[xubuntu-users] Help! Steep learning curve ahead

[Pasi Lallinaho]

On 05/16/2012 03:19 AM, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> 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).

PHP is very widely used with web applications. There's a neverending
debate if it's good or bad (just try Googling!), but I suppose it all
comes down to how you use it – bad programmers write bad code etc...
Personally, I think PHP is a good choice for a web application.

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

The PHP documentation [1] is simply said fantastic! Since PHP reads
close to english (all the function names and so!), the learning curve is
relatively light.

If you learn by reading books well, then get hold of a book. If web
documentation is fine, then you should be fine with the online PHP
documentation alone.

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

You should install the php5-package too.

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

While you're at it, look at jQuery [2] too.

Cheers,
Pasi

[1] http://php.net/docs.php
[2] http://jquery.com/ (the site seems to be slow right now though)

-- 
Pasi Lallinaho (knome)                      » http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Xubuntu and Shimmer Project       » http://shimmerproject.org/
Graphic artist, webdesigner, Ubuntu member  » http://xubuntu.org/