I need advice for learning php

[silverglade]

  I am stuck in a situation. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The php books I get only teach me very basic building blocks of the language, but when I take those little things I know and try to make something like this

 

http://www.sitepoint.com/php-gallery-system-minutes/

 

I have no idea what any of it means. The tutorials are either too simple, bad, or too hard. The books I have are decent but only teach you these few little building blocks. I want to learn php but I don't know how to continue. Between the books and tutorials I am basically stuck. In math, there is a smooth transition from beginner to advanced, spelled out logically, there are no hidden tutorials, it is all there. Programming is not like that. You have to search all over for this little tidbit and that little tidbit, and try to learn from books that do not give you the whole picture like a math book does.

 

I think I might not be learning php because as a science , the information to learn it is totally disorganized and scattered in pieces in tons of books and all over the internet. Even if I read the whole PHP.net manual, I still would not be able to know how to build an image gallery without someone telling me how. Is that true though?

[KevinM1]

Tutorials are generally a bad way to learn as they're often only concerned with creating a certain thing.  They're not designed to teach you how to program, but rather only to complete a certain task.  It's like expecting to be able to build a house when all you've learned is how to build a table.  The same goes for the PHP manual, which has value in showcasing the parts of the language, but not much in terms of script/site design or best practices.

 

So, how do you learn to do it?  Solid resources (good books) and lots of practice, all while being plugged into the community for guidance.  And, programming does build on itself like math.  Primitive types -> arrays -> functions -> objects.  Conditionals -> loops.

 

For books, here are the three I used.  Read them in order:

 

PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (4th Edition)

 

PHP 5: Objects, Patterns, and Practice

 

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object Oriented Software

 

They're not all-encompassing, but they, along with constant practice and research on your end, will get you comfortable with PHP and basic OOP.

[Wilio1]

From personal experience, the only way I get to understand PHP and get to learn new stuff is with projects. Simply said, I start a random project for the sake of it and learn the language at the same time. So far, the only resources I have used are some fellow friends and the PHP manual.

 

I do not know about tutorial books, but the post above me is probably correct about it.

[Zane]

[silverglade]

Thank you very much Nightslyr Wilio1, I was sure I was going to get flamed for that post because of my whining, but I honestly am at the end of my rope with this. LOL. I even paid for lessons and since we focused on projects, I spent over a thousand dollars not learning how to program, but learning specific projects that would leave me lost. Nightslyr you are so right about learning from tutorials and the building analogy. Thank you very much for posting those books, that gives me some hope. I am going to get them asap. Thank you Wilio for your feedback too. And thanks to the forum for not flaming me. Thanks. :)