How to learn it

[imhere2009]

Hey all guys

Im a great fan of phpfreaks, and have been around here for quite some time.
Now i have just started to learn php again, after many attempts, though
this time im deturmined to do it. the point of this post is simple, how did you all progress
when you was learning php, what i mean by that is, i am or have learned about basic
variables, and variables variables, and constants, and im just starting to learn loops, etc
from a video tutorial, but with php there is so much to take in, how do you keep it all fresh,
so when you are learning, how did you do it so you remember things? and how did you go
about creating your own programs etc.

Any information regarding php and the like, would be much appreciated.

Thanks
steve

[wizzkid]

[!--quoteo(post=387551:date=Jun 24 2006, 03:29 PM:name=imhere2009)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(imhere2009 @ Jun 24 2006, 03:29 PM) [snapback]387551[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
Hey all guys

Im a great fan of phpfreaks, and have been around here for quite some time.
Now i have just started to learn php again, after many attempts, though
this time im deturmined to do it. the point of this post is simple, how did you all progress
when you was learning php, what i mean by that is, i am or have learned about basic
variables, and variables variables, and constants, and im just starting to learn loops, etc
from a video tutorial, but with php there is so much to take in, how do you keep it all fresh,
so when you are learning, how did you do it so you remember things? and how did you go
about creating your own programs etc.

Any information regarding php and the like, would be much appreciated.

Thanks
steve
[/quote]

Hi! glad you have an interest with PHP.

First you need this programs
Apache(windows or Linux) or IIS (windows)
PHP
mySQL

then I suggest you to get this book "PHP for world wide web - by Larry Ullman" I am a newbie to PHP too :)

Good luck!

[imhere2009]

[!--quoteo(post=387557:date=Jun 24 2006, 04:01 PM:name=wizzkid)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(wizzkid @ Jun 24 2006, 04:01 PM) [snapback]387557[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
Hi! glad you have an interest with PHP.

First you need this programs
Apache(windows or Linux) or IIS (windows)
PHP
mySQL

then I suggest you to get this book "PHP for world wide web - by Larry Ullman" I am a newbie to PHP too :)

Good luck!
[/quote]

Thanks for your reply, though i think you misunderstood. let me clerify myself.
I have apache,mysql,php installed and everything running, like i said i am a newbie at php
and slowly learning, but what i want to know is, how do you keep all the info you learned fresh in your head
and how do you go about starting new projects, etc.

Thanks
Steve

[Koobi]

i'm moving this from the PHP Help forum because it does not belong there.




:Edit:
to answer your question, i believe you have to make it a habit to code as often as possible.
i didn't touch PHP for about 3-4 months towards the end of last year and i forgot a lot of the function names, syntax's, etc but once i started coding again, it all came back to me.

so just try and make coding a habit and start a simple and personal php project on your own. something you would really enjoy coding. that will make you want to learn new things or new ways in which to do the same thing and you might develop little tricks of your own.

[.josh]

yes. the key to keeping it fresh in your mind is by constantly doing it. the old axiom "out of sight, out of mind" is true even for php. Also, actively reading the posts in the php help section and trying to sit down and come up with the answers is a great way to learn, and also keep your skills sharp. If you do a search, you will notice that I very rarely ask my own questions, but instead, I do a lot of trying to help. It helps me learn and stay sharp. Many times I will open a thread, read the question, and have no idea how to solve it off-hand. So I do some research, do some testing of my own, and come up with the answer. Doing this has helped me retain php know-how and learn much more than any of the tutorials or books i've ever read on the subject. And it has the added bonus of you know, giving back to the community.

[bilis_money]

just practice! :)

cheers.

[Uranium-235]

I first learned C in high school. It taugh be some of the basics behind the loops (though theres a few other kinds of loops in PHP that make things easier)

I hated C's strictness, and difficulty with strings. I learned how to script for the PC game 'tribes', and someone told me how similar it was to PHP (which I never really heard before)

I got a book and learned, a bit.

I at first found myself constently going to the book for help, but that slowed down and eventually stopped. Then I started going to PHP's main site to look up functions, structures, and hints from vets who leave all kinds of little ways of showing you how to do things. Over time, it just becomes second nature, you memorize the differnt functions, they're usage, and how to solve problems using them. As you go on, your code becomes more efficient, and more secure. You can also look over other peoples code who distributes it, and how they do things, that can help you figure how easier ways of processing database data, forms, external web data, etc.

heres some tips from me to you:

be weary of using globals: [a href=\"http://us3.php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php\" target=\"_blank\"]http://us3.php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php[/a]

for forms that submit with a post operation, get the data form $_POST['name'] or $HTTP_POST_VARS['name']

when you're creating a web interface for manipulating database information. When you setup the database, be sure to set up an auto-incrimented ID based system, and pass that ID into your scripts, instead some other field. In this case, I find it a good idea to use the is_numeric function to check the ID before you put it into a query, prevents possible sql exploits

[Daniel0]

1. Read tutorials
2. Code a lot
3. Look at other code to see how things are done

That's the way I learned it.

[beezm]

http://www.php.net/
Best manual available, hands down.

Start with some projects where you know for a fact you dont know how to do/complete every aspect needed to finish the project. By doing this you force yourself to go out and learn how to do  new things you didn't know how to do before. This is probably the most effcient way to learn IMO.

[Barand]

My approach is to read the manual, be it a language or a word processing package. (Mainly because my manager is too stingy to send me on courses. Users get the training, I get the manual then have to support them.)

But don't try to remember it all, just get a feel for what the package/language can do. Then when you need to do something ... "AH, I remember reading something about that" then look it up. That's what the manual is for.

I constantly refer to the php manual when answering questions here, especially with search functions which are never consistent with their arguments. Is it functionname(needle, haystack) or functionname(haystack, needle) ?

Don't be afraid to throw yourself in at the deep-end and try to build an application that you need. OK, it won't be perfect but so long as it works... I think almost every program I've written I'd do differently if I had the time to do it again. That's what the learning process is about, finding better ways to do things.