code help

[fullyscintilla]

I'm obviously a complete moron. I can write just about anything you want in PHP but for some reason. everytime I come to this website.. Everything I say is wrong.

 

Funny how nothing you guys ever mention is on any tutorials or any W3 school reference.

 

So if you could point me in direction of the place you learned from I'd appreciate it.

[Ken2k7]

Loaded question. You'll pick on. Just don't give up. If there is something specific you need help with, we can help. And yes, PHP has classes. Read up on PHP OOP (OOP = Object-Oriented Programming).

[fullyscintilla]

I know what object oriented programming is.. and i've never heard anything about classes in PHP i've been using it for 4yrs now

 

not saying it doesn't exist but wouldn't u think i'd of had to use it before?

[Ken2k7]

You don't have to use PHP OOP. Procedural PHP works just fine. Look at Wordpress. It's built in procedural PHP. I think Drupal is as well.

[DarkSuperHero]

yeah this website has some tutorials on POOP (PHP Object Oriented Programming) :-P just thought id have a little fun there... :-)

 

I find it that always having a nice challenge to work on keeps me going...I recently picked up a book that covered some OOP, Design patterns, and the Standard PHP Library in PHP5 :-)

 

Cheers!

[Garethp]

I used the W3Schools tutorial to start with, then I googled whatever I needed to know, then I asked some friends to go over the code I wrote and suggest ways to make it better, then I looked at the PHP manual for whatever I needed to know, then I came here and looked at how other people solved problems. Moral of the story: There's no one learning source, but everyone you speak to knows something you might not know. Look, listen, ask.

[.josh]

I'm obviously a complete moron. I can write just about anything you want in PHP but for some reason. everytime I come to this website.. Everything I say is wrong.

 

So do your homework before saying something.  This is a php help board, and a php help forum, not a "I want to whine because someone told me I'm wrong" forum.

 

Funny how nothing you guys ever mention is on any tutorials or any W3 school reference.

 

Maybe it's because most tutorials out there are very poorly written.  Funny how we show up as #1 in organic search on "php help" on google.  It's obviously because you're right and we're wrong. 

 

So if you could point me in direction of the place you learned from I'd appreciate it.

 

www.php.net

 

actual experience.

 

I know what object oriented programming is.. and i've never heard anything about classes in PHP i've been using it for 4yrs now

 

not saying it doesn't exist but wouldn't u think i'd of had to use it before?

 

4 years programming in php and you've never heard of classes in php? seriously?

 

p.s.-

 

Thread closed (because you're breaking the rules by posting this garbage here, not because I'm picking on you).

 

edit: nevermind I'm moving it to misc. section.  Open, for now.  Post a legitimate bitch or it will be closed for real.

[PugJr]

Wow, crayon violet! That was sorta harsh!

[roopurt18]

CV isn't being harsh until someone is missing an appendage.

[.josh]

Wow, crayon violet! That was sorta harsh!

 

well you know what this isn't the first thread he claimed he was being "picked on" and I'm tired of hearing his whining.  Seriously, take off your little sister's jeans, I can hear your balls screaming all the way over here.

[PugJr]

Well, possibly you could give him a test to see if he can:

 

 

I can write just about anything you want in PHP but for some reason.

 

First off see if he has any creditablity. You never know, right?

 

 

EDIT: CV, did you really learn from php.net?

[PugJr]

Argh, the edit button went away!  :'(

 

 

Okay...Anyways CV, I just read his previous posts and now I see why you acted the way you did. He said he wanted to slit his throat. No one likes an emo.

[DarkSuperHero]

hahahahahaha, train derailed.....

 

anyways...

php.net is great, although when I started off php.net seemed so wierd and just not the friendliest to learn from so I shyed away from it for a while....it became my friend after I became more familiar with it! :-) Hooray for that... :-)

[roopurt18]

Documentation is always your friend.

[Daniel0]

EDIT: CV, did you really learn from php.net?

 

It boggles my mind why so many people always skip the most obvious choice when they want to learn PHP.

[GingerRobot]

EDIT: CV, did you really learn from php.net?

 

It boggles my mind why so many people always skip the most obvious choice when they want to learn PHP.

 

To be fair, the PHP manual is exceptionally good as documentation goes -- i bet it's quite a lot easier to learn from than most. I think there's a temptation to assume that official documentation is very difficult to understand and it's much easier to learn from someone else's 'translation' of it. On the other hand, being able to learn from documentation is definitely a good skill to develop.

[PugJr]

It boggles my mind why so many people always skip the most obvious choice when they want to learn PHP.

 

Primarily intimidation, secondarily, most (All?) new programmers don't want to read every detail about a language. They want to start off on the easy stuff. Now would going to php.net and looking through documentation be easier or harder than lets say having a guide that gives step by step on what people actually want to know?

