Page 2 - PHP capabilities

Ya, I was thinking fortran;)
Couldn't remember the name of it though, heh.
I must be getting old

What's the point of using something for winsock2 or optimizing it with m$ load balancing scheme. It's only good for windoze, and that's the bottom line. If they made they're tools cross platform, maybe I would think more highly of them.

My point was php will run on anything. Who cares what asp can do if you can't do it on another platform, don't fall to the evil giant.... don't do it!

i know a guy who runs a site he built with asp. and i offered for free to help add more features only with php. and his response was more or less "nah my site is asp don't be bringing that php into my house" hmm..

anyway i don't know anything about asp. but if you KNOW you want to eventually learn php, then why waste time with asp? cause i think once you get into a particular language you kinda get hooked. if you're having problems with php, find a code-buddy to help you out

either way you'll NEVER find a solid factual answer to the question "which is better, ASP or PHP?" because every programming language is pretty good at what it was designed to do, the real question is "which code would be the best solution to my project?" and well, i don't know your project, but PHP is VERY flexible and can most likely get the job done without many (if any) problems along the way. there's my view

If you want to learn PHP, my advice to you would be to buy a book. I find SAMS books very good... (hence why my wardrobe as about 6 on various subjects). I got SAMS Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours. It covers the basics, but thats all you need.

When you know the basics.. and literally by that i mean how to use functions, assign variables etc... find a project to help work on. This will give you a reason to learn how to use a particular function... or work out how to do something... otherwise you just don't have anything to do with your new knowledge.. so you forget it.

You can never know PHP (unless you were a member of the development team... in which case you may know it)... but its amazing what you can do with it, and how some functions open up doors to do almost anything.

If you are new, I recommend learning c or c++ first. If you learn either one of those languages first, you can learn any other language easier. Granted, it's a little tougher to learn, but in the long run you will be thankfull that you did.

Dare somebody say the 'C' word.



I couldn't agree any more, well I don't OOP and would just recommend C. Friends of mine always want to know "how did you do that", "can you show me" ... I always tell them start with C (know your roots).

I am going to stop now before I get on the C soap box but ONLY IF more people started with C ... not this VB crap they teach college and call it programming!

OK, I can't help myself.

I think it was my 3rd semester of C before I even learned how to create a GUI app. Oh the nightmares of windows.h, the thaught alone sends chills down my spine.

When individuals are first introduced into programming and they start out with languages like VB, they really can't appreciate all the things that need to happen in order for them to drag 'n drop objects onto screen.

You gotta learn to walk before you can run. Because when something goes wrong or not as expected it really helps to understand what is happening in the background.

Just having an understanding of the underlying "technology" of the tools that are provided to you today makes you that much more valuable.

The only thing that M$ has really done is ... lower the expectations of the end user.

All I can say to that is,
Amen

ok - PHP is the first proper (i.e not html) language I learnt. over the last few weeks, a lot of people have been saying "learn c", or words to that effect... i know that php's syntax is very similar to that of c's, but how easy it it to go from php to c? and does anyone have any good sites/books that they would recomend?

I'm a little worried that i'm kinda stuck on windows systems atm, the computer I use is on loan from my college (I work there, so I get a laptop), but I cannot justify any reason for running linux, not windows - especially as we're designing sites for windows-based servers. I am in the process of setting up a linux webserver at home, pending arrivial of my adsl connection (yeay! finally) early next month - so I may be able to use that to develop.

I'm acually quite suprised to hear that so many people go from c to php, and not the other way round.

Well I started out with visual basic and I gotta say as a platform to learn on its ace. Deny it if you like but in all reasonableness you're probably letting your bias views rule, not that I can claim to be completely independant thinking or anything like that. I haven't touched it 2-3 years. It would be interesting to see what I now think of it but it was a gentle intro that got me into programming. If I had not enjoyed my early experiences I very much doubt that I would have continued. Since I have learnt Java, C++, and now php as well as various little bits and bobs. I'm still adjusting to php but found the java/C++ experiences to be rather useful in making the transition, but they have also set my way of thinking somewhat.

Personally, although not vastly experienced I don't much care if I never have to see C++ again, I found it to be a thoroughly unpleasent and frankly annoying language. Java I would to persue. Because of the nature of php I don't think you should have to learn any other specific language, only the more general concepts and theorys associated with languages which basically boils down to OO concepts, whether you use them or not you should be aware, control structures, procedures and possibly worthy of seperate attention errors and handling. Which with a bit luck will all be covered in some book or other out there.

If you wanted to learn another language I'd recommend java, I consider it more friendly than C++, more useful than vb and if I'm not mistaken is still growing in popularity throughout the industry so may be a more useful long term choice. Essentially it is the successor to both C and C++ and covers most of the core concepts they introduced. I say most because I've never used C so could not say and my knowledge is not exhaustive, but I'm doing pretty darn well without.

That and vb costs money, and I found it easier to get useful support for java on-line.

Any who, thats my ramble done with.

If you want something object filled and n00b programmer friendly, program it in java. Java is a very high level oo language, with many built in features. A nice language it is, but that's besides the point. If you want something fast, c/c++ is the way to go. How many mainstream games do you see programmed in java.... none. How many super fast 3d graphics libraries do you see programmed in java... none. How many super fast any programs do you see programmed in java....

C is where the skillz lie, weather you want to believe it or not. php might have similar syntax... but frankly, if I want a performance based program, I'm not going to write it in php. I'm not sure how php would do with a big app, and realisticly, you can't really compare the two, because they're used for totally different purposes. I mean, I would never write a web page in c, and I would never write a computational console monster in php.

ps: I love c++, c++ 0wnz, nothing like a little c with class. So you have to allocate your own memory, big deal;)

-Sager

How careless of me to completely neglect performance, it is often a crucial part of choosing a language to use, yet stragely enough as yet has not been an issue for me. sager, award thyself a scooby snack.

I just found this forum and I know this post is old but I wanted to chine in. I'm an old guy and I have written code in FOCAL, COBOL, Fortran, Basic, Qbasic, VB, C, C++, java, PERL, .cfm .asp and PHP. It's my opinion that PHP is far easier than .asp to learn unless you already know VB. C and C++ are clearly the fundamental building blocks of OO programming (more than half these other languages are written in C).

I worked for Intel for 6 years and we converted a lot of code from cfm to .asp but when I went out on my own I quickly converted to open the open source products (linux/apache/mysql/php) because they are more secure, faster, more reliable etc. than the M$ line of competitive products. Bottom line for me is between the security, power, SPEED, and features I like developing in PHP far more than .asp and it costs less. That said my company has a computer training division and 95% of what we teach is M$ based so I wouldn't plan on them going away.

B

Wow, someone who used, can list and spell all those languages. You are old!

(From another old guy)

I even left a couple out like IBM 370 assembler... oh the days of punch cards and papre tape. I learned Focal on a machine with tubes, manual boot switches and papertape for file load and storage. It was the size of a fullsize van and had 4k RAM to share among 3-4 teletypes. The first program I wrote played the game "higher or lower" with a number from 1-100 and I had to remove my name from the code because it was using too much ram...

B