how did you learn PHP?

Ratchet

college, evening training or you just got a book and did self study?

i just started and going through php/msql book

any tips?

Goodshape

I never set out to master the language, and I haven't, but I'm at least a competent PHP-hacker.

To get to that level I used Internet resources mostly. Read through some online tutorials, books if you have them, then grab some free PHP code and start reverse engenering.

Personally I learn best by example, trial and error.

NutJob

The internet and PHP code dump books. Im no expert on PHP but i can throw together webapps easily.


Note: If ur looking and php samples thell oftn be missing information on how to write webapps securely and safely. Google SQL-injection + XSS + PHP security as PHP apps are happy to let you hang yourself.

Adam

Similar to Goodshape there, I'm self-taught, had a book, I keep meaning to go through it as I'm sure it would teach me a lot, but 10 months later I still haven't but I can competently write web apps etc.

I too learn by trial and error, I understand better if I can toy with code and see what works and what breaks it rather than reading from a book which is saying write this and that and see what happens etc.

Ratchet

thx guys, trying to do my own project at the same time and see how far i will get

seamus

Went through a book once. Forgot most of it. Spent a weekend of 4am nights hacking away writing a site (gone now), with the aid of the book - had no internet at in those days. The rest is history.

I've done a lot of PHP for work, mainly replacing old "Stick it in the spreadsheet" arrangements, with MySQL driven applications, and some other stuff like real-time graphing and read-only reporting for MSSQL database data.

The main resource I use is www.php.net. If I can't fully remember how to use a function, or want to know if a function exists, php.net is teh win. Dreamweaver MX (ah, gotta love business) also has code completion for PHP.

Ratchet

seamus wrote:

Dreamweaver MX (ah, gotta love business) also has code completion for PHP.

did you use Eclipse in some stage or this would be considered heavy commercial app?

daymobrew

I taught myself perl (Learning Perl book and perl-beginner group on groups.yahoo.com). Moving to PHP was relatively easy (though I miss use strict;) and I did it with the help of a book and the docs on php.net.

seamus

I tried Eclipse for java development at one point, but it gave me a pain in my head.
I also tried Dev-Php (and something else popular I forget the name of now), but I generally found them unstable and unhelpful when trying to work on anything *but* PHP.

At home, I use Notepad++ for web development.

louie

Books, more books and internet (libraries, snippets, forums).

CuLT

I wanted to make a content management system, already knew java so swapping to php wasn't difficult.

Ziycon

Learned it from the net!

7aken

learned from internet aswell mostly but also from a cool book by matt rutledge called php game programming. theres some great starter stuff here including other useful stuff theres a php and a mysql series of tuts.

chamlis

PHP and MySQL for Dummies.

Good base, seriously. Helps if you can find a mentor dude to throw things at once in awhile. Boards is good for that

Like Mirror said though, it's alot easier if you have code to play with. See what works, what breaks etc.

Ratchet

thx guys, will let you now how i get on