Building a website? Running a server?

Hi people,

this is a multi-faceted question with which I hope you guys can help.

First of all, I thought I would dust the cobwebs and actually attempt a decent website. No more experimentation. The actual plunge. However, I'm told that static HTML is a thing of the past, and I should focus more on dynamic coding (PHP, ASP or other somesuch languages). So, I'm willing to go ahead and do the necessary research to build a dynamic language based website, but I don't know which language to pick, nor do I know the best place to learn it. As much as I prefer to do normal research with books, I'd rather do computer and language based research using a webpage. Can you guys recommend a language, give some reasons for that language and provide websites that explain how to write in that language?

Second, my media computer just sits in my living room. It does nothing between watching movies and short bouts of old skool gaming. I reasoned that it could serve as a decent server to share content (obviously by routing the IP through a dynamic DNS server). So, can anyone give me the necessary information to look up how to set my (winXP box) computer up to act as a server. Proper software, info on installing ASP, PHP or whatever else I'd need, and Dynamic DNS websites that are free (dyndns.com was pretty decent, but they switched gears a few years back, and haven't checked up on them in a while.)

Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

First, HTML is NOT a thing of the past. It's still the best thing to use to write a webpage. PHP does make things a lot easier, though, depending on your needs and the scale of your site.

I recommend you use PHP (I haven't used ASP, so I can't compare it). It has simple syntax that, once you get a few particulars down and figure out how to keep your pages from whitepaging, is pretty intuitive. There are a LOT of forums to seek support on. Offhand, I don't have any good sites to explain the usual things.

However, in the PHP of course you'll still be embedding HTML. Therefore, I recommend you start reading on W3C coding standards and learn CSS. CSS is a presentational language. If you haven't coded in years, you're probably familiar with it through a:link, a:visited, a:hover, etc. This is the bare minimum of what CSS can do. The idea behind HTML+CSS is to make the HTML semantic markup, meaning don't use tables for layout, but tabular data, and don't use a break tag when you're actually starting a new paragraph, without any presentational elements in it, such as a bold tag, tables for layout, etc. One CSS file can lay out the design of an entire site, and after a slight learning curve it becomes quite easy. I also suggest you preview in Firefox (use a proper doctype--get the WebDev toolbar and start using HTML/CSS validators that the W3C has) and then put in little fixes if you have to code backwards for IE. IE you'll soon find has the worst support for standards and is NOT the kind of browser you want to preview in, because it won't give you an accurate display. I suggest you check out csszengarden.com to see how powerful CSS is. If you're interested in CSS, I'll drop some links that will get you started.

All that said, I'd put Apache on your XP box. To get PHP, go to php.net and download the Windows package. Last I knew, you just had to drop a DLL in the /WINDOWS dir. If you need MySQL, that's pretty simple to install as well, but you'll have to do most things from CLI, which on Windows seems to suck. Doesn't seem like you'll need it, anyway.

[quote name='P0ldy']First, HTML is NOT a thing of the past.[/QUOTE]

Not HTML, STATIC HTML. That is, having to update all pages if you add new content.

How do I install APache? Last I looked, apache was a command line program and required a bit of tinkering to get workign properly.

Back in the day when I learned coding in HTML, I never really bothered to use CSS (seemed only a tool for laying out fonts and colors). If it really is as useful as you purport it to being, drop some links. I'm game.

I read what you said, but I still disagree. I think it depends on the scale of the site and what you want to do with it.

Apache installs as an executable, I believe. Options are configured in txt files.

It's a far fetched suggestion, but I'd say put your site on rails.

CSS Primer
Some basic lessons
W3C's CSS tutorials - lots
Some tips to digest once you're comfortable

Examples: Pages laid out entirely with CSS and strict HTML

CSS Vault - Also includes tutorials
CSS Zen Garden

Slashdot's now using a CSS layout instead of tables. Unfortunately, they kept the same ugly design.

Ok, now that I'm on the way to learning how to code in PHP, how do I test my code?

It appears that I can just throw it into firefox and hope for it to decipher it right away. There must be some sort of way to either have firefox decipher Php right away (through extension) or some sort of php viewer.

You have to install php. It's a server-side language so you need your/a computer to be acting as a server.

Point apache to localhost and add php to its acceptable extensions.

A server is not an option for a while.

There are no utilities or browsers that can read php files on my HD and display it as is?

You can use your computer as a server to view it. Install apache and php and that's it.