Self taught php/mysql programmers
 

How did you do it? (books, online guides)
How long did it take you to get a good grasp of things?

Any tips?

PHP and MySQL basics were very easy for me, in fact i was just learning and creating my first public dynamic webpage at same time. Lets tell a week, with just one book. But i knew HTML and older programming languages as Pascal before. Also i am able to program all my scripts myself what saves me money but never got to the level i should gain the job as the programmer. It was never my interest but i suppose i need years or perhaps it is not possible for me to reach higher level. So i think it depends on individual programming talent. But i can tell you that PHP and SQL are probably the easiest languages to learn from all commonly used.

I really think some people are born with it. (I know, that sounds crazy)

I sat down in front of a VIC20 many (many) years ago as a kid and just started writing code, I had to look up the statements & functions, but most of it was obvious to me.

If you're not "into it" you shouldn't do it. Hire someone (who knows what they're doing..) I've seen plenty of really bad code, some of which contains SQL injection bugs and the like. A lot of bad code is written by people who don't like to code very much. (or by people who are better at the artistic side of things)

You have to watch out for that.

But if you want to learn it, best thing to do is set up your own server, install apache + php, and just have at it, if you've never written in any other language before, PHP is a lousy place to start out, you won't get the underlying fundamentals that way. PHP is a domain-specific language.

Books are "ok" but no substitute for thinking! I remember the java books, all of them used Vectors, so, when looking at peoples code, everyone used Vectors.

90% of the time, vectors were a silly thing to use, they should have used LinkedLists. (since the data was accessed primarily on either end, seldom the n'th element) point being, if you get your knowledge JUST from reading someone elses code, but don't think about what it's doing, you're going to make bone-head mistakes like that.

You can't "just" learn from a book... you have to explore stuff.

It's very easy to be a shitty PHP developer. They're everywhere because the ceiling to get into using PHP is so low. It's a weakly typed, dynamic language and people abuse some of the features that should have never been included.

That being said it works, it's quick and it pays the bills.

If you've never programmed before I'd start with:

- Head First PHP and MySQL

or alternatively

- Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL

Then I'd go onto:

-PHP Object - Oriented Solutions //probably better

or

-PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice 3rd Edition //difficult even for me, very advanced

After I'd completed a few CRUD projects I'd look into database design and SQL more.

-Database Design For Mere Mortals

-Learning SQL

Polish off with some Javascript and JQuery

-Javascript The Definitive Guide
-jQuery 1.3 with PHP

Thanks for the help guys.
I do really enjoy coding, even if its just creating a page from scratch in html or css.
Only real programming language I ever knew was pascal back in the day. I understand the code I read and edit on most php scripts, but If I had to write it from scratch I wouldn't be able to do it.

I bought "Beginning PHP5, Apache, MYSQL Web Development" by Wrox. 800 Pages, working through the basics right now making simple url variable passing scripts. I guess the repetition of writting these scripts is what will make the lines stick in your head later?

PS. If any of you are looking for programming work hit me up on icq 78478691. I always need a good programmer, and have had nothing but horrible flakes working with me. Hence why I've realized maybe its better to just learn it and do things myself in the future.

You just need a goal and some references to piece your way through it. Tizag dot com and w3schools dot com are great, simple and straight forward resources. Other than that, just keep in mind that, especially when starting, there's usually an easier way to accomplish any coding task that becomes arduous. Searching for the easier route has always lead to the biggest leaps in my understanding of these/any languages.

I'm always looking for interesting programming work! I just may do that.

I've been on the mainstream side of things for so long, I don't even have ICQ anymore.. I suppose I should get an account.

It's good that you've used another language! And yes, PHP really is a terrible "programming language" except in very specific contexts (like when you want to rapidly barf up some dynamic HTML)

Just as an experiment, you might try a SIMPLE form in something like perl WITHOUT USING CGI.pm. Not for production use, but to gain an understanding of how GET/POST works. I've actually met a few php coders who were confused about how the protocol works, how variables get from the browser to the script and the contexts they apply in, this is because PHP is (by design) pretty good at hiding these details from the programmer.

Just doing that exercise can illustrate whats going on, far better than any book could.

Also, if it's an older book.. you shouldn't be using the mysql_ functions anymore, look into PDO, specifically the place-holders.

PDO can save a lot of grief, including the prevention of SQL injection bugs and, in some DBMS's, improved performance, as the query plans can be cached when place-holders are used. (also saves a lot of round-trip network traffic and saves the DB from having to parse the SQL, for each and every insert)

I guess this is what I meant about books. People read them and maybe don't realize things like the above place-holder thing... I've seen a lot of crusty database code that suffers from this.

I'm not real wild about big fat books.

Please don't learn PHP from W3Schools.

http://w3fools.com/

I learned very quickly as I went along but had a strong background so