I’d like to start learning a PHP library. Was considering either Zend or Code Igniter. Thought i’d ask this group to get some feedback. This is with the goal of being an employed, employable PHP’er in mind,
@VBAssassinMay 30.2012 — #Try going to expertrating.com and do some of the web development tests - they are cheap enough and it's at least something if you are self tought.
Register on freelance sites and see if you can win some work - aim for a few 5 star ratings.
Regarding a framework, you wont go far wrong with learning Zend! Remember it's more of a framework than a CMS... there is a difference (google it). But after learning Zend, you should be able to pick up most others easy enough.
Work to fill your portfolio... dabble in other technologies and web related stuff such as javascript libraries (jquery, prototype, mootools, scriptaculous), do a bit of graphics design, and ultimately build a few sites that incorporate everything! Build a site for yourself, an online portfolio kind of thing and use it to SHOW OFF!
@kbduvallMay 30.2012 — #Zend and Codeigniter both aren't maintained very well. They advance at a pretty slow pace. I would recommend CakePHP, or more recently Laravel. They are both very actively developed and support plugins ... which is always useful for adding features not included in the core. Symfony also gets a lot of talk, but I have mixed feelings about it.
@criterion9May 30.2012 — #I like Zend. To the comment that it moves at a slow pace, I would argue that the interfaces are not changed giving more stability to the code you write rather than some frameworks (cough cough, dojo) which change the intrinsic way you interact causing major rewrites with nearly every release. Zend is also written by the people who make the php engine...so I would imagine it would be written in a way to take the most advantage of the underlying engine.
@VBAssassinMay 30.2012 — #Something you might want to consider learning, though very few programmers even know about is the PHP SPL (Standard PHP Library):
If i were you, i would learn a load of that before the frameworks... if not zend, cakephp would be my second choice though only from reputation, not actually used cakephp ><