Re: learning resources for PHP

On 05/04/12 13:41, tamouse mailing lists wrote:

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 6:16 AM, Bastien<phpster@gmail.com> wrote:

Bastien Koert On 2012-04-03, at 10:39 PM, Tim Dunphy<bluethundr@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello list, I am quite sure that you've heard this question at least a few times before. :) But I have been dabbling a bit in PHP for years and I've decided that its' high time that became serious about getting a solid grounding in it. Currently I work as a Sysadmin and have modest but reliable skills in bash and perl. But I consider PHP more of an artform and I really need to 'pick up a brush and start painting' so to speak. So what I was wondering what websites, and books you'd recommend to someone who (for all intents and purpose) is just starting out. On my hit list of things to learn are basic php / database interaction (mysql mainly).. then how to accelerate php interraction through memcache.. and eventually one I have all that down onto using some of the NoSQLs (mongo/cassandra/membase, etc). Thanks! -- GPG me!! gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys F186197B -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

The manual is a great place Www.php.net Then there are tons of sites forum and otherwise to aid your learning. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

I'll second the manual -- quite a lot of info, and generally very well written. When I started out learning PHP, I used the tutorials at webmonkey.com. They're pretty well done, and definitely got me going quickly. If you already have programming experience, and understand data bases a bit, they should help you along. 2 cents If you have no programming or data base experience, PHP isn't necessarily a bad first language, but it is very rich, and there are many ways to make mistakes and create poorly formed programs. Writing web apps is quite a bit different than writing admin scripts in shell and perl, and there are various ways to go about it. While the php.net manual is extensive in describing the workings and functions of PHP, it is not a programming tutorial by any stretch. Way back in the Jurassic of programming, I had a nifty little book called "Programming Proverbs" that laid out quite succinctly some rules of thumb for writing good code. Today, books like "Code Complete" serve that purpose well, but with a lot more text and no where near as much fun. Still, if you're are a beginner to writing applications, it's good to look at such books. I've been having a lot of fun with Beginning PHP 5.3 by Matt Doyle. Covers basics nicely, and I've found myself going back to the book for reference constantly as I do my own php medium size project as a learning experience =)

Also, the code samples and explanations are top notch, and you come to really understand what it is you're doing.. so that's my 2 cents! -Henry A.