just learned Javascript. Then move on to php or learn a javascript framework, like JQuery, Mootools, Prototype, etc.

Answer 4

I recommend a server side scripting language, like PHP.

Answer 5

PHP and Javascript are based off of a C language syntax and are surprisingly close in relation. JQuery is a branch of javascript (a javascript library to be exact) and so is AJAX. If you're interested in checking out what Jquery can do, I used it a lot on my site http://guitarcentral.macabreink.com (still in renovation). It's used for fancy effects for forms, images, text, logos, anything. AJAX is for passing information between servers, kind of like a server side scripting language (I'd use a server side language though). PHP is a fairly easy language, used it for my contact form on the guitar website I referenced earlier, and ASP.NET is a lot harder than PHP (in my opinion). Action Script 3.0 (CS3 and CS4 are the only versions that have it) is a full fledged programming language and I don't know how to use it. There are some pretty good tutorials on http://www.tutvid.com (he also has a youtube channel where he uploads some of his tutorials for free. Flash is pretty hard to use, easier in newer versions, but what you can do with it are stunning, I love a good flash driven website and wish I could do more than just animations in it.



-Billy