View Full Version : How did you learn PHP ?
sharifphp
10/16/2006, 10:09
how did u learn php ?
Ehh is it my idea or 90% of your posts are related with php?..
sharifphp
10/16/2006, 16:20
what else do you use cgi ?
What do you mean with "cgi"? I think you mean "Perl", but are you aware of mod_perl, mod_php and php as cgi?
sharifphp
10/16/2006, 18:48
i guess most of web site has been did in php so php is the best also cuz it's open source , and work in Linux Machines.
personaly i'm not expert in php but i guess i'm new to it .. but in programming i used to do visual basic 6 in old days.
Ok, I know you're trolling now, but I'll bite.
Why exactly is php "the best" and isn't Python, Perl, or close to any scripting/programming language open source? That brings me to the last point: Why do you care it's open source? I doubt you'll ever read, let alone alter the source yourself ...
Ok, I know you're trolling now, but I'll bite.
Why exactly is php "the best" and isn't Python, Perl, or close to any scripting/programming language open source? That brings me to the last point: Why do you care it's open source? I doubt you'll ever read, let alone alter the source yourself ...
^ I agree. Depends on the work you choose the language.. IMO always..
trendywebs
10/17/2006, 16:45
Ok, I know you're trolling now, but I'll bite.
Ha ha thats funny man. BTW most of us learnt by first biting into HTML and then fiddling with it combining it with c++.
sharifphp
10/17/2006, 18:49
about me , the way i learn things from Books and Video Tutorials and sometimes from online ..
what about you??
None of the options in the poll.
I learned PHP by teaching myself through long hours of struggling and fighting to get scripts done and working as they should.
I started out as a graphic designer, then moved over to web design where I found HTML and CSS. After a while I needed a programming language to write scripts/applications with, so I jumped into PHP and pretty much at the same time started to use MySQL in conjunction with that. Eventually I taught myself JavaScript as a client side scripting language which helps me perform some very useful tasks on the user's browser.
Programming is an art. :D
I'm not saying that it's not a skill nor knowledge...but you start developing a specific style of coding after a while. Something that is unique to the way you think. Something that makes programming a whole lot easier, faster and better for yourself (and/or your team) on the long run.
Btw...
Smarty is the ultimate solution if you are a PHP developer. It doesn't matter whether you do both the web design and web programming yourself. Smarty is an extremely handy templating system which allows you to easily and securely output loops, functions, etc... with template files. I love it when my clients want to change the text of the emails which are being sent on the site. I tell them to simply open up the '.tpl' files with Notepad or Wordpad or whatever and do it themselves. :D
I got a project that I had to do in 2 days. So on day 1 I downloaded a PHP ebook, read it for 6-8 hours, and after that I knew PHP enough to finish that web site (uploading+send email+write to MySQL). It's really the easiest language I've ever used.
I did use Perl before that, so maybe it was easy because of that.
Btw...
Smarty is the ultimate solution if you are a PHP developer.
Yeah, it is funny that a templating language comes up with another templating language ;-)
... I wonder how long it'll take before we'll see a template language for smarty ...
i coded in perl and found many things are easier to make in php. i was already familiar with C syntax and used to code it in childhood, so it was easy for me to switch from perl to php.
milkyway
11/22/2006, 05:33
I learned using the manual and experiments, and very little from tutorials, or sharing other programmers experience (like: posts by others on forums)
greatsupport
12/01/2006, 17:43
I learned by online tutorials, reading php books, and by programming alot. It helped me quite a bit though that I already knew Perl which is very similar to php from a programming point of view in many ways.
PHP got its start from originally just being a bunch of cgi scripts to begin with, it's come along way since that time.
Check out this link about the history of PHP on wikipedia.org. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP#History)
It's kind of interesting.
:rolleyes:
stonedsage
12/10/2006, 10:46
I've been a *nix admin for about 15 years, starting out when it was built and installed entirely from source, binary distros just weren't an option. This introduced me to C.
Anyone at all familiar with C will find PHP to be close to second nature (and quite a bit more forgiving).
I thiink I learn best by example. Show me something that works and leave me alone with it for a little while to pick it apart. Once I do .. then and only then do I understand it.
