Learning PHP

[mr_badger]

I'm a trained graphic designer but know a bit about web design and want to make web design my career. My real interest is in the way how a web page looks but really want to learn everything about web design including php&mysql. I have bought about 8 books on php and have done the tutorials in the books but I would love to be able to create things without using  the tutorials in books, my question is what is the best method of learning php.

Do i just keep doing the tutorials over and over again until one day I just don't need the books or is there another way of learning php?

[redbullmarky]

get your hands dirty.

you can read books on how to fix a car, but only when you open up the bonnet do you learn how to REALLY do it.

 

i personally skipped the books stage and just downloaded a copy of phpBB to see how a forum works, then just tried bits and pieces of my own out. I always say that PHP is FAR more powerful than the results (ie, HTML) - so it's just about looking at a HTML page and working backwards bit by bit in terms of what you want to achieve - rather than getting baffled with millions of other functions that you wont need yet. When you need PHP to do something beyond your knowledge, that's when it's time to hit the books (or Google/tutorials) again - and odds are, there'll be a function sitting there waiting to be learnt that'll do a job for you.

 

if you're going down the tutorial road, dont just type them in and let it be. find one that's relevent to what you want to achieve (for example, a blog tutorial). try and figure out exactly what it's doing. change things around to see the difference. add things to it. take things away. trial and error.

 

most of all, be patient.

[dustinnoe]

Just think of a few projects you want to do and do them.  Your code will be very crude to start with but that's OK.  As you learn just keep updating your projects.  I have been using php for almost 4 years and I am constantly going back through my projects and updating code as I learn. 

 

Whenever you have questions you can use your books for reference but the best are places like this forum.

[Daniel0]

I'd have to agree with the two previous posts. Start coding. Also, when/if reading (online) tutorials: Do not copy and paste the code, you should rather type out the code as it is much better than just looking at it. IMO it will give you a better understanding of how the typed code works.

[Nameless12]

I'm a trained graphic designer but know a bit about web design and want to make web design my career. My real interest is in the way how a web page looks but really want to learn everything about web design including php&mysql. I have bought about 8 books on php and have done the tutorials in the books but I would love to be able to create things without using  the tutorials in books, my question is what is the best method of learning php.

Do i just keep doing the tutorials over and over again until one day I just don't need the books or is there another way of learning php?

 

Do you want to learn to code or do you want to learn how to get results with php?? If you want results then just use other ppls code, if you are willing to invest the time to learn properly then I would say learn the concepts first then test them out, then learn more to add to it. The hardest part I found as a beginner was putting stuff into context you need to understand as opposed to just reading the words in the book, you get that understanding through a three step process.

 

1. learn a subject\concept or come up with some idea for a project

2. write the code for #1

3. redo #2 over and over and over

 

Try to make it code perfect as possible so you see the ways that something can be improved. When you start to see the ways something could be improved and understanding why as opposed to repeating it out of some tutorial\book\teacher, this is when you start to make some real progress.

[Liquid Fire]

Just think of a few projects you want to do and do them.  Your code will be very crude to start with but that's OK.  As you learn just keep updating your projects.  I have been using php for almost 4 years and I am constantly going back through my projects and updating code as I learn. 

 

Whenever you have questions you can use your books for reference but the best are places like this forum.

 

That is so true.  I started a job as an entry level php developer.  In the past few weeks I gone back to do reports i have written and when i look at them i don't know why the hell i wrote it like i did.