Hi all,

 

I haven't made any websites for a 3 years or so. Last time I remember using my trustworthy Vim editor and hand-coding html/css/simple jquery, etc.

I need to create another website now so I have been browsing to refresh my skills/knowledge. It looks like a lot of things have changed. Could you kindly answer my questions:

 

1. What are the creatures called: node, ember, backbone, etc. They seem to be so popular. What are they for? I mean I can visit their websites and google some information but I am still none wiser. When would I need to use one? What do they do/help with in plain English?

2. I have started learning Django. I have gone through the official tutorial but am just a beginner so I am not going to use it for the new website. Just to confirm what I think: there's no point to use the whole Django framework for a simple static site.

3. I am aware that I need to catch up with a lot of things. Is html5 a safe choice now mid 2013 for all browsers?.

4. The website I need to create is a static one. A few pages with an image gallery and a contact form. Nothing else. Is a plain editor still a good method of developing it? I have seen a new (to me) kinds of programs, ie. static site generators. Are they worth anything? How would they help me/would they help me a lot? I'm a python guy so I was looking at Hyde. How do you professionals develop static websites? Do you use site generators/ do you hand code everything/Do you use something else I am not aware of?

5. I mentioned a simple image gallery/slideshow. What would be a good option for that? jquery?

 

Thank you for your answers.

Hi, welcome to the forum

 

I will try to answer some of your questions as good as I can:

 

1. Node, ember and backbone are js (javascript) libraries for building web applications. They are basically ready made javascript functions, so you (the developer) don't need to write the whole code again. Like pre-defined CSS styles, but js, well, a bit more complicated than that, hope that makes sense

 

2. I haven't worked with Jango, but I do agree it might be not needed, if you only want to create a static site. There a lot of CMS aimed at simple static sites that won't require much maintenance and updating. We have a topic about "static" site CMS here. Hope that helps a bit.

 

3. HTML5 is pretty much safe. Of course IE9 and below don't fully support HTML5, but there is a workaround that you can use to force HTML5 on older versions of IE - here.

 

4. I would prefer to code everything from scratch, or use a blank starter template, like HTML5 boilerplate or similar. I wouldn't use a site generator, they might produce a bloated code.

 

5. Yes, jQuery is great, I would definitely use it for a gallery / slideshow. If you prefer to make a gallery from scratch, great, but if not, there are a lot of jQuery gallery plugins, just google them : link.

 

Hope that helps a bit, surely ask any question, everyone on the forum would be happy to help

Thanks a lot. That will get me started.