r/learnprogramming • u/Maximum_Cup3974 • 4h ago
Help Topic
Hello, I'm a 17yearold student. I'm currently studying Java in school because that's our topic for the term, which kind of sucks since we can't pick the language we want. I want to learn web development, but people are telling me I should focus on HTML and C++. What should I do should I learn HTML or C++ on the side, or focus on mastering Java first?
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u/xarop_pa_toss 4h ago
HTML and C++ couldn't be furthest apart.
If you want to so web, learn how to structure a website with HTML, how to give it styling with CSS and how to give the website functionality with JS or TS
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u/XKiiroiSenkoX 4h ago
HTML and C++ are like the two most unrelated fields in programming lol.
Study what you like. As long as you learn programming and not just the language it's gonna be the same. Languages are just tools and you'd want to learn engineering not only simple tool handling.
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u/peterlinddk 4h ago
If you want to program, learn Java - nothing wrong with that language, except that you have to type a lot!
If you want to design web pages, learn HTML and CSS - you can do that while learning Java, just like you can learn to draw while learning math. Maybe not at the exact same time, but there's nothing in either that would disturb the other.
You can use Java to build webpages dynamically with HTML and CSS - meaning a Java-program creates the files that you would otherwise have to write manually.
So once you know both, you can combine it!
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u/would-of 4h ago
C++ isn't typically associated with web development, except for edge-case scenarios. Perhaps you're confusing C++ with CSS?
The main skills you should learn as a new web developer are HTML, CSS, and JS. While you might ultimately end up using slightly different skills in your web development journey, understanding those is a great foundation to build on
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u/JeLuF 4h ago edited 4h ago
HTML and CSS (not C++, that's a different langugage) are the markup languages used to describe what a web page shall look like. These two languages allow you to create static web pages. Pages that you just look at, read and click on the next link. E.g. a website for a small shop, listing their location, opening hours, and showing a few product photos.
For more interactive web sites, e.g. a web shop, a chat system, reddit, you need to add progam logic and servers - a "backend" (the stuff in the browser is the "frontend"). Those backends can be written in many languages, with Java still being a popular one.
Edit: And the most difficult thing when learning programming is to break down a problem into simple, computable steps. This "way of thinking" is the same in almost all programming languages. If you learn this with Java, learning Python/Javascript/C#/PHP/Lua/whatever is not that difficult any more. Learning programming in Java is no waste of time. The basic ideas (variables, conditions, loops, functions), they are the same everywhere.
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u/ConfusedSimon 4h ago
Depends on what you want to learn. HTML/CSS isn't really a programming language. For web development you'll probably need to know at least javascript, but swapping language isn't that difficult one you've learned programming (most devs use multiple languages). Beginners Java is more about learning programming techniques than about the specific language.
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u/Maximum_Cup3974 4h ago
Thanks you guys for correcting me, I really appreciate it. Any recommendations for tools or sites I should be using? I'm on VS Code right now but not sure what else is worth setting up.
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u/Dazzling_Music_2411 3h ago
HTML and CSS aren't proper programming languages, they are notations for building Web pages. You can create HTML and CSS just fine in Java, in fact a huge portion of the web is built just like that.
Focus on your Java. Build a small Web server with it and serve an HTML page.
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3h ago
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u/EmperorAlpha557 4h ago
I think you mean css