What should I do after learning HTML and CSS?


Web development is a long journey but being fully equipped with HTML and CSS skills means you have won half the battle. These two are very important and fundamental languages for learning web development skills. Now it’s indispensably the next question, What should I do after learning HTML and CSS?

The answer to these questions can be divided into 2-3 parts, where you can keep on practicing your HTML and CSS coding, then what new languages you can go for after HTML and CSS, and then even updating on your acquired knowledge.

Practicing

Now, Just knowing, and being thorough with concepts is not enough in the coding world. You should know how to use HTML and CSS concepts, experiment with them, explore and keep on practicing so that you will never forget this knowledge. In this section, we‘ll also talk about how to practice in the best way possible.

  • Code Editors − Make use of code editors that have features designed specifically for CSS and HTML development. Syntax highlighting, auto-completion, code snippets, and other useful features are available in popular code editors like Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Atom, or Brackets to improve your coding experience. These tools can greatly quicken your development process and make it simpler to find code errors.

  • Code Challenges − Take part in HTML and CSS-specific coding challenges or competitions. You can take coding challenges that test your proficiency in these languages on websites like Codewars or HackerRank. These tasks frequently ask you to use HTML and CSS to solve particular issues, letting you put your knowledge to use.

  • Reverse engineering − Examine existing HTML and CSS-coded websites or template designs to learn how they are organized and styled. You can learn new skills, gain insights into best practices, and comprehend how various elements are used by looking at the source code of well-designed websites. You can develop your own coding abilities and increase your knowledge using this reverse engineering strategy.

  • Constructing Real Projects − Work on actual projects to practice HTML and CSS. Create a simple landing page or a personal website as your first small project. Going from small projects to tough projects will also allow you to track your progress. Tough projects could be anything like creating a responsive website or an e-commerce site, as your confidence grows. Working on projects will allow you to be exposed to different situations, improving your problem-solving abilities and broadening your comprehension of HTML and CSS.

  • Collaboration and Feedback − Communicate with people who are equally interested in developing and coding, and share your projects with them to get more inputs and ideas. This will allow you to be updated and allow you to come across problems others may be facing. Working with other developers enables you to benefit from their knowledge, receive comments on your code, and gain understanding of various strategies for HTML and CSS development. You can improve your coding abilities by identifying areas for development and by receiving constructive criticism on your work.

New Languages to Learn

After mastering HTML and CSS, you might want to learn one or more programming languages to advance your web development abilities. You can create more dynamic, interactive websites using these languages. Here are some languages you can learn −

  • JavaScript − The scope of HTML and CSS is limited to static web pages, if you want to grow out of that domain, then you must learn JavaScript, which is generally the next step developers go for. JavaScript allows you to increase the functionality and interactivity of your web page. You can make dynamic content, manage user events, work with the DOM (Document Object Model), and communicate with APIs using JavaScript.

  • Python − Python is a flexible and user friendly language which can help you expand your domain, it does help with web development, but its scope is way beyond that. Also, it's simple and user-friendly, thus comparatively easier for beginners to go for. It is simple to learn and use thanks to its clear syntax and sizable standard library.

  • PHP − Like CSS, PHP is one such language which can be coded along with HTML, because it was mainly created for the process of web development. It is frequently employed when developing dynamic web pages and web applications. Due to PHP's seamless HTML integration, HTML files can contain PHP code. It is mostly popular for creating content management systems (CMS), like WordPress which offers extensive support for databases.

  • Ruby − Ruby is a beautiful, expressive language renowned for being easy to read. It emphasizes developer productivity and adheres to the tenet "convention over configuration." An extensive set of tools and conventions are offered by Ruby and it is known to speed up the development process.

  • C# − Although the ASP.NET framework allows for web development, it is primarily used for creating Windows applications. C# places a big emphasis on object oriented programming, expanding your scope.

Staying up-to-date with technology

As the field of IT demands, it is important to always stay up-to-date with the technology of the languages you are already well equipped with. This allows developers to put their existing knowledge to use and be updated about what the new versions offer. This expands developers' spectrum of what they know and what they can build. You achieve this with the help of −

  • Follow Online Communities and Forums − Being active on online forums and communities allows you to be updated with the field, not just languages. That’s why it is considered to be a great way to stay updated. This can provide you with skills the employees look for and then you can work on them. There are numerous websites for this purpose like GitHub, Quora and Reddit.

  • Register for programming language newsletters and blogs − Numerous companies, groups, and influential developers who have created programming languages publish blogs or newsletters that offer regular updates on language updates, new features, best practices, and tutorials. Signing up for these blogs or newsletters, will get you timely information about the updates of the languages. There are official blogs like Ruby Inside and Mozilla Developer Network, which can provide you with updates for specific languages.

This may seem like a very unimportant thing but to know what technology can achieve and being knowledgeable to that extent, can help you unleash your potential and creativity.

Conclusion

To conclude, HTML and CSS sure are an achievement in the web development journey. This will equip you with more understanding of the domain. We also addressed how we can move ahead after learning HTML and CSS, and the steps to it could be practicing, exploring and staying up-to-date.

Thus, it is important to practice and move ahead to other languages and still be well aware about the new versions of previously learned languages (here HTML and CSS).

Updated on: 18-Aug-2023

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