Web skills wish list for 2007
So 2006 is drawing to a close and I’m thinking about what I’d like to learn in 2007. At this point in my career, I have a good foundation in the skills that I use every day: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and PHP. I also do pretty well from the Linux command line, I sort of know my way around Photoshop, and I dabble a bit in SEO. Not too shabby, but there’s definitely room for improvement.
Given that, I plan to spend most of 2007 improving the skills I already have. Excellent books and articles come around all the time, so there will never be a shortage of new tricks to teach old dogs like me. I’d like to get up-to-date on the latest CSS tricks, learn more about object-oriented PHP, and even deepen my understanding of SQL. I’ll probably see what all the hoopla over MVC frameworks is about too.
However, my main focus will be on JavaScript and Ajax. My JavaScript skills have come a long way since I dismissed it as mostly useless about three years ago, but I’m still just scratching the surface of what is possible. The rise of object-oriented JavaScript, Ajax techniques, and a raft of free code libraries (Prototype, Dojo, jQuery, mooTools, etc.) have dramatically altered the JavaScript landscape. Developers ignore all of these changes at their own peril.
Anybody else planning to learn something next year?
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