internet programming -- where to start
 

Hi , I know visual basic and c++, but I want to start my own web-based MMO, like kings of chaos, and I was wondering where even to start :confused: ! I know i'm going to know SQL but is there any preferred version, like mySQL or something, and a good language to start learning? I'm considering something like php, but does anyone have any recommendations, or good sites with tutorials?

I've been a professional web developer almost since '98. I started in Perl (and still, in many ways, prefer Perl), and now work almost exclusively in PHP.

MySQL and PHP are an unbeatable combination for starting web development. Very sophisticated sites run PHP--despite its reputation as a toy language, it's actually capable of operating in very high-demand situations. There are RDBMSes that are more mature than MySQL (Postgres comes to mind), but MySQL has the widest installed base, it's faster than hell, and it's dead reliable.

There are LOTS of tutorials and resources online for starting PHP programming. Google some.

Incidentally, you should also learn HTML and CSS. Your lovely code is worthless if you can't make it render its output in the browser!

I wouldn't go with HTML since it's obsolete by W3C's standard. Start learning XHTML instead.

Knowing VB and C++, you might want to look into Java or dotNet development. You should be able to fairly easily convert your knowledge of VB into VB.Net or C++ into C# or Java.

I would suggest that you start with something simple to build along the lines of you untimate goal. Where your goal is to build an MMO, I would probably build a simple UI prototype in the language you choose to see if it's going to work for you.

Are you thinking of a client-server type app, where there would be a local installation? Or something fully run off of web tecnologies?

One thing to consider with the database choice, would be how complex of data you intend to be saving to the database. MySQL is a great option if you information is fairly simple, if you get into multiple databases or tables, or want stored procedures etc..., you should consider a more powerful database...

Actually for true web development I'd advise staying the hell away from Java. Applets have WAY too many security restrictions on files, cookies, and the like. So, coding any sort of game in Java would require an already extensive knowledge in the language from at least a few years of practice in order to really overcome the limitations of Applet-based design.

Personally, using PHP, MySQL, and *JavaScript* (combined together they're called AJAX) would be the best web-based solution, with the least amount of learning required on your part. Buy a book on AJAX, and start cracking out PHP/MySQL stuff in the meantime.

another vote for php/mysql.
php is really pretty simple to learn if you already know c++.

java is very bulky and only used for application and server programming, not for dynamic web pages (you can use JSP instead of java, if you want -- java's version of php). i know some people who are super heavy into python and would suggest that, also.

and as already mentioned, to do anything with webpages, you must also know how to make the pages themselves, not just control their flow. so learn html. or xhtml. html's easier by a bit, though, and you can convert your knowledge later into xhtml.

Once you decide on a language that you want to dig into, google for samples. There are a lot of smaples out there for the various languages. For me I always start by tearing apart something that someone else put together, to see how things work. Then I break it, fix it, and augment it... Then create something new...

Just learn one of these web based languages (Java, Perl, PHP, ASP.net) after you learn the basics of learning how to design a website using html, css and create some nice graphics through photoshop.

I think it is all about messing around with the languages and layouts before anyone is an excellent web designer/programmer.

I have been looking at Ruby on Rails the last few days and am pretty impressed. there are a few good tutorials at the O'Reilly OnLAMP site. the framework really speeds up development. if you are looking for fairly light duty web applications and fast easy development, check it out.

I have done web programming in php, perl, c, c++, asp.net (c#), j2ee, and vbscript. I am very impressed with ruby on rails and am starting to work on an ecommerce application with it.

Chalk up another to PHP. Easy to learn, yet still quite powerful, and there are a million help resources out there.

I too want to learn Ruby on Rails. But I can't see it being a good choice for what he wants to do...

I vote for C#/MSSQL, but that is because I am part of the borg (hey, it pays my bills!). I feel MySQL is a toy database as the most popular installed version (4.0.22 I think) is utter crap*. No subselects and lack of stored procedures/functions make things way harder than need to be. They are easier and faster since the sql engine doesn't need to verify things like syntax.. it's already been compiled!

No matter what you go with, make sure it is a object oriented language.

*I messed with beta 5.x versions of MySQL and while it has stored procedures and functions, there were still many things broken and flat out missing that any other decent database has. Things might have been fixed by then. And I like Microsoft. Flame away.

//Edit: Tired and I typed some crap that didn't make sense :)