 

I'm not saying I'm good or anything at PHP but just from my experience and what I've done and how little I've read of actual PHP documentation, I can still do a few things. I've probably avoided 99.9% of it. Is it really that bad? Sure, I could've missed something important here or there, but you can sum it up pretty well.

 

To sum up my post to those who don't like to read: New people don't want to be fully entrenched in the language. They want to start off simple. php.net from what I found is not simple. Just my take on it atleast.

[Daniel0]

If people read the "Language Reference", "Security" and "Features" chapters in the manual they will posses most of the information they need.

 

This is the first thing they will read: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phpmode.php

 

You will find language like this: "This is the simplest type. A boolean expresses a truth value. It can be either TRUE or FALSE." (http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php)

 

It's written in an easily comprehensible language, and if you have a decent understanding of the English language you should have no trouble understanding it. Hell, it's even translated to numerous other languages: "Este es el tipo más simple. Un boolean expresa un valor de verdad. Puede ser TRUE or FALSE." (http://www.php.net/manual/es/language.types.boolean.php), "C'est le type le plus simple. Un booléen représente une valeur de vérité. Il peut valoir TRUE ou FALSE." (http://www.php.net/manual/fr/language.types.boolean.php)

[waynewex]

Well, if you put yourself in the shoes of a beginner, it's easy to see why one might sway away from using the PHP manual as their learning source.

 

1: The header of the site looks like shit. Sorry. But it does. It won't win any awards for being aesthetically welcoming.

2: When you arrive on the homepage, you're met with a wall of text, with the link to the documentation being a small 75% font size. Way to "shout look at me."

3: There are just too many things to click on. It forces the user to think, which is a pretty bad thing in regards to usability.

 

I understand that php.net is not just a learning source and that it has to cater for more than just documentation. I do agree that the documentation is first grade; and I do use it myself. It's just that I don't blame the beginner programmer for avoiding the site as it's not so hard to see why it might overwhelm them. 

[Daniel0]

Well, but if you have a problem with something, the obvious choice should be to consult the documentation. If you purchase a TV and you cannot figure out how to use it, do you go searching on the internet for tutorials "how to use TV" or do you consult the manual that came with your TV?

[.josh]

 

EDIT: CV, did you really learn from php.net?

 

yes.

 

but to be fair, PHP is not the first time I've ever touched programming. 

 

But on the other hand, one of the first languages I ever learned was qbasic (technically i learned some gwbasic before that, but I don't really count that beyond getting my feet wet). I was like 6 years old.  My dad used to take me to his work (he worked as an editor for a newspaper) and I would sit there doing nothing all day but there was a computer at the desk I sat at and I knew basic DOS commands and I found qbasic and I started learning straight from the help section.  I opened up the index, started at 'A' and went down the list.

 

Did I know what everything was automatically? No.  Did I know the "bigger picture" and how things are more or less useful when working with other things or being used at certain times? No.  A 6 year old CV started out valuing the simple things like hey cool! I can make a pixel show up on the screen by doing pset!  But then it progresses from there.  Writing out 100 psets for 100 pixels made way to loops by the time I got to 'F'. 

 

25 years later, I know what to look for in a manual.  I know how to use a manual.  Admittedly, most manuals are shitty.  At best, they have the details, but they are presented in a way by authors who assume you know it to begin with.  But as many have stated, PHP has an exceptional manual.  Shows the format of a function. What it expects, what it will return, what happens if it doesn't get what it expects, tons of user contributed notes, clarifications, code snippets exploiting it or working around limitations, writing prev. version workarounds, etc... seriously, can you ask for anything more?

 

But that's obviously not an issue or exception in this case, since OP has been programming for 4 years, does it for a living, and can program anything  under the sun, right?

[waynewex]

Well, but if you have a problem with something, the obvious choice should be to consult the documentation. If you purchase a TV and you cannot figure out how to use it, do you go searching on the internet for tutorials "how to use TV" or do you consult the manual that came with your TV?

 

A little bit of a false analogy. You wont find entire independent websites dedicated to the setting up of one television.

[Ken2k7]

Not a false analogy, but certainly not a good one.

[Daniel0]

I think it's a fine analogy. You don't know how to use X, so you ask someone who has experience with X instead of consulting X's manual. X can be PHP, your new TV or anything else that has a manual and people do not have an innate knowledge of. Point being that consulting X's manual should always be your first course of action. Moreover, you cannot determine the difficulty of understanding the manual without having ever looked at it.

 

An analogy is "a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects" (dictionary.com). No, there are probably no websites dedicated to teaching how to setup a TV, but that wasn't the thing that was drawn upon as a similarity, so the fact that TVs and PHP are distinct in that respect doesn't invalidate the analogy.