n00b learning PHP

[Micky-D]

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Hello Micky-D, it appears that you have not posted on our forums for a fair while. Why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our forums?

Ok.. dont mind if I do.....

Well after a few years of being able to read PHP and butcher scripts to my own needs I thought It about time to learn the stuff properly.
Too often Im building project sites and running into areas where my needs are > than my skills, so I thought its about time you learned this stuff properly Micky my boy..

My first encounter of languages was when I was about 7 or 8 years old and I used to have a machine that used B.A.S.I.C or Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code... I used to write simple programs on it like forms.. inputs and outputs..
I stopped doing that and my computing fell behind.. Around 2003 I decided to get back into computers and got a basic PC and enjoyed working at first with Frontpage to build simple pages.. then as time went by I started creating bigger and better things.. outgrowing frontpage and moving onto dreamweaver and flash.. but more often using the designer perspective rather than the coders perspective.

I was however very good at reading the code and chopping bits I needed from them to adept to use to my own needs.. I guess this comes from a similarity between PHP and similar languages with BASIC.

But I have now started to outgrow this and need to be able to write the stuff compitently in order to proceed..

So I need some real good tutorials starting from the basics... like what ; is, what it does, its purpose.. those sorts of beginners tutorials..

Most of the ones I have read assume you know what things like () and ' and ; does but strange as it sounds.. I dont... I know they are important... I know roughly what they do but not completely...

Im like one of those people that try to learn french... knowing the words and putting a sentence together are 2 different things.. Just because I know what a few words are in french doesnt mean i can form a comprehensible sentence from them.

Im now 26 years old and 7 year olds can write better PHP than me not that thats a bad thing.. its great these kids are getting smarter at a younger age.. but it dont half make ya feel like a grandad.

So any easy n00b tutorials you guys know of.. please post them here for me so I can have a resource of guides and how to's

I have a friend I chat to via MSN and hes learning PHP so we can start to work together he has a few tutorials I have looked at but we will need more

Thanks for your time people!

Hope yall can help

EDIT// I have been doing some more reading in here and lots of people say use notepad instead of dreamweaver... I only use DW because I can see whats going on visually once I have edited the code.. thats okay isnt it? I aslo use it cos I can nenver remember all the tags and codes my brain is like a seive :/

Is CSS better than using tags such as <font face="" size="" color=#""></font> to control single lines of text?
some pages that are parsed dont allow CSS so I have to use Font tags ie some CMS use create a new page but theres no place for a link rel or head tags to include CSS is this still okay?

[moojoo]

CSS is way better, it gets all of that extra stuff out of your markup. You could just preview any file you make in ntepad etc in any browser as well, all depends on your needs. Nothing wrong with Dreamweaver if it is used as a tool and not the brain behind your work. As for CMS systems, you should try Textpattern.

It allows you to use all your own HTML etc, and to add pages all you do is copy a page in the presentation tab, add a section, designate what css style sheet and what page to use and your done. If the CMS you are using doesn't allow things like editing the HTML or using CSS I would consider switching.

[masonbarge]

I suggest PHP and MySQL by Larry Ullman. If you've got php 5.0+ you'll need the second edition, if you've got php 4.* you can get a first edition cheap used on half.com or amazon. The two chapters on mysql are weak so if you want to learn it, you might need another book; however, the chapters on combining php and mysql are great.

The () encloses one or more parameters for a function, and you need to put empty () after the function name even if you don't have parameters to identify it as a function. The ";" ends a line of php code. So

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biteme();

calls the function named "biteme" with no parameters and then ends the line.

Yes you want to learn CSS even though it's without a doubt the biggest pain in the neck in the world. You can use css inside the document body if you need to

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<style type="text/css">
 h1 {color: "really bright red";
 background-color: "really electric blue";}
</style> 
<h1>Use Legible Colors</h1>

[Micky-D]

Thanks guys.....

Much appreciated

[joshcxa]

Check these video tutorials out...for FREE

http://3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_dl_list.php?c=6