New hey there..

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

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sniperx
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New hey there..

Post by sniperx »

Hey my name is kyle im 17 yrs old . And i really am gettting into php :| . I want to learn it so if anybody can give me some tips i really appreciate it thx.
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delorian
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Post by delorian »

http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php - start here.

I also recommend reading some articles on:

http://phpbuilder.com
http://zend.com

and of course google seach "PHP Tutorials"

BTW: Buy yourself a good book.
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sniperx
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Post by sniperx »

rofl , thx for the advice delorian i already started there im just confused on what i should i read there so much information in the manaul should i just read the whole thing ??
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delorian
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Post by delorian »

Step by step :D Not everything at one time.

BTW: Read my signature
OT: Nas rulezz. :D
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cactus
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Post by cactus »

IMO, it's always best to have a project in mind, and then learn around that. You will pick up PHP (and other languages) quicker if you have something to focus on.

Have you got something in mind ?

Regards,
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m3mn0n
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Post by m3mn0n »

finally someone who likes hiphop! [see here]

heh

welcome to the community~
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sniperx
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Post by sniperx »

IMO, it's always best to have a project in mind, and then learn around that. You will pick up PHP (and other languages) quicker if you have something to focus on.

Have you got something in mind ?

Regards,
When u mean projects what are u talking about ?? please explain like i said before im total noob to php .
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cactus
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Post by cactus »

Something you intend to use PHP for, such as processing your form submissions, or creating a "form to email" handler.

You will find it hard to learn any language with out actually trying things out, was there a particular reason you chose to learn PHP ?

:)

Regards,
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sniperx
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Post by sniperx »

yes to make my very own hacks for bulletin boards.? Got any suggestions to start me out.
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cactus
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Post by cactus »

Writing mods/hacks for BB's will require you to have a sound understanding of PHP and obviously detailed knowledge of the BB you intend to write for.

Most BB's these days have database interaction as well as some kind of templating system.

As advice, I would first start small, understand the basics of the language, the constructs and variable syntax.

Get yourself a good PHP book that has examples that walk you through these basics.

Have a look at the BB site you intend to write for, there are usually tutorials etc. on these sites to aid developers create their own mods/hacks.

Regards,
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phice
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Post by phice »

My 5-step program for making successful programs

Theory - Think about what you need to complete this project, be it the process of which you plan on making the program work, to how you think others would use it in everyday use.
Discussion - Discuss your ideas with others (such as us) quite a bit and make sure it's a great idea or not.
Build - Use the PHP Manual every step of your way to creating your program, and be sure to leave yourself small notes in between each 'section' of your PHP coding.
Design - Design the outcome of the script, format the code so that anyone else could read it (if needed, and if you plan to share the source).
Complete - Make sure, atleast, 99% of it's bugs are gone, have a few people beta test your program, and put it into business!


Hope this helps,
Don
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m3mn0n
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Post by m3mn0n »

Nice guide. I use the same method only I base a lot of my projects on time investment and income potential...if it's not for educational reasons that is (learning a new mod, or testing a new function in a web app).

If a program has no earning potential or if I don't see a huge market for it, it's never leaving my development server.

If you're just into all of this for a hobby or if you are being paid to make a program for someone else then don't mine this little tidbit. ;)
McGruff
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Post by McGruff »

There are a lot of free resources on the net - php.net and google should track them down. The downloadable php manual with user comments is highly recommended - essential really imho.

Have you got a local test server? There are several solutions you can download with php/mysql/apache all in one.

Tripod.co.uk have free webspace with php.

You need to be able to debug your scripts when they don't work. Echo out vars to check they have the values you expected or print-r($arrays). Stick a die('your custom message'); in to stop the script dead at a certain point. Echo mysql_num_rows($query) to check if you actually got any results returned in a query.. etc

As a rule (and all rules are made to be broken..), don't write functions that don't fit on a single screen without scrolling - split them up into their separate tasks instead. Makes the code easier to understand and maintain.

Don't skimp on the OOP tutorials. Once you start getting involved in more complex projects, classes (and specifically inheritance) can be the key to organising code efficiently, allowing you to share common blocks of code between several different tasks.

Like any new language, it's just a case of having the patience to learn all the jargon then you're flying.[/list]
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