Nice New Look To AS!

[Kayllin]

Nice look the the site, props :P

 

[pichu655889]

It's actually an inseparable combination. If you've ever run a site or configured a server, probably you've heard of things like LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), LNMP/LEMP (replace Apache with Nginx), WAMP (replace Linux with Windows), WIMP (replace Linux with Windows and Apache with IIS server, both of which belong to Microsoft) and so on. It's an inseparable bundle: Linux/Windows is the operating system; Apache/Nginx (among others) is the webserver; MySQL (also MariaDB, MSSQL, PostgreSQL and others) is the database; and PHP (also Perl, Python and others) is the programming language in which web content is delivered.

The standard modus operandi is that a website's software engine―e.g. our forum, a WordPress blog, a Joomla homepage and so on―is coded in PHP, delivered through Apache webserver which runs on a Linux server and stores content―such as posts, comments, user data and the like―in a MySQL database. Things like Javascript and CSS serve mainly as enhancements. For example, when you post a quick reply, your post can immediately appear without having to reload the page to see it. That's an Ajax (within which Javascript is contained) feature. Whereas CSS mainly deals with aesthetics, such as all these different colours you see on this page.

If you're interested to know more, I'm sure all the terms I mentioned have Wikipedia entries. You can start from there.

The bottom line is that it's a bit tricky to answer a "did you use PHP, SQL or Javascript to code this site?" kind of question, because like most other robust websites, it's never just one and always mix of many.

Trying to self-learn all this difficult stuff and not doing too well at it

 

[yurichan]

Nice layout. It tells me there are 10 css styles loaded just to view this thread alone. That is alot xD

 

[Ignis]

Thanks for all the kind words.

Trying to self-learn all this difficult stuff and not doing too well at it

Let's use an analogy. Imagine yourself as someone who wants to give a presentation on a certain subject.

First of all, you must choose the venue you'll be giving your presentation at. (This is the operating system you need to choose.) Venue A is closer to your residence, which means it's easier to travel to, but it has less capacity. (Windows is easier to use, but is more limited and not as flexible.) Venue B is far from where you live and takes more time to get to, but its larger capacity enables you to have a bigger audience. (Linux can take some time to master, but it's generally more flexible. Note that this is a very broad generalisation for the sake of simplicity and shouldn't be taken at face value.)

Next, you need to choose what vehicle you'll drive to the venue. (This is the webserver.) You happen to be rich and own, let's say, a Hummer, a sports car and a motorbike. Unfortunately, the road happens to be anything but smooth, the weather anything but friendly, the traffic all congested. Your Hummer can brave the road and weather like a breeze, but due to its size, you need to drive slowly and carefully, never attempting to cut up other vehicles because your car could easily damage them. (A webserver can be powerful and able to take lots of load, but certain configurations can make it slow and bottlenecked. Wrong configurations can break things.) Your sports car is undoubtedly the fastest out of all three, but going too fast has a high likelihood of crashing into others or even losing your balance on the slippery road. (A webserver configuration can be very fast, but focusing too much on speed will reduce its ability to take load and potentially also break things.) Finally, you have a bike that's quite fast and able to slip through the congested traffic, but riding a bike exposes you to the bad weather which can be harmful to your health. (A webserver configuration can be very lightweight, but too light and it won't be able to stand even moderate load.)

You also need to carry your stuff in a bag. (This is the database.) You can carry a military-style backpack with lots of space to store anything you want but gets heavy and encumbers you when you stuff too many things into it. You can carry a professional-looking suitcase that looks sleek and can carry your important things only but isn't very flexible in terms of utility. You can carry a small handbag which is very practical but can only carry small items. (These analogies should hopefully be quite understandable.)

Finally, you need to decide how to give your presentation. (This is the programming language.) You can choose to be simple and direct, which might leave some people still wondering. You can choose to be very elaborative with your explanations, which will take more time. You can choose to be snarky or funny, which will make the information more easily understood, but some people may lose track on one or two details along the way. You can also choose to use graphs and charts to make your presentation prettier and easier to digest. (This is CSS, which deals with aesthetics.) To wrap it up, you can choose to decorate your presentation―say, a PowerPoint slide―with buttons that you can click to make it easier to navigate to one of your previous points in case an audience brings it up. (This depicts Javascript functions. The last two parts are not, by themselves, necessary. However, they can make things much easier for both you and your audience/visitors.)

