From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-04-07T09:34:06+09:00
Subject: Re: A few beginners questions

2/3 months you can learn a lot, but I have to agree, mastery it won't  
be, young Jedi!
Just have the realistic expectations that there will be parts that  
bog down or that frustrate or confuse.
You can cover a lot of material in 3 months, but only so much in one  
day. As you learn this stuff you need to use it to make stuff, that's  
where the real learning and retention of knowledge happens. Start  
with some web sites. Spend money on books too. Take a break when you  
get burned out. XHTML + CSS and Ruby and maybe a database at the same  
time. That's probably more than enough to learn for 3 months.  
Databases have a slower learning curve sometimes, because you can't  
skip the theory part and it is always troublesome if your design is  
flawed (many of them will be).

Here's a list of books I'd recommend:
Bulletproof Web Design
CSS Mastery
Professional CSS
(none of these covers IE7 because it is too recent, but these are  
actually very good)

Learning MySQL
MySQL phrasebook

Beginning Ruby from Novice to Professional
Ruby Cookbook
Programming Ruby (the pickaxe)

Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours, 4th ed. (they never mean that,  
think of it as 24 chapters)
Javascript phrasebook

If you're planning to use AJAX and Ruby for web sites, you might as  
well consider learning Rails as well, but after you've tackled some  
of the other stuff.
On Apr 7, 2007, at 6:12 AM, Phillip Gawlowski wrote:

> Peter Slider wrote:
>> John, thanks for your words.
>> Reckon this is possible in about 2/3 months with loads of daily  
>> dedication?
>
> The basics: Most likely, depending on your learning abilities.
> Mastery: Not.
>
> But don't be discouraged by this: Once you know the basics, you can  
> do a lot already. Mastery, though, takes longer. It usually means  
> that you know all your areas of expertise in and out, but doesn't  
> describe your abilities to do the job at hand. And comes only with  
> practice and actually writing code in this area.
>
> You probably should at databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle[0]) to  
> your "things to learn" list, too.
>
> [0] you can get a free as in beer variant of Oracle 10g from  
> oracle's website, called Oracle XE:
> http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html
>
> -- 
> Phillip "CynicalRyan" Gawlowski
> http://cynicalryan.110mb.com/
>
> Rule of Open-Source Programming #7:
>
> Release early, release often. Clean compilation is optional.
>