How do i go about learning PHP?

[Brocken]

It looks like a really handy thing to learn for web design but I haven't got a clue were to start...

should I buy a book on it or learn from web tutorials or what?

thanks :E

[WildWayz]

if u wanna buy a book, get PHP for Fast And Easy Web Development - it is an excellent starting point, and it covers PHP and MySQL integration.

Also, Professional PHP Programming is good, and for a techie book Core PHP Programming Second Edition.

As for tutorials - they are great too
try http://www.hotscripts.com, click PHP and Tutorials etc

http://www.phpbuilder.com is for kinda techies, but can be useful.
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php?aid=228&pid=0 is also great too.
or http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/index.html

--WildWayz

[MAD>DOG part deux]

alternatively, don't bother with PHP its the geeks version of ASP, ASP is a) faster and has better support and b) has more commercial applications.

...lets face it PHP is poor version of asp , and only coz CGI is on the way out.

...or PHP is really for non-commercial applications where they don't wanna to pay for decent servers.

anyway ASP or PHP virtually same sh !te at end of day takes ur choice :)

[Messiah]

ASP is poor compared to PHP so erm sssssh u :P

[sabathius]

he he,
i'll think you'll find that php is alot faster than asp, in fact a load faster, and easier to learn.... being a web developer for a few years i can speak from experience. :)

Sab

[MAD>DOG part deux]

like i said PHP is for geeks only :E ..who really don't know shi te and I use asp and its way fast enough thankyou :P

..plus ASP has the might of Microsoft behind it so its developed by REAL pro's and is commerical more accepted than PHP, and LOL lets face 'Pre - compiled' don't make people laff, LOL wot and u can read it???????

[Edited by MAD>DOG part deux on 21-01-2001 at 02:21 AM]

[MAD>DOG part deux]

oh and i nearly forgot ASp is so damn inferior to PHP that major commerical websites like some for LLoyds bank used ASP because they want visitors to their websites to time-out, not even connect and get constant 404 headers returned :E ...hehe thought gameplay fourms used asp for a mo, all that sounds familiar :P

[WildWayz]

.... and Lloyds site is so damn slow.

PHP is NOT a geeks version of ASP.
ASP is MUCH slower with higher server resources needed for it. PLUS u gotta BUY addon modules for it to do things like email etc.

PHP/MySQL is FREE whereas ASP/MSSQL isn't.

And to be honest, most companies use ASP because they don't research properly and think anything Microsoft do, is the best.

Anyone read the flaw in IIS that allows hackers to kill the IIS server on The Register today?

Every ASP site I have been to is slow in comparison to PHP - and there ARE sites who have benchmarked CGI, iHTML, ColdFusion, PHP and ASP and ASP came near the bottom.

--WildWayz

[Godin]

PHP is defo faster than ASP, Benchmarks place Database access to an MSSQL server (yes, the MS one) at 800% faster for PHP.

And when was the last time you saw an ASP site (other than Spawno's, but hes just an ASP guru) that worked properly? I know I have to think VERY hard to answer that, plus in this day and age having MS behind aint exactly a vote fo confidence....

[Skunk]

To be fair, http://www.digwar.com is an excellent advertisement for ASP.

At the end of the day PHP is open source and ASP isn't. Open source software (at least the big open source projects) is almost always more reliable than commercial counter-parts because it has thousands of programmers all working on it / using it and fixing the bugs.

The internet runs on open source software - Sendmail is responsible for relaying 3 quarters of all e-mail on the net, BIND is responsible for putting packets back together or something (not sure exactly what but without it the net just wouldn't work), Apache runs over half the net's web servers - and all of those programmes are open source.

[HULK]

TBH why not just use whatevers best for what u wanna do...

Sure PHP might be faster but it's a complete bugger to actually set up an Apache Server running the PHP module and have it work properly...

The config file takes a while to even read thru let alone edit to make sure it all runs smoothly..

I currently have Apache set up to run perl cgi scripts (which I don't reccomend, a complete pain in the arse to code the HTML and perl seperate)..

The MSPWS for win 95/98 takes about 20 seconds to install and ya off with ASP immediately...

Personally I'd just use the one which you find easiest to code with and use that, then move on as ya needs increase.... Oh yeah and does anyone know of a way to integrate PERL CGI scripts into the HTML file like ya do with PHP or ASP, cos my Uni project is really pissing me off... :)

[SonicYoof]

if we're gonna get into the "best language" thing then its gotta be JSP - pisses all over ASP and PHP...

Still, JSP is not the easiest thing to get going on a remote server but tomcat (apache Servlet Engine) is not too bad. I like PHP though, but it's strictly small time.

[Hades]

Small time, except it's used all over the place, even running these msgboards :)

[Ch®ØÑïC]

how hard is php ?

[WildWayz]

PHP isn't hard to be honest.
It is very much like C++ in terms of structure - but after you learn one language, you can adapt to them all.

--WildWayz

[Gwil Da Skank Of TA]

MAD>DOG part deux - If I were you I'd get your facts straight before you start saying all that about ASP, unless you want to be blown out the water by people who know both, and KNOW PHP is the best option.

WildWayz- Similar to C++? Thats pretty cool, as I'm just tackling c++ and my next idea was to shift onto PHP, so it could help immensely :)

:E

[Godin]

who said you have to code the PERL and HTML seperate? You *can* get away with a load of include files, just used slightly diff to the ones in PHP, or just use a load of multiline prints which try to tick you off when you indent the close marker and it doesnt work :)

[Godin]

prolly shoulda rolled this into other post but nerre mind, but as for the structure of PHP I'd say its more like PERL (which ok, is closeish to C++) in its overall structure, but they all come from the same root, c, anyway.