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hudzilla.org/phpbook is a nice place to go. It also includes chapters on the basics of coding things like polls, messageboards, counters, etc. if you're interested in that.

Originally posted by BigToach:

i never read tutorials or had a book, i just took existing code and played with it until i got it to do what i wanted it to do. It took me a longass time to get down the basics, but once you get em down the balls starts to roll a lot faster

same, the php manual on php.net helped a lot

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Last edited by aonic, March 20th, 2005 04:56 PM (Edited 1 times)

When I took a glance at PHP for the first time in attempt to learn it, I ending up closing the browser window (well, tab, actually... Firefoxy). I thought it was way up over my head. Well when I needed CuteNews installed one day for a stupid squad site I was making (I had never even installed a PHP script before), it kind of sparked my interest in PHP again. I installed CuteNews with no problem and decided to look at some of the scripts in notepad. Needless to say I was turned off again.

Well I ended up needing another script, a simple TagBoard script. This time I had to modify the script myself to get it to suite my needs, and since it was a simple script to begin with it kind of "turned me back on" to learning PHP. Since then I've done a lot of PHP work, nothing too incredibly large (yet) but some fair sized projects. I've mostly learned it by just looking at other scripts that I had downloaded for different purposes.

While I must admit I'm more interested in graphic design, I will admit that I am more willing to do PHP. The reason being is because I'm a very creative person with a lot of imagination (at least I think so anyways) and when I get into Photoshop or something I spend a lot of time day dreaming trying to figure out "what I want it to look like" and end up spending hours on a small aspect of a graphic. PHP on the other hand I can kind of wizz through. I've never read any books on it or anything because I honestly don't think that it's that difficult. And to be perfectly honest I've never had any books on anything in the graphic or web design catagory, as I've always found the web to be sufficent for getting help.

Last edited by Heri, March 20th, 2005 09:59 PM (Edited 1 times)

Started out with wrox prof PHP4, have progressed to oop/xp/tdd.

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I don't own any php books, nor have I read any :S. I began learning php knowing javascript and perl though, so it wasn't that hard of a transistion. I would say looking at code examples and getting hands on with the code were my best methods of learning. Plan out a program first in your mind and you can start to visualize the necessary code elements. When you begin coding and get stuck or need ideas, PHP.net is a fawesome resource. After you get the hang of it, you'll be "dreaming in code", just like you visualize designs you'll begin seeing your code coming together in you mind. Those are my experiences at least. Oh, and debugging. Lots of debugging.

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That's true, Riah haha. I find myself thinking something about php everyday with code-head thinking. You know, it's like you were making a site or something but there was a problem or whatever you decided you were going to fix later. So later, or it might be serendepity, you just start thinking about code and seeing how stuff works and it clicks. Or you're just really strange like me and sometimes write down your code on paper going "eureka!"

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I like books for the more advanced concepts, although the ones I read are not strictly for PHP

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201786958/002-2697972-6779222 (Exploiting Software: How To Break Code)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201633612/002-2697972-6779222 (Design Patterns - This one is a classic)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321127420/002-2697972-6779222 (Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture - I have yet to read it, but i intend on it)

I'm currently working on ideas on how to expand simpletest's webtestcase as a tool for black box analysis and fault injection generator.

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I agree about the learning curve, the more in depth you get the less people know about it. I've been learning PHP for abour 1.5 years now and I fell like i've barely passed the basics

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i agree with BigToach. Nothing like looking at existing code to make you wantto find out what it does, its the best way to learn. books help too i guess, but they are boring <('_'<)

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PHP is very hard for me to grasp. Me being 13 years old, might have something to do with that, but, the way I caught on with HTML, its kind of upsetting.

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