Newbbie wanting to learn PHP

@MayaPTSep 21.2004

Hy to all,

As i say in the subject of this message i want to learn PHP but i don’t know where to start.

1st – What do i need to start writing stuff in PHP?

2nd – How do i set those things up?

3rd – i heard i need a hoster supporting PHP is it better if it also supports mySQL?

4 – What do i need to setup to try those PHP scripts at home (without ftp’ing them to the hoster)?

Sorry if i’m asking a lot but i really don’t know where to start. I know some javascript but i wanted more control over my sites. Thanks in advance for your help.

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@96turnerriSep 21.2004 — #1) i use editpad pro for all my programming although some prefer others, dreamweaver is also good

2) download it double click the exe and follow instructions,

3) yes mysql is the database bit for more dynamic sites

4) download php-www.php.net, mysql-www.mysql.com, and apache-www.apache.com

@mityaSep 21.2004 — #It's worth pointing out also that there are some beginner-friendly installation packages which negate the need for building php installations and libraries, extensions. I started with www.apachefriends.com, or just search the net for XAMPP (which is a download packages complete with mysql, gd image extensions etc).

Congrats on choosing a great language.

@sciguyryanSep 21.2004 — #Here are a few good links for you:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ - The PHP manual, everything you need.

http://www.zend.com - Zend PHP website, articles tutorials and scripts.

http://www.phpbuilder.com - PHP articles and tutorials, some scripts.

http://www.webdvedfaqs.com - PHP and other web language FAQs.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/ - MySQL development Documentation.

Hope those get you started,

RyanJ

@MayaPTauthorSep 21.2004 — #Hi again and thanks to all the replies!

I must admit i went the easy way and downloaded XAMPP as mitya suggested.

Up until now it is being a great experience although a little overwhelming sometimes.

Now i just need to start learning the language itself, i have some Basic, Pascal, C/C++ and both HTML and JavaScript background so i'm hoping it won't be too painful.

Thanks again to all for all the help and advices. I think you will be seeing me in this forum a lot in the next few months so, until then.

@MstrBobSep 21.2004 — #I've heard PHP as being similar to C, but since I've never touched it, I couldn't tell you. Since I've been going through a bunch of mainstream programming languages, I'll tell you that the basic language constructs are similar, and even syntax can be similar. There are some weirder syntaxes, but I've found PHP, JavaScript, and even C++ to share a bunch of similarities.

Though, I'd say PHP is very easy to learn. And as you'll find, there are a great deal of functions which accomplish a great deal of things. You can very quickly, especially if you already know programming basics, move on to sophisticated and complex scripts.

@MayaPTauthorSep 21.2004 — #MstrBob:

I hope you are right when you say it's very easy to learn, i didn't want to spend much time on it.

Now for another question that has surely been asked several times:

What books do you recommend? i need a really good php commands reference i noticed the fopen and fclose functions already and those are similar to C/C++ but there will be others that are not common so i wanted a true commands reference where i could see what functions exist, what parameters they take and what their strong and weak points are.

Thanks again for all the replies.

@JonaSep 21.2004 — #[font=trebuchet ms]PHP is based off of mostly C, Java, and Perl. It's commonly said that it is similar to JavaScript, and that's true, but only because JavaScript is similar to Java. It takes the simple things from Perl, the easy syntax from Java, and the power from C, and puts them together. I know this because I read the manual. ? If you know some C++ and JavaScript, PHP will be as easy as learning how to use it. If you learn PHP and JavaScript well enough, you don't have to learn Perl -- you know it. It works any of the three ways, but Perl is not a good place to start (trust me on this). As far as text editors, I would suggest Homesite, if you have extra money to spend -- it's pretty sexy. Though I'm sure Dreamweaver has some better features, its focus is more on design than programming - as far as I know - but I've heard that it's very, very good. If you've got a couple more extra bucks, try that. ? Anyway, glad you chose PHP to learn. You won't regret it! (If you do, don't worry, you never had to spend a dime to get the binaries, so there is no 30-day money-back guarantee. :p)[/font]

@JonaSep 21.2004 — #[i]Originally posted by MayaPT [/i]

[B]What books do you recommend? i need a really good php commands reference i noticed the fopen and fclose functions already and those are similar to C/C++ but there will be others that are not common so i wanted a true commands reference where i could see what functions exist, what parameters they take and what their strong and weak points are.[/B][/QUOTE]

[font=trebuchet ms]This question wasn't directed towards me, but I'd like to provide some input anyway. I never purchased a PHP book. How do I know PHP? Well, usually learning a language is difficult, but really there is nothing hard about learning PHP. You start right into the coding, and if you want to know how to do something, guess a name and it most likely has a built-in function which is relevant to what you want to do. If it doesn't, it's often very easy to write your own function to do what you want. [url=http://www.php.net/manual]The manual[/url] is your guide to anything and everything. No need for a book for PHP, in my eyes... Of course, that's just me.[/font]

@MstrBobSep 22.2004 — #Jona is right on the money here. PHP is the one programming language I never bought a book for. I started with that real simple tutorial on php.net, read through some others, and got the basic syntax down. From there, it's just getting to know all the functions. And php.net is the PHP manual. It's all there, all your functions, and explanations on them, and sometimes how to use them. There are a lot of comments on different items in the manual, and these people can provide some very good advice.

I learned PHP by doing this: I picked something I wanted to make. For me I chose to make a very basic forum system. Very basic, it turned out. But as you start a project and are driven to finish the end result, it forces you to pick up things and learn.

And I'd recommend that the two most important things that you should know in PHP (though I don't recommend starting off with them) are perl-like regular expressions (also referred to as preg) and database interaction. I'd suggest that you start off without thinking of them and get comfortable. But these two tools prove to be very powerful and can help make your scripts quicker, more reliable, and much more powerful. But like I said, right now, focus on the basics and the myriad of functions until your confidant you know what you're doing.

@MayaPTauthorSep 22.2004 — #Thanks for your replies,

I really think you are right, i have been going through the manual and it's really very C/C++ so i think i won't be needing any books.

I think i will have a great time learning this language.

@JonaSep 22.2004 — #[font=trebuchet ms]Remember, we're here to help! ? [/font]

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