What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from?

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Alex Heuman
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What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from?

Post by Alex Heuman »

Hey,

What are some notable resources for beginning PHP?
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Celauran
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

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Eric!
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by Eric! »

There are a lot of PHP resources on the web. Like php.net and http://www.tizag.com/phpT/

Books (maybe a bit dated, but they have good info):
If you're looking for more advanced practices, try Apress's "PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice" and their "Pro PHP Patterns, Frameworks, and More"

For more beginning info, try Larry Ullman's "PHP 6 and MYSQL 5 for Dynamic Websites"

For very basic, the dummies guide to PHP & MySQL isn't bad and a good place to start, but it is limited in teaching you some bad habits instead of the skills you might want to develop if you want to move to a more professional level of programming.
Alex Heuman
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by Alex Heuman »

Thanks, I had been learning from Apress' book "PHP 5 and MySQL 5." It seems to be halfway between a reference book and a how-to, which I like. I'll have to check out "PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice." I didn't like the way that "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Websites" was written, and I don't know if the dummies guide has enough meat on it. Perhaps the best strategy would be to work my way through a few of these books while going through the manual.
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social_experiment
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by social_experiment »

Eric! wrote:For more beginning info, try Larry Ullman's "PHP 6 and MYSQL 5 for Dynamic Websites"
Ditto; good book with a clear explanation of the concepts of creating dynamic websites. I started with Matt Zandstra's "PHP in 24 Hours" which covered the basics pretty for me.

For syntax i agree with Celauran on php.net; the manual is the best place to learn that from.
Eric! wrote:For very basic, the dummies guide to PHP & MySQL isn't bad and a good place to start, but it is limited in teaching you some bad habits instead of the skills you might want to develop if you want to move to a more professional level of programming.
The problem i've found with many beginner type books is that they only give you the basic information and not much else in terms of theory; there is no real motivation behind why and why not. I would suggest getting a book that covers the bare minimum and then heading back to PHPDN if you are having difficulty understanding; books are good to have but real-world experience (which you can find on the forum) goes a lot further.
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
Alex Heuman
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by Alex Heuman »

social_experiment wrote: The problem i've found with many beginner type books is that they only give you the basic information and not much else in terms of theory; there is no real motivation behind why and why not. I would suggest getting a book that covers the bare minimum and then heading back to PHPDN if you are having difficulty understanding; books are good to have but real-world experience (which you can find on the forum) goes a lot further.
Thanks, I definitely appreciate the input.
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by MythX »

http://w3schools.net is a good reference source.
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social_experiment
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Re: What are some good sources for someone to learn PHP from

Post by social_experiment »

MythX wrote:http://w3schools.net is a good reference source.
Not really. http://w3fools.com/
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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