I’m starting out as an aspiring web developer and have been at it for a little over a year and a half now. I’m really interested in all that this field has to offer and I am committed to becoming better and better each day.
However, most of the information and skills that are needed in order to be a proficient web developer seems daunting and overwhelming. I wanted to ask, how do you remember everything you need to know as a web developer? I mean are there ways of garnering the knowledge you need without limiting yourself to just how much information is out there? It seems there’s just so much to know in order to develop a site and so many tedious details that could be overlooked. I know that learning a trade takes time and effort, but how does one remember all of it in order to compete at a professional level?
From what I have experienced so far it seems you NEED to essentially understand HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, RoR, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver etc. I’m decent in most of these, but I feel like I have no time to get better and not enough $$$ flow to get anywhere.
I could really use some help and a point in the right direction. All I need is to take the first step, but I feel like I’m spread thin on where to take it.
It takes a lot of effort and most people specialized. You can get generic knowledge of everything but you can only know well a few.
That’s why there are front-end and back-end developers. Front-end will have good grasp of design and colors and UX (not always, sometimes there is a graphic designer with them), HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Back-end programmers will know one server scripting language well, databases and good understanding of web servers and network (simply good enough to understand the characteristics of different web servers and how to choose the best hosting)
Well from what I’ve done so far it seems as though I lean more towards front-end development, due to the design aspect. However, I am really interested and determined to understand how to build/design Wordpress themes. Besides understanding front-end dev, what would I specifically need to know in order to begin building themes for Wordpress?
Some knowledge of PHP would help quite a bit. You don’t need to be a PHP wizard but it definately makes things easier if you at least know your way around it.
And when you say PHP, that means a basic knowledge of SQL too. Although most of the job is done for you, it is good if you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing
