[Miniryu]

Hey, I am interested in recreational website creation. I know HTML and I am enrolling in classes the local comunity college to learn some new technologies to create cool sites. What courses should I take?

For example, would it be best to take XML, DHTML, Flash, etc? I love rollover effects and flash animation, so let me know.

[Raman]

I'm assuming you want to do hand coding:
HTML
JavaScript (ECMA script if you can)
DHTML/DOM
rollovers can be done with images.
if you're artistic i'd learn flash as much as possible.
XML will be good if you plan on doing back-end stuff, in which case...
there are a plethora of back-end (server-side) languages...
JSP, PHP, Perl, Python, ASP, CFML, etc.. for most sites it won't matter which one you know because you'll be able to achieve the same in all scripting languages.

visit w3c.org often...

[Millennium]

The two most critical technologies are HTML and CSS. Get those under your belt first, because all of the rest of the frontend work (except maybe Flash) builds on these. Try http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide for the best tutorial on these that I've seen yet.

After that, go for JavaScript with the W3C DOM. Once you have these under your belt, you'll have DHTML (which is really just a marketing term, collectively describing the four technologies I've mentioned thus far).

Those are the four core technologies, and they'll take you far. You may find it useful to pick up a little Flash as well, if you're going for a design-heavy site, but get these other four first.

Finally, there's back-end work. XML is useful for storing data, and just plain old XML is very easy to learn (don't worry about XSL/XSLT, XPointer/XLink, XML Schema, or the others unless you plan to go really hardcore). You'll already know the DOM, which works for XML too, so you're good to go on that regard. Only thing left to learn, then, is a scripting language (or programming, if you intend to use server-side Java). Here, it doesn't matter quite as much what you learn, so long as you get good with it. Personally, I recommend picking up Java, Perl, and PHP. These three should take care of most of your needs. ASP may be worth picking up as well, in case you're unfortunate enough to have to work in an IIS shop. Python is absurdly useful (it powers MapQuest, to give an example of what it can do), but it's not widespread enough that you'll use it very often. JSP is nice in hardcore corporate environments, but isn't commonly used outside of that environment. WebObjects' marketshare is actually surprisingly -even shockingly- high (most Web-based companies make it a point of hiding exactly what they use as their backend, thinking it gives them some kind of "corporate edge" or some crap like that), but if a company doesn't use it already, you'll be hard-pressed to convince them to switch. It can be done, particularly if they depend on ASP, if you know all the security holes in IIS and can show them a demonstration by hacking their machines, but make sure you have permission before actually attempting a hack like that.

And so on, and so forth. In short... well... there is no short. But with HTML, CSS, javaScript, and the DOM, you'll be amazed with what you can do.

[Raman]

If you have a family to feed and bills to pay then I'd suggest your learn ASP. It's *very* easy to learn and since most businesses are M$ shops and ASP jobs are very common (check dice.com if you don't believe me).

HTML, JavaScript, ASP. In your travels you'll pick up CSS & DOM.

XML is fine to learn but if you don't plan on actually using XML as a tool other than a text file then don't bother because someone's gonna hammer you on a technical interview if you say you know XML and all you know is the structure, some rules, and that's it. If you know XSL/XSLT and maybe SAX and/or XML DOM then you know XML.

I work with/interface with people that say they know a lot... until I hand them code or specifications.