Hello,
Yeah +1 on that. Find some stuff that interests you, and dig in. Keep
reading of course and in between projects
create a sandbox and experiment with new stuff, with the goal that some
of that will be used in your next project.
Try experimenting with smarty outside a customers application, and on
the next job you get, employ it (if needed).
I think smarty is an excellent tool, that really helps remove html from
php logic. Use it if you don't already.
I can think of more stuff later. I'm tired, heh.
Good luck!
- Ben
Brian O'Connor wrote:
The best way I learned was just to do something that was relevant.
Even today when learning new things, if I am just learning the theory
and not actually putting it into place I don't grasp it as well. Make
yourself a homepage, and put the things you want on there. Like
sports? Figure out how to make a sports blog with predictions or
whatever. When I was learning, I created my homepage with a blog,
calendar, and a gallery because that's what I wanted to create, and I
learned the most from that. Things start to click when you're more
engaged.
On Jan 16, 2008 8:54 PM, B.A.S. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
Jake, those are exactly the sort of tips I was looking for--thanks so
much for the advice and for wishing me luck.
Bev
Jake McGraw wrote:
> Couple of suggestions:
>
> 1. Really read the documentation available at php.net
<http://php.net>, it is the best
> resource available online. At the very least, go through the the
> Language Reference section (although you can ignore the sections
> pertaining to PHP4). Additionally, anytime you're doing
something with
> a string or array, see if there is a function available for what
> you're doing. I'd say 90% of the time someone has already done the
> hard work and all you need to do is read the documentation. As a
short
> cut, typing "http://www.php.net/foobar"; into the address bar will
> automatically search the PHP function list for any functions like
> "foobar".
>
> 2. Learn a templateing system, my personal favorite is Smarty
> [ smarty.php.net <http://smarty.php.net>] and get all of your
HTML out of your PHP code. This
> ties into a larger lesson for all programmers, that is learning
> Model-View-Controller pattern
> [ wikpedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
<http://wikpedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller>].
>
> 3. See how the pros do it, download Drupal [drupal.org/download
<http://drupal.org/download>] or
> Vanilla [ getvanilla.com <http://getvanilla.com>] or some other
Open Source PHP project and
> look at some of the conventions these developers employ. You
need not
> review every line, but get an idea for how these people organize
their
> code. Install the framework and see how things work.
>
> That is how I've done things and I feel like I'm getting there.
FYI, I
> started using PHP professionally about 2 years ago, but most of
what I
> learned, I've accumulated in the last 6 months working as the sole
> developer for a major PHP application. You won't necessary move on
> from a noob to pro by just reading the documentation and doing the
> exercises, find something to work on (maybe write your own database
> driven blog) and throw yourself into it.
>
> Good luck!
> - jake
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--
Brian O'Connor
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http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
_______________________________________________
New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List
http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
http://www.nyphpcon.com
Show Your Participation in New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
