Advice to a confused student - should I try HTML5/CSS3 already?

[astroXP]

I'm currently in college pursuing a Computer Web Development degree and over the years, I have been learning, tweaking and practicing several scripting and markup languages but never really finished neither one. I tend to get anxious about learning new things but then I feel so overwhelmed that I end up not learning anything.

I don't have an extensive experience with creating websites but at the same I'm not a total newbie. I have done a couple of websites and I love to challenge myself. So, I want to spend my summer learning for once and for all everything I need in order to master web design and reinforce what I know about Javascript and PHP. (Next semester I'll start with C++ but that's another story I guess.)

I know HTML5/CSS3 are the future but it isn't quite there yet, so ? and given my brief background history I have shared ? should already start with them or go through the "old" HTML like everyone else?

I bought a subscription for Lynda.com and a friend of mine recently told me about codecademy.com ? do you have any tools or advice you could share with me?

Thank you very much in advanced for your help.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

they are not the future they are the current, i would learn as much of it as possible.

[DPyro]

I know when I had to take a course in College it was XHTML Transitional. It shouldn't be hard to switch from XHTML to HTML5.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

they are not the future they are the current, i would learn as much of it as possible.

Yeah, a large portion of HTML5 is just standardising what browsers already do and how they behave (Like allowing comments like "<!-- -- -->", which were invalid in HTML4 but IE allowed them, so now HTML5 allows them). The new semantic tags won't be an issue either unless you're using IE (As normal, IE needs help to even recognise the new tags), neither will new attributes like Microdata or data-* It's things like <video>, <audio> and <canvas> where you'll run into the most issues, the video/audio tags can work well enough via plugin fallback. <canvas> is harder since it has a specific API, so any fallback needs to emulate that API (There are JS shims around things like SVG/VML, and even Flash I think)

And CSS3 is pretty well supported now (even in IE), the main thing is to avoid using only prefixed properties (It's such an issue with the non-standard WebKit stuff now, that Mozilla/Microsoft/Opera re going to start parsing them), so don't fall into that trap.

[gawicks]

To be fair IMO there is nothing called finishing a language . Every popular language out there has a deep stack and evolves constantly so it's a constant learning process . So the earlier you start, the better . Since you are doing a degree on web development The first question that popped into my head was Why haven't you started already? Sure HTML5 is not a finished spec but it's mature enough . Get some hands on and familiarize your self No need to go deep right now but have a understanding of the concepts and how they work together.

[xbamaris]

I thought PHP + CSS was the most common way websites are built now. Atleast dynamic websites, which most websites are.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

To be fair IMO there is nothing called finishing a language . Every popular language out there has a deep stack and evolves constantly so it's a constant learning process . So the earlier you start, the better . Since you are doing a degree on web development The first question that popped into my head was Why haven't you started already? Sure HTML5 is not a finished spec but it's mature enough . Get some hands on and familiarize your self No need to go deep right now but have a understanding of the concepts and how they work together.

The WHATWG/W3C would agree with you there.

http://blog.whatwg.o...s-the-new-html5

Basically, there is no "HTML5", there is just a single "HTML" spec that evolves and changes to adapt to what authors/browser makers want. If they stopped working on HTML5, then every change would just become part of HTML6, etc.

[dnast]

I thought PHP + CSS was the most common way websites are built now. Atleast dynamic websites, which most websites are.

You still need HTML either way.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

I know when I had to take a course in College it was XHTML Transitional. It shouldn't be hard to switch from XHTML to HTML5.

Html5 is just some changes and some (very nice) new things so yeah if you can write xhtml you can also write html5, ofcourse are things like html5 animations things to learn but to learn those basics it doesn't really take that long, it's all about the basic :p

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

You still need HTML either way.

PHP code shows html code to the browser, never met someone who could write excellent PHP code but wasn't able to write html >.>

[jack.j]

Html5 and css3 are mostly just a bunch of new features, and a lot of them can already be used today. So, sure, you should learn them too.

[metro2012]

lets trade jobs....

im a programmer but ive been stuck web programming (at a programmer wage, mind u). from what ive seen here, yes, html5 is very important, more so than css3. also like you mentioned php and javascript (more so ajax; libraries like jquery mite help u with javascript/ajax).

another thing you might want to get into is databases.........you mentioned php and javascript (ajax) being the way dynamic pages are built........well in the future its going to be php, javascript (ajax), and dbs......so that might be a intrest that you might take.

design is pretty much killing a dead horse; there a milllllions of tools out there that let you drag-drop a design together in a couple of cliks.

c++ has very little in the web world (but yes, use it before java)

[threetonesun]

Basically everyone is using some feature of HTML 5 at this point. This is a good book if you want to get an idea of what HTML 5 is (and isn't).

There's 0 reasons to not use the semantic tags at this point, and honestly if you were working on a project and didn't use them it would see a bit ... dated.

[spacer]

To be honest, unless you spend every hour of every day 100% focused on web technologies AND make each of them productive you will not learn everything you need to know to "master" web design in a single summer. There are just too many languages, frameworks, designs, patterns, etc to learn and become effective with in such a short time. I'm not saying that to discourage you, just so you adjust your goals to make them actually attainable.

As others have said, you'll be fine learning and working with HTML5 because it's already out in the wild.

For javascript, I suggest either the Mozilla developer network (https://developer.mo...g/en/JavaScript) or the books http://www.amazon.co...39598516&sr=8-3, and http://www.amazon.co...39598528&sr=8-1. Look in jQuery and/or some other javascript frameworks. I found it really beneficial to make my own, but you may just want to start out learning to use a popular one like jQuery at first.