'Quick Start' books are nice and make a good reference.. but only helpful if your reading them at the keyboard trying the examples.
I can't think of a good programmer who did not learn by example. This trend is why GNU code is so rock solid and sets the 'bar' for production suitability.
Necessity is also a very powerful motivation :) Many people, especially in the US lately are finding themselves unemployed and looking to the Internet for opportunities. When you're surviving on ramen noodles, you tend to learn quickly.
stonedsage
12/10/2006, 10:58
I learned by online tutorials, reading php books, and by programming alot. It helped me quite a bit though that I already knew Perl which is very similar to php from a programming point of view in many ways.
PHP got its start from originally just being a bunch of cgi scripts to begin with, it's come along way since that time.
Check out this link about the history of PHP on wikipedia.org. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP#History)
It's kind of interesting.
:rolleyes:
It was actually cgi binaries :) Its always been a C interpreted scripting language and one of the few 'born' portable. That being said its still only as efficient as you build it to be.
I find I'm using it more as I would bash and python than for db backed hypertext assembly. Its regex is getting better, and its not nearly as bloated as perl 'out of the box'. Python still remains king of the CLI. :)
I'm alarmed at how many programmers here *only* work with PHP.
I learned PHP the same way I've learned all other programming languages - by doing.
I started programming in Basic in 1981. Moved to Pascal in 1990. Perl/CGI and VB6 in the late 90s. VB.Net/ASP and PHP now.
I've also mixed in a little C, JavaScript, VBScript, etc., throughout that time.
I got a project that I had to do in 2 days. So on day 1 I downloaded a PHP ebook, read it for 6-8 hours, and after that I knew PHP enough to finish that web site (uploading+send email+write to MySQL). It's really the easiest language I've ever used.
I did use Perl before that, so maybe it was easy because of that.
youre really amazing.
i only know html and css and i attempted to teach myself PHP on w3schools but became bored and confused out of my mind and gave up.
:P
I started on HTML and CSS in 1998, and then stumbled upon ASP and access. i then moved to .NET and MS SQL. I built my own CMS for Uni as a mature student in ASP and spent days and days in my room trying to fix bugs etc, for a very simple system which just added, edited and deleted pages.
I was then commissioned to do some work using Mambo when i left Uni, which was the first time i used php and MySQL on a commercial level, but the fact it was already there and made and i was just modifying it, was amazing. You could see directly what effect the code had on the output and by changing bits, you could see what would happen. It also showed how large sites had been put together and how they had used little tips like making one page from a few by importing them in, which at that time i hadnt thought of.
I'm now a very good php and MySQL programmer, but still prefer .NET over them, as it is a little more stronger and powerful for very high end sites with huge amounts of traffic.
I have taught new guys in my company how to do php with Joomla many times now, allowing them to see the code and how it has been put together and how it works.
Im not saying Joomla is perfect by the way, but its not bad and uses most functions and features of php and mysql at one piont or other.
It is MUCH better than a book or some PDF doc you download from Kazaa.
Sorry just to add to your poll question, as i cant vote on it
I am self taught, not using any of the methods you have there.
I used Forums for advise, and tons of experimenting, which is great as you learn more than you need and then are able to put that to use later in another project.
thenthdoctor
07/11/2007, 13:33
I had a job as a web designer and my boss didn't know the difference between design and programming. He needed a photo-management system that did automatic watermarking, tagging, etc, so that a rogue photog could sell her wares online.
I had already learned Perl as a hobby, and had been programming for fun since the 2nd grade, so, I took the challenge. After camping out for a couple of days at the MySQL and PHP online manuals, and quite a lot of experimentation with -- of all things -- the GIMP scripting console, I had myself a new job skill.
As for working at a small IT firm for a guy who didn't know the difference between programming and design ... after another couple of weeks, I had myself a new job. :)
techietim
07/11/2007, 13:40
Self taught and web tutorials.
Forums are great places to ask questions and (hopefully) get answers. It's also nice if you can find a friend on IM who you can always bombard with questions :p
Mostly self-taught, using the PHP manual and PHP Cookbook for reference.
again.. php manual, already new a few languages inlcuding perl, so wasn't the hardest language to pick up..
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