[xubuntu-users] Help! Steep learning curve ahead

[Pasi Lallinaho]

On 05/16/2012 12:11 PM, Radomir Dopieralski wrote:
> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Pasi Lallinaho
> <pasi at shimmerproject.org> wrote:
>> 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)
> I just want to add one link to the bunch:
> http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/
>

As I said, it's a neverending debate. This is why I didn't link to any
page on the internet, not for or against. Let's give the users the
possibility to choose their own tool.

We don't need a flamewar, so let this definitely be the last link sent
to the list on the subject of "is PHP good or bad".

Cheers,
Pasi

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