Where should I begin with scripting? I am new to html, css and coding in general and would like to know the best way to start. I am teaching myself through the use of templates and reverse engineering code to see how it works. Should I take a class on scripting, how it works, sytax etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Well what are you going to start coding for? I would say the easiest to learn is CSS, although with CSS you'll have a few html things that are in it as well.

Just learn both of them, the best place I would suggest starting is here:

HTML - http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
CSS - http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp
XHTML - You'll want to look into this, xhtml makes more sense and its being used more than regular ole' html, but of course there isn't any real big changes.
>>> http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_intro.asp

I'm ok on the html css, but it is the javascripting, php, xml that I wish to learn. I'm just not sure where to start. I have found a couple of tutorials online, but they lack a detailed progression of how the syntax works, each element, property etc. and what they can do and how to make them do it. I think I may need to get a text book and go from there. Thanx!

I started with javascript, and then went into PHP. Javascript and PHP are similar. It really depends on what you want to use it for. If you are just starting out, javascript would probably be good for you.

with PHP and javascript, there's an endless number of things you can do. both come with a few hundred built-in functions, and you can create your own functions.

for PHP:
- w3 schools
- tizag
- php.net (for when you're more familiar with the language)

for javascript
- w3 schools
- tizag
- mootools (a very powerful library of javascript functions)

by the way, while javascript is fairly easy to learn, i wouldn't recommend it as a starting point. javascript is a client side-script, meaning that your visitors need to have javascript turned on to be able to see anything you make. PHP, on the other hand, is a server side-script. it's already installed on your web server (in most cases), so there's nothing extra you need to depend on.

I am trying to make an RSS in my DIV layout on myspace, and I know they do not allow javascripting. I read somewhere that they allow Coldfusion, is that true?

And does coldfusion look like something this:


Thanx

when myspace first started, they were using coldfusion. they switched to blue dragon and asp.net servers in early 2006, but they're still using coldfusion on the browse pages, i believe. the switch ended up cutting server usage in half, so i doubt they'll ever switch back. they just kept the .cfm extension to keep links intact.

an article by scott guthrie, with comments by myspace's developers.

unfortunately, you won't be able to use coldfusion, php, or any special languages. the only ones allowed are CSS, HTML & embedded flash (provided links are HTML).

I'm a huge fan of Python, although hosts for Python-based websites aren't as common as hosts for PHP-based websites.

Thanx for the advice, I will probably concentarte on php at first. I am working on a site for my fiance and I and we use javascritp(a template) to run a slide show. Since javascript is client based, should we find a php script to replace it? Or add to it?

Start with HTML, how it functions, how you write it and learn all the basic tags before progressing onto CSS

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