 

[pichu655889]

Thanks for all the kind words.

Let's use an analogy. Imagine yourself as someone who wants to give a presentation on a certain subject.

First of all, you must choose the venue you'll be giving your presentation at. (This is the operating system you need to choose.) Venue A is closer to your residence, which means it's easier to travel to, but it has less capacity. (Windows is easier to use, but is more limited and not as flexible.) Venue B is far from where you live and takes more time to get to, but its larger capacity enables you to have a bigger audience. (Linux can take some time to master, but it's generally more flexible. Note that this is a very broad generalisation for the sake of simplicity and shouldn't be taken at face value.)

Next, you need to choose what vehicle you'll drive to the venue. (This is the webserver.) You happen to be rich and own, let's say, a Hummer, a sports car and a motorbike. Unfortunately, the road happens to be anything but smooth, the weather anything but friendly, the traffic all congested. Your Hummer can brave the road and weather like a breeze, but due to its size, you need to drive slowly and carefully, never attempting to cut up other vehicles because your car could easily damage them. (A webserver can be powerful and able to take lots of load, but certain configurations can make it slow and bottlenecked. Wrong configurations can break things.) Your sports car is undoubtedly the fastest out of all three, but going too fast has a high likelihood of crashing into others or even losing your balance on the slippery road. (A webserver configuration can be very fast, but focusing too much on speed will reduce its ability to take load and potentially also break things.) Finally, you have a bike that's quite fast and able to slip through the congested traffic, but riding a bike exposes you to the bad weather which can be harmful to your health. (A webserver configuration can be very lightweight, but too light and it won't be able to stand even moderate load.)

You also need to carry your stuff in a bag. (This is the database.) You can carry a military-style backpack with lots of space to store anything you want but gets heavy and encumbers you when you stuff too many things into it. You can carry a professional-looking suitcase that looks sleek and can carry your important things only but isn't very flexible in terms of utility. You can carry a small handbag which is very practical but can only carry small items. (These analogies should hopefully be quite understandable.)

Finally, you need to decide how to give your presentation. (This is the programming language.) You can choose to be simple and direct, which might leave some people still wondering. You can choose to be very elaborative with your explanations, which will take more time. You can choose to be snarky or funny, which will make the information more easily understood, but some people may lose track on one or two details along the way. You can also choose to use graphs and charts to make your presentation prettier and easier to digest. (This is CSS, which deals with aesthetics.) To wrap it up, you can choose to decorate your presentation―say, a PowerPoint slide―with buttons that you can click to make it easier to navigate to one of your previous points in case an audience brings it up. (This depicts Javascript functions. The last two parts are not, by themselves, necessary. However, they can make things much easier for both you and your audience/visitors.)

I meant that I am trying to learn how to code and make websites and stuff... but thank you for you time. That was a rather good explanation. I roughly know what each of the languages do and why they're there, what I am studying is how to write.

 

[Ignis]

Oh welp. I hope that explanation will be useful to the others, because I realised the previous post was way too technical.
Anyway, I'd recommend W3Schools. It's pretty good for the basics.

 

[pichu655889]

Yeah, I'm using that as a learning guide. Cheers.

 

[Will98]

Oh welp. I hope that explanation will be useful to the others, because I realised the previous post was way too technical.
Anyway, I'd recommend W3Schools. It's pretty good for the basics.

I was able to understand it. So it was not machine code :P

 

[ani8989]

its a nice new look, though i think i got used to the new one too fast... sorta surprised me >.> ...

 

[HatoriTakaya]

its a nice new look, though i think i got used to the new one too fast... sorta surprised me >.> ...

If it's intuitively easy to use, then it's well designed. That's what all web creators should aim for at all times. I've did some basic web creations not too long ago and was able to manipulate it in a basic manner to deliver content to all monitor sizes and maintain a good outlay on my website with little to no errors or conflicts on my source code. You can imagine that it is more difficult to do the same thing if you run the server by yourself and Ignis has done most of the simplifications for anyone who's interested to understand.

For that, I thank thee for thou effort in the explanation of the matter. If I'm typing slightly off, it's because I'm not exactly healthy at the moment.

 

[Watermelon]

I agree too :')
I looked for a message from the admin saying like "We have a new layout", "Did you like it?" or anything like that but I didn't find any or there really is.