Mark Poppen

Today I took the time to actually make a decision on how to approach learning PHP. After looking at the introduction video’s on Lynda.com (recommended by Jacob), I decided to go for the video tutorial-way, and if I don’t get it after this, I shall get a book.

Now, I found my way through the first chapter “Getting started”, and I must say, I’m not so overwhelmed as a thought I would be. Back in the days when I was using MS DOS (I guess  I’m that old, yes), the logic of writing a .bat-file was pretty similar to PHP. Something like “If this is something, do that. If not, do this”. Also the echo-statement is of course an oldie.
Of course PHP is a lot more advanced than batch-files in DOS, but I think I might get the hang of this.

I’m getting more excited to get hands on with the programming, as I have something in mind I want to create in PHP. Of course, my skills will fail me many times, but I’m sure there are people out there that can help me with some stuff, once I get the hang of basic PHP.

I’ll keep you posted!

When a website fails, I turn to the programmers and say “Hey, I’m the designer, not the coder. I don’t know shit about this stuff”, and I want to change that attitude. I want to learn PHP. It’s kind of a scary thought, since I DO know how complicated php-code looks to me.

I’ll be doing a series of posts with my progress, and I will post links to resources that helped me creating stuff. I will also set up a url where you can follow my progress live (Since I didn’t start yet, there’s nothing to see).

Up to now I know nothing of PHP (I’m just the designer), but I hope to create a database driven php site in the future. I’ve set my standards high, because I like pushing myself.

Anyway, the first link I’ll give you will be the one to The Web Squeeze. The people there are a talented bunch and very helpful. I started there by asking the question if I should learn Django or start from scratch. Their advice was simple: start from scratch with PHP, because what if Django fails because of a php-error? You’d know how to handle it when you know PHP.

I also asked where to start, and I’m doing the same here. Please leave your comments with useful links on how to learn PHP and OOP.

[Check out my other posts on this in this category]