Complete beginner: is HTML → CSS → JavaScript a good path? What should I learn first?Body:

[u/cxzseui]

Hi everyone,
(I know that HTML and CSS are markup and styling languages, not programming languages.)

I’m a complete beginner with zero coding experience, and I want to start learning programming. I was advised to follow this path:

HTML → CSS → JavaScript

I have a few questions:

1. What do you think of this path as a way into programming and coding?
2. Is there anything I should learn before starting it? I feel like I might be missing something important.
3. Would you recommend any changes to this path? (For example, starting with a different language.)
4. What are the best resources to learn HTML and CSS? Please recommend one for each, if possible.

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate your help!

[u/Foreign-Contest-444]

MDN is an excellent resource for learning HTML, especially its Learn Module. HTML may seem simple at first, but it's important to build a strong understanding of it before layering CSS and JavaScript on top. Take the time to learn HTML as a semantic language and understand why semantics matter as they form the foundation of well-structured, accessible, and maintainable websites.

If you need additional resources to learn HTML.

https://codingsuperpowers.com

[u/soupified]

Yes! Great path

[u/Difficult-Field280 → u/soupified]

Agreed. Op check out freecodecamp.org. They have a great course setup for new coders

[u/armahillo]

This is a great pathway into web development specifically. you can learn all three in tandem, though I would recommend HTML first.

You dont need special software. Any editor with syntax highlighting is sufficient, and you can run all of it locally on your computer.

Keep MDN (mozilla developer network) handy. Its the best / most current resource for all three.

[u/dmdot]

Setup an account at https://codepen.io and browse through other people's projects. Find some that interest you, fork them into your account, then reverse engineer and modify them to learn how they did it.

Don't get caught up in tutorial hell. Start creating stuff asap.

[u/Sea-Bench-7487]

No due to ai but if you wanna get into web it's where you should start

[u/cyberpothead]

Depends on your end goal.

Check out: javascript.info theodinproject.com web.dev

After you finish learning HTML and CSS. To learn programming use ChatGPT and prompt it like this.

Use these websites, javascript.info theodinproject.com web.dev as references and teach me programming with JavaScript as a complete beginner with 0 knowledge. Don't assume I know anything about programming.

[u/Mvp-long-ago]

I think you will hear it from many people here that are not professionals advising to follow their course. You can start looking at YouTube and follow courses there if you have searhed for "Build a website from scratch". Follow their steps first abd after you have dine that tey to change things and see what it does. Mostly in the video they also explain why they do each step. You can also add tge term locally or local to your search, because then you can practice it first on your own computer. There are many answers you will get from many people, but these are my answers: 1) Unfortunately nowadays HTML ans CSS are often intertwined that you need both ti have a good website. HTML is made for the placing of items on your site and CSS takes care of how it will look like. But it always starts with HTML. I only would maje a comment that you need to take one step before step 1. That is you need a design and a purpose for your website. If you have done that, you already have done half your work. Then you can work towards your site. 2) like i pointed out in step 1, you have to think why you are making a website and if this is the right tool to fulfill your goal. And with that question you have to decide for whom you are making your website. That choice decides if you need a lot of space later on your provider if you are a photographer and want to show yiur photos, then it is important you need a lot of disk space and some idea what kind of photos you are going to publish (small or large). Bit if you want to provide news to readers, you need to know your audience and you want to publish news easy and it is also very clear that age of your public matters. Answering those questions also give you an idea of how your website will look like. 3) See my story above 4) I use YouTube a lot, but a lot of tips are also here on Reddit. There are also the standard websites like www.w3schools.com or www.handleidinghtml.nl or a very good one that combines a course for HTML and CSS: html.com For css is w3schools also good But if you want personal advice you should take a course with coursera or udemy I hope i have helped you

[u/gulliverian]

That’s a good path to start with, but you’ll need to move on to back end technologies and databases fairly quickly.

And note well that HtML/CSS coding is not programming.

[u/Mvp-long-ago → u/gulliverian]

I think the author of this question also mentioned that, but coding can also apply to HTML, just like in the old days you had underwater code with WordPerfect. So tge author has to purposes in this question, learning how to code and learn how to program.

[u/gulliverian → u/Mvp-long-ago]

True, but the original post has been edited to mention that.

[u/Density5521 → u/gulliverian]

Ah, cork-sniffing elitist detected.

Yes, instructing a computer about what to render and how to behave upon user interaction is very much programming, just at a rather high level with HTML etc.

If only low-level coding is real programming to you, then I'm sure you speak machine code? When was the last time you shifted registers in assembly?

[u/gulliverian → u/Density5521]

What are you babbling about? My programming is limited to some self taught PHP procedural code.

HTML is a markup language, not a programming language. There’s a difference.

[u/Density5521 → u/gulliverian]

Not even going to dignify this nonsense with anything else but a block. What a moron.

[u/MistakeForsaken6653]

It's probably a good very first step if you ultimatly want to focus on frontend but eventually you'll want to move to things like react.

[u/TROUTBROOKE]

The usual approach is to learn procedural programming principles with a language like C.
JavaScript is probably fine too.

Get comfortable with that before worrying about html and css, which are technologies for displaying web pages.

[u/nia_do]

I would suggest starting with something like Java and then moving to JavaScript, HTML and CSS later.

I started with Python and then jumped to JS/HTML/CSS and eventually later React, Java/C#, etc. But if I was starting now, especially given that free resources are so available and you have AI to ask questions of, I’d start with Java.

[u/Prize-Click4990]

I would suggest just learning how to prompt SI well