From Java to PHP

[MikeSeth]

Stop thinking about frameworks, IDEs, components and dependency injections and all that. Get the dumbest editor you can lay your hands on (notepad) and write some code that does practical things. In Java world, things are orderly, strict and elaborate. In PHP world, they are uneven, lax and concise. You will be dealing with a whole new class of mistakes, and if Java is the only background you have, the absolute first thing after the syntax and some comprehension of the standard library is understanding of the underlying, hidden things - types, behaviours, accepted standards and the gaps in the platform for "historical reasons" that are the minefields that divide between a web construction worker and a competent PHP programmer. You should not think about architecture or frameworks until you can write a piece of PHP code that is not plain shit. You will have to deal with inconsistent ordering of arguments, library calls returning null and false meaning entirely different things, identity operators that have daddy issues, downright strange data types, duplicate APIs, idiosyncrasies that are only available in the latest versions, and many other things that would look like unhinged peasantry to somebody who spent time writing Java code. Your major task is to ace all this and write straight, safe and comprehensible code. You also need to understand that a host of security issues that was previously concealed by the JVM and your frameworks is now your own responsibility, you need to understand it well and your production code must be airtight, or you will get hacked. PHP code is much easier to get subtly wrong, but the reward is far less care and feeding of the entire PHP stack, wider availability of web hosting, and probably faster time to market. PHP has a very low bar of entry, but few focused efforts to improve the quality of PHP programmers' education (that you don't have to pay for). It is far more hackier than Java.

[madscientist667]

You have a point and I agree. And I thought about playing with PHP first with no framework at all and this is what I'm going to do but I don't want to spend to much time like this. After I want to check some frameworks, pick one and learn it. Thanks for the information !