UnitedForums.co.uk - View Single Post - PHP Starter Pack - Fundamental PHP Know-How

Dave · 7th May 2005, 03:30 PM

A few musings:

I have no experience at all of 'all-in-one' Apache-PHP-MySQL packages, but anyone who is moderately tech-savvy can easily download and set up all three (with the help of some light googling). At the expense of learning a little of how the software works, you will be able to keep yourself properly up to date and probably be a lot more confident tweaking your configurations. A worthwhile investment IMHO.

PostgreSQL - it is massively better than MySQL (although slower - not that localhost developers are going to notice). More relevant is the fact that it has very poor support from web hosting companies - SQL is SQL but your connection routines etc. will change if you aren't using some form of abstraction. Changing between local / remote database types is an unnecessary complication so I probably wouldn't recommend postgres for beginners.

Actually learning SQL - There is a lot to learn, although most of it (BCNF and other normal forms, indexing, transactions, alternate table types, etc) isn't relevant to beginners. I wouldn't recommend moving onto these things until a solid understanding of basic database use has been achieved. There are, thankfully, thousands of introductary SQL tutorials strewn across the web.

I feel similarly about regex (use the alternative functions if you can), buffering, custom error handlers and all the rest - there's a lot to learn first!

This is contentious, but my recommendation (as a Java developer who knows his way around PHP) is to steer clear of objects as long as you can. They're almost always redundant in a website script, and my honest opinion is that if your site is complex enough to benefit from objects, it's certainly going to benefit from strong typing and all the other advantages that you'd get by switching to Java (or .NET)

PHP scripts - you'll learn much faster writing your own code! That said, referring to scripts is a good way to kickstart your understanding of a given technique in action (just remember that free script writers aren't renowned for their skill - you could pick up bad habits!)

Most of all, enjoy yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help!

7th May 2005, 03:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
Dave Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 18	A few musings: I have no experience at all of 'all-in-one' Apache-PHP-MySQL packages, but anyone who is moderately tech-savvy can easily download and set up all three (with the help of some light googling). At the expense of learning a little of how the software works, you will be able to keep yourself properly up to date and probably be a lot more confident tweaking your configurations. A worthwhile investment IMHO. PostgreSQL - it is massively better than MySQL (although slower - not that localhost developers are going to notice). More relevant is the fact that it has very poor support from web hosting companies - SQL is SQL but your connection routines etc. will change if you aren't using some form of abstraction. Changing between local / remote database types is an unnecessary complication so I probably wouldn't recommend postgres for beginners. Actually learning SQL - There is a lot to learn, although most of it (BCNF and other normal forms, indexing, transactions, alternate table types, etc) isn't relevant to beginners. I wouldn't recommend moving onto these things until a solid understanding of basic database use has been achieved. There are, thankfully, thousands of introductary SQL tutorials strewn across the web. I feel similarly about regex (use the alternative functions if you can), buffering, custom error handlers and all the rest - there's a lot to learn first! This is contentious, but my recommendation (as a Java developer who knows his way around PHP) is to steer clear of objects as long as you can. They're almost always redundant in a website script, and my honest opinion is that if your site is complex enough to benefit from objects, it's certainly going to benefit from strong typing and all the other advantages that you'd get by switching to Java (or .NET) PHP scripts - you'll learn much faster writing your own code! That said, referring to scripts is a good way to kickstart your understanding of a given technique in action (just remember that free script writers aren't renowned for their skill - you could pick up bad habits!) Most of all, enjoy yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help!