raymor

Some extremely capable people didn't have much schooling. Although I have piles of comp sci and security related textbooks around here, my schooling was actually in law, not comp.sci or security. I'm not putting down people without formal schooling.

What I am saying is simply that PHP has allowed a lot of people to do a little scripting and the web and adult in particular doesn't always distinguish between people who picked up some PHP vs qualified software engineers. To design software well, you almost have to have experience with at least one high level language and one low level. To design scalable software, you need to know systems. Database architecture is a science itself, which includes relational algebra and calculus as subcomponents. If you're self taught, cool. I'm largely self taught in that I read the books and I speak with the experts independent of any college class. The books I read include the works of Codd and Date because in order to use relational databases PROFESSIONALLY, you need to understand relational algebra. To design them correctly, you need to know relational calculus. How you learn it doesn't matter, but these things make the difference between a professional and an amateur.

PHP reminds me of Lego. Like PHP, Lego is easy and you can build cool stuff with Lego, without knowing much about mechanical engineering. Just don't confuse a Lego device with a professionally fabricated item.

__________________
For historical display only. This information is not current:
support@bettercgi.com ICQ 7208627
Strongbox - The next generation in site security
Throttlebox - The next generation in bandwidth control
Clonebox - Backup and disaster recovery on steroids