Ask HN: Best introduction to Web-Application programming? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best introduction to Web-Application programming?

8 pointsseminolas7 comments

Hi all,

  I'm a recent graduate. My work is on a Java-based web-app:
  -Essentially all Java, except for views in Groovy;
  -Using Hibernate for ORM;
  -Using Guice for DI;
  -Mostly deployed on Tomcat.

  Now, as an inexperienced developer I'm quite comfortable with 
  Java but the rest are new to me. Of course I would like 
  to learn more about them. Could you recommend any
  books/lectures/online resources for

  -something rather general as I never did any web-development 
  (html/css, POST/GET, sockets, deployment);
  -ORM/Hibernate;
  -DI/Guice;
  -web-app architecture/design?

  Preferably not deep reference books at this point, 
  but something that would allow me to better understand

  -what they do;
  -how they do it;
  -and how that fits into the whole picture.

Thank you!

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An option is to get an account for O’Reilly’s Safari. I personally am an ACM member (USD$99) for historical reasons, and they provide access to a limited subset of books from Safari. I have opted for also getting the premium library (USD$415) that provides access to all technical and business content [1]. They also have videos that show some of the subjects that you’re interested in, which I’ve found to be quite helpful.

I’m aware that it’s quite expensive, but I think that is one of the best investments that I’ve done since it has allowed me to switch careers on a dime, from developing on embedded systems to web apps and services.

For HN discussion regarding the ACM see [2], [3], and [4]. Note that IEEE also offers Safari access but their discount may be smaller than ACM’s.

[1] http://learningdev.acm.org/books/saf_pkgs.cfm

[2] Ask: ACM vs IEEE Membership

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=917933

[3] Ask HN: Are ACM worth a membership?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1182169

[4] ACM considered harmful

http://se9book.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/acm-considered-harmf...

I'd like to second the architecture side of this question. I'd love to see more on why and where a particular technology fits into web apps. Recently there has been a lot of popularity with Node.js, Backbone.js, and even Knockout.js. How and Where do these fit? What design decisions were made to achieve this?

I use the internet for most things, simple searches are the best place to start e.g. "php turorials" etc

If you want a book, The Missing Manual series are a great resource, I refer to my copy of this all the time: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CSS-Missing-Manual-Manuals/dp/059680...

Google Code University:

http://code.google.com/edu/ajax/index.html

http://code.google.com/edu/security/index.html

Google App Engine: http://code.google.com/appengine/

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned w3schools.com yet.

w3schools is not affiliated with the w3c and often has subtly incorrect information [See here](http://w3fools.com).

My preferred resource on the subject is the [Mozilla Developer Network](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs)

Thanks, now I know why!

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