Topic: how to be cool...

so i managed to get this site functional.. you know.. it suits its purpose.. but my coding skill is limited to (mostly outdated) html and (still learning) css, so the site is pretty static - none of those cool whirlie moving bits you'd find on really smartly designed websites.

i would love your suggestions (please) for some cool things i could learn to write for the site that would make it more, um.. cool... but still keep (or increase) its functionality. for example, should i figure out how to create a pulldown menu? (what is that? javascript or XHTML?) would it help if i learned flash and did something.. flash-ish.. to the site? as an up and coming coder, what programming language should i try to master next?

oh, and yes. feel free to give me a general critique of the site if you like. i promise not to sulk...

I'd suggest JavaScript.

Pros:
JS needs no plugins.
It is easy to learn.
No complilation needed, interpreted plaintext code.
Lets you interact with the Document Object Model in an easy way.
Runs entierly on the client, doesn't matter which server you have.
The syntax is similar to other languages.
etc..

Cons:
Differences between browsers, JavaScript (or JScript if you're coding for Internet Explorer) is based on ECMAScript and each browser has its own implementation.
The DOM in each browser is different, which makes cross-browser compatibility an even bigger issue.
It's slow compared to compiled code.
Is usually confined to the browser. But JScript can be run on servers supporting ASP. JScript can also be run in the Windows Scripting Host.
Users can disable scripts, you might lose a lot of functionality unless you think about that.
etc..

I suggest you check out the DHTML/Javascript section here and the FAQ.
There are many tutorials/reference documents available online, I recommend reading a lot while studying other peoples' code.

Just remember that functionality comes first if you think about adding something just because it looks cool. Then again, do it the right way and your visitors just can't be without that special feature enabled by your scripts.

/TwoD

javascript it is then! although i did start studying it at the gurus a while ago.. but then i got confused. hhmm...

thanks for that =)

I noticed a couple of problems when viewing your site.



As you can see by the screenshot I can't see the links at the top.

One link has a box in front of it.


The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. --Groucho Marx

thanks for pointing that out, atomic.. that's strange.. the page looks fine on my screen - tried different browsers and screen resolutions.

very weird...

I'm running Linux using Firefox 1.5.0.1 at 1280x1024.