David Mintz wrote:
Well, you could take some self-defense classes in addition to all your
PHP studies and carry some weapon such as one of those pepper spray
things.... oops, getting OT.
Now that you mention it, my PHP Function Reference could be used as a
pretty hefty club should I ever feel the need for self-defense...
Seriously, though: welcome to the party. You will like it here, and I
am in solidarity with your situation, as I'm a sort of self-taught,
humanities-trained part-time hobbyist lightweight who aspires to do it
better than a part-time hobbyist lightweight... Things I've found helpful:
Thanks for the welcome. I already like it here, and it's good to know
that I'm not alone on several counts.
* Take a course from a good instructor, the programming language hardly
matters. I studied Java to no good practical professional purpose, but
the discipline and problem-solving practice was great for my programming
generally.
* Read those books and tutorials, but keep a skeptical mind. Times have
since changed for the better, but I learned some sloppy habits back in
the days of PHP3 because I trusted what I read.
* Learn to use Subversion, even if only so you will have a backup and so
you can roll back whenever you make a really terrible mess.
* Smarty is not a panacea nor a substitute for discipline. I used to be
a Smarty believer, now I'm more of a Zend Framework believer. (Yes they
aren't mutually exclusive, but we digress...)
* Don't get too obsessed with planning planning planning at the expense
of doing. I have been in that trap and have only recently recovered. (My
problem has been working 100% alone and lacking of a tech-savvy boss or
demanding customer to bust my chops, so I have had the luxury of saying
"i don't like it, this isn't good" and wiping out a project and starting
over four or five times.)
* Validate input, filter output (-: !
Solid advice, all of it. Thanks again!
Bev
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