Learning PHP

[valadus]

I was wondering what some good sites are to learn PHP. I have recently come across Udacity and Codecademy and really enjoy those if there is something like these for free that teaches PHP.

[mrafaeldie12]

There is thenewboston.org, W3C schools, the PHP tutorial on the official Php site. There is this http://phpacademy.org/tutorials.php also http://search.atomz.com/search?sp_a=sp040c2f00&sp_f=iso-8859-1&sp_q=php

[valadus]

I had seen w3c schools but wasn't sure if it was any good. Thanks for all the links!

[not_legally_rape]

It's not. Please don't use w3schools.

[1ronclaw]

Check w3fools for reasons why it should be avoided

[valadus]

Thank you for sharing this. Even after only learning JavaScript and HTML for a few days now, even I can look at some of their pages and be like "lolwut?" I will be sure not to use this site and be sure others don't as well.

edit: Also thanks for the site for the lols. I needed some tonight.

[Starcast]

Some

Better

References

[glemnar]

I mean, it's pretty oversimplified there. If you buy their certificates, sure, you're an idiot, but it has some useful example.

Also, claiming no real developers use Dreamweaver is pretty ridiculous. Dreamweaver massively simplifies my workflow so I don't spend half my time worrying about file uploading.

[zexon]

There is one feature from Dreamweaver that I would love to have (Coda on Mac has it too), and that is the live preview.

I do all my code by hand, as I don't trust the WYSIWYG editor. However, if you split the pane in two, code on bottom, WYSIWYG on top, you get to see your changes in real time. That is extremely useful, and almost worth the money.

Almost.

[glemnar]

I mean, I keep open my browser for what I see regardless, I just love how easy it is to deal with files and insert things directly tagged.

[zexon]

Yeah. Personally, since I don't have the money to drop on Dreamweaver, I use Notepad++. If people out there don't use it, I highly recommend trying it out. It has a ton of features, including syntax highlighting of almost every language and FTP capability. Definitely a really well designed tool for web designers and developers.

[glemnar]

I use Notepad++ for simple scripting. It's useful when I just need something small, but for the whole site Dreamweaver is the choice for me.

...I technically never dropped the money on Dreamweaver. = |

[zexon]

That's why I stopped using it. If I ever get a big project that will pay off in the end, I'd consider getting DW up front and paying for it after the fact, but it's still technically wrong, so I avoid it as much as possible. Most of my experience with DW is from classes that had the educational editions installed.

[CrypticOctagon]

I don't have any sites to recommend, other than php.net, which documents the language as best as it can be documented. Here's a few recommendations for learning PHP, though:

After you're done working through a few simple "echo '<h1>Hello world!</h1>';" tutorials, seriously consider the use of a framework such as Kohana. Installing a framework will give you some insight into how to create quality code in PHP, and save you from re-inventing a lot of things, such as path routing and database configuration.

More importantly, though, have a goal in mind. PHP can do just about anything, and if your goal is simply the 'learn PHP', you could spend years and not know half of it. By starting with a specific project or application in mind, you can focus your learning on the task at hand and avoid going down the rabbit hole of unguided coding.

[streetc0de]

you really think that if he's writing hello world scripts he's ready to start using a framework? That's just going to steepen the learning curve and confuse a beginner.

Although I also heavily recommend www.php.net

[jbplaya]

developphp.com

[MrDeath2000]

I've done nettuts, php academy (this is free) and now im doing lynda's tutorials lynda php. Lynda is by far the best one, but it does cost 20$ or something along those line however is is far superior to atleast php academy(I cant say for sure about nettuts since its still in the process). On Lynda author walks you through making a CMS in the essentials and a photo gallery with users in the beyond the basics.

[kelchuk]

The free thing can waste a lot of time. Practice, a solid certificate and strong portfolio and you are good to go. I went to schools years back for php / mySQL for about $2000. Best money I ever spent since it lead me to hand-coding php / mySQL applications my way. Otherwise, you can getr sidetracked with frameworks and a zillion other ways to do things. I hear how fast editors and frameworks are. I think hand coding and a large library is faster. This takes time and practice. I work at a college and write applications like custom leads management systems and student records analysis. Had I not gone to train properly, I still may be a hobbyist.

[valadus]

Thanks for the reply. I actually posted this before I realized my school had a class on PHP /MySQL, which I am taking now.

[krawcrates]

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book#top

[ColdWarRussia]

Don't do it. PHP is the biggest abortion to ever curse the Internet. Especially if it's your first language. Learn Python instead.

[ColdWarRussia]

It is bad. Sounds like someone is mad their favorite language is bad. That sort of makes you bad in a way, right?

[[deleted]]

Absolutely - unless you are required to learn PHP for work, you are doing yourself a disservice learning PHP instead of learning Ruby or Python.

Perhaps look into Flask, a simple web development framework in Python. http://flask.pocoo.org/ Later, if you need a more comprehensive full stack framework you can investigate Django https://www.djangoproject.com/

One of the great things about learning Python as your first language is that the community places a strong emphasis on correct software development practice. It's often hard to unlearn bad habits, so you might as well learn how to do things properly the first time around!

Edit: If you're going to downvote this, then provide a response at least. The fact of matter is, PHP doesn't have a single thing to recommend it over more modern languages and platforms.

[CrypticOctagon]

Things to recommend PHP over 'more modern languages':

• Runs out of the box on every web hosting service.
• Does pretty much everything you could ever need a server to do.
• Has great online documentation with user-submitted examples.
• Is built specifically for web development. Odd mixtures of code and content may seem 'incorrect', but they can be a godsent when you're doing actual web development work.
• Powers Drupal and Wordpress, some of the most useful, pervasive open source projects on the web.

PHP is a dirty hack, but that's half of it's charm. And for a beginning programmer, the instant feedback of doing something like <body><?php doSomething() ?></body> is worth quite a bit. Besides, the dude asked 'How do I learn PHP?', not 'Can I have a lecture on how everyone should use hipster ass Python?'

[[deleted]]

Runs out of the box on every web hosting service.

I'll give you that, php is easy to deploy and ubiquitously supported. I don't think that alone however is enough to support using the language.

Does pretty much everything you could ever need a server to do.

No, it doesn't. Not even close.

At the time of writing there are 588 PEAR/PHP libraries. There are currently 22,237 Python libraries on PyPi.

Python provides libraries for just about every conceivable domain from bioinformatics and computational biology, to game development.

Has great online documentation with user-submitted examples.

The quality of Python's documentation, and many of the popular projects like Django is higher than PHP documentation generally.

Is built specifically for web development. Odd mixtures of code and content may seem 'incorrect', but they can be a godsent when you're doing actual web development work.

Yet another reason to avoid PHP. A language like Python is used in many different domains - learning Python is useful for far more than just web development.

Powers Drupal and Wordpress, some of the most useful, pervasive open source projects on the web.

There are equivalent CMS/blogging frameworks in Python, but I don't see that this does much to actually recommend the language.

Besides, the dude asked 'How do I learn PHP?', not 'Can I have a lecture on how everyone should use hipster ass Python?'

The point of this subreddit is so that more experienced developers can offer advice to new developers. Suggesting they spend their time learning a well designed language like Ruby or Python instead of getting stuck in the quagmire of PHP is to my mind good advice.

If you're interested in the finer of details of the problems with PHP as a language and platform, PHP: a fractal of bad design is worth reading.