How are you with PHP?

[Craige]

How advanced/skilled is everybody here with PHP? Just wondering, as I am really trying to advance in the language, and wondered if compsci is going to be able to help me with this.

The main things I have been focusing on recently is design patterns and script optimization. I know some of both, but not as much as I would like to, and they don't really publish books on the latter subject: it comes from experience, but you can always take knowledge gained from other peoples experiences.

I should get a book on (php coded) design patterns, but I don't really have the money right now. There are lots of examples on lines, if I can find them with good explanations, and in a language I can understand.

Anyway, as I said, just wanted to know how advanced everybody is with PHP here. It's a wonderful language, and was hoping to advance considerably in it the next few months. I'm not new to the language or anything, just always want to know more.

[rdrake]

I use it when necessary... actually started using it recently again (as in the last few days). I mostly use it for MySQL stuff, so I'm also getting re-aquainted with good old SQL.

Who doesn't love writing this stuff?

php:

fetch_games("SELECT * FROM games WHERE division_id='".$div_id."' AND DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), date) < 1 AND home_id='".$_GET['id']."' OR away_id='".$_GET['id']."' AND DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), date) < 1");

I really can't stand the horrid way the language was slapped together. Basically I use it when necessary, and for nothing else. SQL can do a lot of the stuff one might want to do with their data anyways.

[Tony]

I get paid to work with PHP and Oracle. Contributing to some open source projects in the process, including fixing ADOdb's drivers

[Craige]

I personally love PHP, for the most part. It's the first language I learned, and while it does lack in some areas, I still love it.

One area I am not to impressed with is PHP's inheritance. It seems to be rather slow, and this is disappointing if you want to develop strong, flexible back ends to sites. It's a matter I'm currently trying to work out for the recoding of MustyWindows.com. We are going to be using a fair bit of ajax, and we wanted to use two base systems, which both extend a very basic system, and the same thing with modules, but because of PHP's inheritance speed, I don't think we can go about it that way.

[Tony]

well maybe when PHP6 comes out

Ruby's Rails framework has pretty amazing AJAX support. It would actually be quite interestin to see some benchmarks comparing the execution (don't forget the crazy speedups you get in production environment + fast_cgi, mod_ruby, lighttpd)

[Craige]

Tony wrote:

well maybe when PHP6 comes out

I'm hoping so. I'm also hoping for namespaces and specific library includes. While they don't offer much for running PHP online, as the librays will always be included, due to the module nature: it would be slower to load and unload them every script call. However, for using PHP on the desktop, it could offer a significant speed boost.

Quote:

Ruby's Rails framework has pretty amazing AJAX support. It would actually be quite interestin to see some benchmarks comparing the execution (don't forget the crazy speedups you get in production environment + fast_cgi, mod_ruby, lighttpd)

Never messed with Ruby on Rails yet: it's on my list though. I've heard many good things about it. And good things about 37 Signals all together.

[Tony]

37signals is an excellent company with a lot of bright guys. If you're not already doing so, subscribe to their blog - Signal vs. Noise (29780 subscribers), they post a lot of excellent material in terms of design, usability, development, and such.

The most amazing thing about Ruby is the passion of developers. You'll always get a lot of help on any question. The bottom line is that Ruby is more enjoyable to develop with

Oh yeah, and Ruby also compiles to Java and .Net platforms

[Craige]

Yeah, like I said, Ruby (and Ruby on rails) is on my list of things to learn.

Anyway, PHP: anybody else want to put their name out there?

[bugzpodder]

im doing some backend php work right now, cant say im a guru but im comfortable with it nevertheless...

[apomb]

NOTAFAN ... mostly due to a prick of a teacher and utter uselessness in my life. im resisting every chance i get to learn PHP. dont criticize me for it.

[Tycoon]

As a hobby I make websites 24/7 and HTML/CSS + PHP/MySQL is nothing shy to me. I am very skilled in all these languages.
With HTML/CSS I am excellent and a pro (I dought it would be hard not to be) but with PHP/MySQL there are many functions I have not used and learned. Also, code optimization is something I would like to read up on to ensure I am coding the most efficient way, right from the get go.

I have been coding in HTML/CSS for about 3-4 years now and PHP/MySQL about 1-2 and it has been an excellent experience in which I do not plan to stop.

I would also like to ask, link CompWiz has, does anyone know any good books on PHP Optimization. Just the book's title would be sufficient, I can do the rest.

Btw, when is PHP6 planned to come out? (or has it even been discussed)

[Craige]

Tycoon @ Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:20 am wrote:

Btw, when is PHP6 planned to come out? (or has it even been discussed)

I'm not sure when they are planning to release it, but it's in development now. Chock out snaps.php.net for the most recent releases of PHP.

[Craige]

Tycoon @ Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:20 am wrote:

Btw, when is PHP6 planned to come out? (or has it even been discussed)

I'm not sure when they are planning to release it, but it's in development now. Chock out snaps.php.net for the most recent releases of PHP.

[neufelni]

I actually just started learning PHP about two weeks ago. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to help him rewrite a web calender that he made awhile ago called ACal. We're also using the Zend Framework for that, so I also had to learn to use that right aways. I'm not too comfortable with it all yet, but I'm getting there.

[CyberGeek]

Hello,

I am actually extremely fluent with PHP and SQL.