Merge pull request #45 from seanmadsen/prerequisite-skills

new page: Prerequisite skills

docs/basics/skills.md

+# Prerequisite skills
+
+## Learn how to *use* CiviCRM
+
+Before diving into CiviCRM development, it's worth mentioning that a solid
+understanding of CiviCRM from the *user's* perspective can really help. You
+pick up the standard user interface patterns that you can re-use in your work,
+and you might even realise that the UI already provides the functionality you
+wish to develop. To that end, please see the
+[User Guide](https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/stable/).
+
+
+## Learn these developer skills
+
+Below we've outlined the major technologies that CiviCRM is built with.
+You don't need to be a pro at everything listed here to get started, but it's
+useful to understand at least of couple of them well, and have a basic
+understanding of how they fit together to create CiviCRM.
+
+Technologies which are contained within the CiviCRM project
+(e.g. civix, buildkit) are covered in detail within this guide, but
+other technologies (such as PHP and Git, which are not CiviCRM-specific) are
+outside its scope. As such, this guide assumes that readers
+arrive with a baseline understanding of these developer skills. This page lists
+these prerequisite skills, along with pointers to usher the reader towards
+appropriate resources for closing skills gaps, wherever necessary.
+Items listed towards the top of this list are, generally-speaking, more
+important skills for CiviCRM development, but the specific skills needed to
+accomplishing a particular development goal, certainly vary.
+
+-   **PHP** - the main programming language in which CiviCRM is written
+    -   [Language reference](http://php.net/manual/en/langref.php)
+-   **Git** - a version control system for tracking changes to source code
+    -   [Official documentation](https://git-scm.com/documentation)
+-   **Command line / bash** - in general, "the command line" refers to using a
+    text-only interface to run programs such as `civix`, `git`, and many more.
+    Bash is the most common "shell" program used to execute these commands on
+    Unix computers (i.e. Linux and OS X).
+    -   [Unix command line tutorial](http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/)
+    -   *Microsoft Windows has a command line shell which functions very
+        differently from bash. While developing CiviCRM on Windows is possible,
+        it will be a slightly more uphill battle, for this reason and others.*
+-   **Javascript** - another programing language used in CiviCRM, especially
+    for any logic that happens within the web browser. *(Note that "javascript"
+    and "java" are entirely different technologies and should not be confused.)*
+    -   [Javascript tutorial](http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp)
+-   **jQuery** - a javascript library that makes manipulating elements on a web
+    page easy
+    -   [jQuery documentation](http://api.jquery.com/)
+-   **HTML** - the markup used so transmit page content to a web browser.
+    -   [HTML tutorial](http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp)
+-   **Smarty** - a "template engine" which allows developers to write an HTML
+    file for one web page, while easily including content dynamically generated
+    from PHP
+    -   [Smarty documentation](http://www.smarty.net/docs/en/)
+-   **CSS** - a programming language used to specify consistent visual style to
+    be applied to many different elements within a web page. Different web
+    browsers interpret the CSS code in slightly different ways.
+    -   [CSS tutorial](http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp)
+    -   [Can I use](http://caniuse.com/) - good for seeing which web browsers
+        have implemented certain CSS features
+    -   [Comparison of layout engines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_\(Cascading_Style_Sheets\))
+        another helpful comparison of the differences between web browsers
+-   **Drupal / Wordpress / Joomla!** - CiviCRM must be installed within one of
+    these content management systems, and learning more about the underlying
+    CMS will aid CiviCRM development. Drupal is favored by most CiviCRM
+    developers and CiviCRM actually borrows many development practices from
+    the project, so learning Drupal is a good place to start if you are unsure.
+    -   [Drupal documentation](https://www.drupal.org/docs/)
+    -   [Wordpress documentation]()
+    -   [Joomla documentation]()
+-   **SQL / MySQL** - "SQL" is a standardized language used by many different
+    kinds of databases to manipulate data in the database. "MySQL" is one kind
+    of database which CiviCRM uses to store all its data. The query syntax
+    that MySQL uses conforms [almost](http://troels.arvin.dk/db/rdbms/)
+    entirely to the SQL standard, so learning SQL is basically synonymous to
+    learning MySQL.
+    -   [SQL tutorial](http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp)
+    -   [MySQL statement syntax](http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/sql-syntax.html)
+    -   [MySQL Workbench](http://www.mysql.com/products/workbench/) -
+        an intuitively designed GUI tool for inspecting and interacting with a
+        MySQL database (great for learning more about the CiviCRM data model).
+
+

mkdocs.yml

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ pages:
 - Home: index.md
 - Basics:
   - Developer Community: basics/community.md
+  - Prerequisite skills: basics/skills.md
   - Requirements: requirements.md
   - Build: build.md
   - Customize: customize.md