web design!

hi there..
does anyone knows a good web hosting space? and also a good tool for making a website? currently i need it due my job :S however i really dont know where to begin

any help would be apreciate

I host my own site (just one of several servers in a rack in the basement). As for what a good tool would be to making it, etc. it depends on what you are needing to do. In the longer term, I would recommend learning HTML and JavaScript down solid, and if there is something you need beyond that, learning the tool specific to your need. For example, if you need to do interactive graphics at the client (browser) end, learn Java (the site at clarku.edu for Euclid's Elements is a perfect example of this). If you need to do stuff with databases on the backside, say with a online store, learn Python or PHP or some similar deal.

And for those like Wombat and others who do web development... my reasoning for learning HTML and JavaScript instead of using things like DreamWeaver and other tools is that they often produce way too much garbage in the pages, and by knowing the associated languages, you can do things in a much more efficient manner.

So at this point, I guess I should say... what is it you need to do?? Based on that, I can make recommendations. Such as whether to use a CMS system, or something like Apache, or a more complex setup like a full LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) system.

Your ISP may also reserve space for it's customers so check into that. Would be the quickest and cheapest rout.

Learning how to code by hand is best...but sense I don't have the time or ambition to do so, I use NetObjects Fusion. It has pros and cons as any other web development app, but I like it. Could be better, but it works for me for now. As Spacey noted, these apps create a lot of extra code in the final publication, or have odd ways of placing objects (i.e. Fusion, by default, wants to use a transparent .GIF for placing images, called CLEARPIXLE. It's stretched to fill up the space from top and left side and such, instead of a positioning code. It can be turned off, which I do.)

hear hear spacey! I remember when programs would fit on a 3.5 floppy disk or 2! microsoft has made everyone lazy and code sloppy!!

wonder why everyone writes virus code for windows?

Spacey wrote:

DreamWeaver and other tools is that they often produce way too much garbage in the pages,

Anyone remember Allaire Homesite, easy html and no code overflow. Then Macromedia got a hold of it

And then Adobe got a hold of Macromedia...and the circle of life continues.

id ask wombat...its kinda what he does! so ill tell him to check forums

what i mean is a really easy ready to use program.. i barrely can turn on my computer!!!

1st plug in the power cords then push the button that turn the power on and sit back and wait for it to boot up!

Thè-Hättêr wrote:

what i mean is a really easy ready to use program.. i barrely can turn on my computer!!!

Are you wanting a static page?

For static content, you can draw a mockup with a paint program like the gimp or paint.net

Many word processing programs let you save your documents as html. Although web developers may frown upon it, it is probably the most simple way to design a page. Code cleanup can be done afterwards.

If you are willing to learn: http://www.w3schools.com/ is a good resource.

here is some material that i just upload..

www.bodegadelibros.tk

just take a quick look and tell me how do you feel please

OK... things I am noticing on a quick 30-second glance

1) You are almost certainly looking at doing dynamic content, with that content being information such as customer orders, books in your inventory or orderable list, etc. This should be stored in a database (e.g. in MySQL), and that data retrieved via scripts written in languages such as PHP or Python to produce the content.

2) You should give some thought to separating out your CSS and scripts into separate files.

3) You should take all the style/align, etc information and instead put it into the CSS.

4) Don't use non-standard elements such as Marquee. Stick with pure HTML and implement things like marquee items in standard JavaScript.

5) As you have it, you should be able to drop the frames. You are doing everything in DIVs, which is a newer method. Or, use the frames and split up all the DIVs accordingly (which can help with rendering).

BTW... it is possible to write an entire site in a language such as PHP. One example is http://oscar.sca.org, which is a batch of PHP scripts with a backend MySQL database, and an additional file storage area used for uploaded images. (I am one of the two folks actively maintaining the site).

One other option... use an application framework such as Zope or Plone, and add scripts around it (that is what I did with the BEL clan web site, and my own personal web site, to name a few). This would allow you to forget about things such as user logins, menus, tabs and such, and just focus on your application (a book store), and perhaps even be able to leverage pre-written add-ons.

Oh... and a good book to check on... Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, Second Edition. If you are looking at going for something like Zope or Plone, then let me know, as I have some good resources for those.

thanks for the help spacey, so far i had to search for 90% of what you wrote! jeje..
those are nice tips. however my father the bookstore owner, he just want to show some books, and show some videos and stuff.. he still is not ready to hit the internet market ( not because we can(we sure can, as a matter of fact we are almost ready to break regional so far we are in 4 cities and planing 3 more in 4 years) ,IT'S just because he dont want it yet) however i DO want, and since i break my leg here every day i have gained some "vote" here and i do want internet shopping.

right now im preparing my self to make some changes.
and i want to latter ad a wish list and that kind of things..

right now im about to add video.

about books that might help dont be afraid.. i have som advantage!

The logo image ("images/logobodega.bmp") is resized to a larger size than the native dimensions: The displayed dimensions are "width:169px;height:197px while the image dimensions are 137x159. This leads to some image distortion.

Some buttons are saved in a gif format and some are png.
The gif buttons do not have aliased edges which makes the rounded edges look pixelated, but the fonts are aliased. Then png buttons have aliased edges, but the fonts are not.
You should really stick with the png format since it is more efficient and offers an alpha channel (which helps with keeping smooth edges)
For the buttons you can actually use one singe button image with no text, and render the text on top of the image. This can simplify future edits since you can make changes with a text editor instead of a paint program.

Try to avoid scrolling text. It may seem fun, but it distracts from the rest of the page. If you have a lot of content, use a scroll bar instead.

Use meaningful filenames and try and add some comments to your code. If anyone needs to make changes, it really helps if it is readable.

Some images such as the gradient backgrounds can be replaced with a 1px thick image. The browser will stretch the image to fill the dimension. The 14kb background gradient in the center can be replaced with an image that is less than 1kb.

Don't embed the site in a frame. It prevents people from getting the actual url to a specific page.