programmers - where do you get your education
 

all you php programmers, where the fuck do you learn all this?

i want to learn php.. save me a shit load of money, plus could make good money scripting sites

At home & internet

I have this book :1orglaugh

point proven :winkwink:

self taught.

PHP.net
http://www.sitepoint.com

some books, and free time :D

you serious

wow.. if its that easy why do we throw money at these coders

I learnt when I was about 9-10 - did 6502 assembler then basic. Eventually studied it at Uni about 12 years ago.

I think the best way to learn is pick up the basics by working through one of those quick starter books and then set yourself a small project.

lol, you're not a programmer because you can script a little.

...and you're not a webmaster because you post on a webmaster forum.

php is a very easy language to pick up. There are some useful functions that can be used by just about anyone.

As you use these simple functions, you'll run into issues or other things that you may want to add. So you look for a function that does exactly what you need.

my advice, is to self teach yourself. I use to always hire php programmers and get burned in the end (flakes). But, just from self editing php scripts, using google, and sites like php.net and phpfreaks.com forum i was able to learn a shit load of php coding on my own. I'm probably at intermid. lvl now, and have been learning off and on for about a year.

I was able to pick up php/mysql, javascript, improve my xhtml/css skills and become better at tweaking and performance managing servers; in a year.

oh and get a good php ide i use phpDesigner 2008, the error checking and interface is really good.

thanks bro

because we're lazy and think its hard to learn ourselves. i know i've spent close to $10k on programmers. right now i think i'm a lot better than most of the php programmers I hired mainly because I'm able to think outside of the box and i won't flake out on myself.

http://www.php.net/echo
http://www.php.net/foreach
http://www.php.net/file_get_contents

Amen bro, sitepoint was the start of my PHP career :)

if you know any programming language C++, C# u will find PHP easy to understand....

don't forget http://www.php.net/if the if statement is the backbone to all php scripts, well pretty much all.

Because of the thousands of hours of coding it takes to actually become a good programmer.

Self taught. Years and years of just doing stuff, plus looking at other people's code.

However, I've learned it's more than just being able to "echo ('Hello world');", or even use and modify currently available code for your own purposes. It's one thing to be able to take examples from a tutorial and make them work; or even tweak them a bit to make them work a bit differently. It's a complete different thing to look at a problem and build a solution for it: using available resources, using custom resources, and especially, debugging.

Egos aside, saying it's easy to be a programmer is like saying it's easy to be a designer. Anyone saying that is full of shit. I know my limits and I know there's always a better solution / someone better; just as I know I can't and shouldn't design even though I've read a couple of design articles and can put shit together in Photoshop / GIMP and turn it out in HTML & CSS.

Sorry... [/rant].

Bioinformatics.

www.php.net/manual read that daily, inside and out, and reference it 24/7.

any other good books other than php for dummies?

i could read up on it online but id rather have a book that i can read while im taking a shit

Depends on what your goals are. The vast majority of projects that the average webmaster would want to do can be accomplished with only a very basic understanding of PHP. This is really easy stuff and I don't understand why every webmaster doesn't know it by now.

Most really good programmers are self taught, and learned because they were actually interested in programming as a hobby.

A very basic understanding of php means you can edit existing scripts and create quick, dirty hacks to keep things working. However, even with slightly larger projects lack of knowledge quickly creates major problems. Security problems in many cases - the worst kind of problems possible.

PHP Manual is all you need as it has everything about it. Aside from it if you really want to get into programming read up as much as you can on OOP (object oriented programming) and design patterns.

No, a basic understanding means being able to pull your site content from a database, do your own comment scripts, ad scripts, etc... Shit, a PHP noob could probably code their own social site. This stuff is so easy.

bo$$ - other than you starting yet another "ego programming" thread, what's the best way you learn? Perhaps that'll help with suggestions.

Personally, I don't think sitting down on the shitter with some programming book will help you learn. Then again, I've figured a ton of stuff out thinking (after having learned stuff) while dropping plops, so maybe a bathroom book will do you fine.

This is probably the best answer that you will ever find to your question.

The best swimmers learned because they really loved being in the water first.

Excelling at something is not simply a matter of taking a class. It is a true love of and a sincere interest in exploring what you are doing.

The best programmers are self taught because they love and are fascinated by what they can do.

Best regards,

Archer

ego programming?

what the fuck is that even supposed to mean?

yall gfy posters are fucking wierd...

I disagree. The best programmers are those who love and are fascinated by it and went for formal education in computer science/engineering. Learning things by yourself is quite alright but you're missing out on a lot of theory that comes in handy very rarely but when it does, sets you apart from others. :2 cents:

Find a small free script, like a news system. Pull it apart then rewrite it yourself. Best way to learn is learning from someone elses code.

Good resource is sitepoint and php.net

Here is a good book for you too: http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql1/

Do you understand programming logic even a little bit? Try this. Think of a program you want to write. Not too complicated, but not as simple as printing "Hello World" to the screen either. Write it in english, as close to how the programming logic might go. Next, see if you can translate your pseudocode into php code using www.php.net

A good place to start is here, looking at string functions.
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.strings.php

Don't go and read a damn PHP manual and think you will learn PHP, I can't express how much of a waste of time that is. It's seriously all about finding a pre-made solution to what you want to do and then learning how that code works. That's it. Afterwards you can use php.net (no one coding DOESN'T use it, they are lying if they say they aren't) to look up some other stuff or refresh your memory on the order of the needle/haystack shit.

Well, I have to disagree with you. I believe programming in general has nothing to do with reading through some books, you're only going to forget 80% of the shit and only have a basic insight of how to do anything (probably just know how to run some loops or print text onto a page, woopty doo). You need to think outside the box and then incorporate other things (ajax, javascript, etc.) into it from searching Google or whatever. Anyone could create whatever they need for any site if they just took the time out to put it all together.... if you're a rich bastard then yeah you'd probably be better off just hiring someone to do it. But the problem with that is if you want some simple feature added you either need to bug the programmer again for it or have someone on call 24/7. If you just knew how to piece shit together yourself it's easy as pie.

Edit: Seriously, the morons saying to "read a manual" either don't do any programming themselves and shouldn't even post here, or are some bizarre mental exception to the rule and can memorize everything they read. :2 cents:

Has anyone ever really mastered anything from a "for dummies" book? I can only imagine these books as an extremely good marketing ploy.

Self taught, but now employed by and study at one of the top private technical universities in Florida as a web developer.

Not really into the 'for dummies' books... I do have a few though....

Much prefer Head First/Brain First books from O'Reilly. :thumbsup

They mastered the art of becoming a "dummie". :1orglaugh
I saw one for MS WORD. It was around 200 pages. WTF.