Derleek Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I am a amateur(ish) web-developer and i'm really trying to take my skills to the next level. I have a rather scattered set of skills and I'm just trying to figure out how to consolidate and take advantage of what I know. I have a general grasp of PHP/MySQL/Javscript/CSS/XML(little practicle experience in XML though) and a little bit of flash in addition to what kind of role each of these plays. I have been floating between PHP/mysql and Javascript for the last year. Recently I have been swinging back toward PHP... the PHPfreaks object oriented programming tutorial has definitely caught my eye. The only problem is that the further I dive into this tutorial the more little bits of PHP that I am unfamiliar with appear. Its not that I don't get those concepts/operations its just that I feel like there is SO many little things that I am not taking advantage of (References are a good example). I guess my question is - What else am I missing? What I know: All of the syntactical basics: essentially the boring stuff. operators, functions, loops... . PHP's more robust features: Date(), Files, uploading, Cookies, sessions. MySQL DB essentials: Creating, Querying, formatting... Although I could most definitely improve in this area, most likely in DB efficiency and some of the more complex/advanced features of MySQL. Basically I can get by with my DB skills, anything I'm having trouble with I can typically troubleshoot fairly quickly. Basics of Object Oriented Programming(OOP) w/ PHP: I have no actual experience coding anything complex, but I can read/understand the beginnings of OOP in php. Where I feel I need improvement: OOP: I know there is still much to learn in this area. Overloading is currently confusing me (although I'm starting to grasp it). A lot of the little functions: I know many of the more eccentric functions of PHP are rarely used - But i feel like there is a lot of little things I'm missing. The problem is that I took a rather haphazard approach in learning this language, so I don't know what I'm missing or even IF i'm missing anything essential. Security: definitely need to check out the PHPfreaks security tutorial... Various odd's and ends not relating to PHP: I feel like this is where I have the most urgent need to learn. I just don't feel as comfortable as I should in this environment. Essentially I'd like to know more about the entire web-development field. The problem is I don't have any clue what else I should learn or more specifically where to start. I know I'm long-winded so thanks to anyone who takes the time to read through all of this. Seriously... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zq29 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Various odd's and ends not relating to PHP: I feel like this is where I have the most urgent need to learn. I just don't feel as comfortable as I should in this environment. Essentially I'd like to know more about the entire web-development field. The problem is I don't have any clue what else I should learn or more specifically where to start. I'd suggest you grab yourself a Linux (server / GUI-less) distribution and familiarise yourself with Apache configuration and administration; software installation; basic commands etc. There have been multiple occasions where I have needed to SSH into one of our production servers to install something like ImageMagick, Sphinx or some Perl module; set-up some cron jobs; tweak a MySQL configuration or whatever. There are other things, like getting beyond the basics of Regular Expressions, which also helps when you're learning how to use the mod_rewrite Apache module. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derleek Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 I'd suggest you grab yourself a Linux (server / GUI-less) distribution and familiarise yourself with Apache configuration and administration; software installation; basic commands etc. -thanks, I will do that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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