[xubuntu-users] Help! Steep learning curve ahead

[Kevin O'Gorman]

I've got a web application that has been running in Apache for years
as a CGI program written mostly in Python.

I'm wanting to upgrade it to Ajax, and the main resource I have for
that is O'Reilly's book "Adding Ajax", which presents all examples
with PHP.  I know nothing about PHP except the name and that it's
server side stuff embedded in the web pages.  I know nearly nothing
about Javascript, but I have used a couple of tiny canned scripts.

-- I need to know if PHP is the right way to go before I commit to
learning all this.  The pages are now being made by a Python program
of about 3000 lines, and uses a database (homegrown based on GDBM, but
likely to change to something relational, maybe Postgresql).

-- I need to know what resources I should consult for programming in
PHP (or whatever).  For starters, how do I learn PHP (or whatever).

-- I need to know if there's anything more to adding PHP to my apache
than getting libapache2-mod-php5.

-- I just plain need advice.  I'm flying solo here, since I'm retired
and this is a hobby.

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD