php help for *absolute* beginner

fizzy

i have heard lots of people say how handy php is and how it is quite easy to learn, so i would love to give it a go....

however, when i have tried finding stuff about it on the net it all goes way over my head. i even flicked through "php for dummies" and i can't follow it!

so i was hoping somebody would be kind enough to put this newbie out of her misery??

what's good about php and what is it used for? i heard it originally stood for personal home page and figure it is handy for database stuff and is sort of related to perl but smaller and easier...and that's about all i get and maybe even that is incorrect?

do i have to install a whole load of stuff like a personal web server thing and php itself on my computer? my computer is *very* fragile - it runs windows 98 but i don't have a disk....

is it ok if my web host supports it? will it just mean that my scripts will run at my host and i can't test them on my pc?

sorry for being so ignorant - i hope i have made some sense! any advice would be greatly appreciated

dahamsta

what's good about php and what is it used for?

It's used primarly for creating dynamic web pages, that perform actions and calculations. You can use it for something as simple as a contact form or a calculator, or as complex as, well, something like this (see vBulletin for a PHP version of this application).

i heard it originally stood for personal home page

Correct, although now it stands for "PHP Hypertext Processor", which is a recursive acronym, like "GNU" (Gnu's Not Unix).

and figure it is handy for database stuff

It's handy for lots of stuff, and although you'll find yourself using databases more and more as you get into it, database connectivity is only a small part of the whole package. You can create images on the fly, generate documentation in different formats, create PDF documents, and much, much more. And the developers add new extensions with nearly every release.

and is sort of related to perl

Not really. Some people say that it's a sort of cross between Perl and C, but it's really a language all to itself, and it doesn't really compare to anything in exacting terms.

but smaller and easier

Again, not really. It is a good language to get started with scripting IMHO, but it can be quite complex in that it has a positively huge API (Application Programming Interface), i.e. it has literally hundreds of functions which take a long time to learn. But the beauty of it is that you don't *need* to know all those functions, you can start with something simple - tradionally trying to get it to print "Hello World!" - and work your way up.

For some people, it's probably the ideal way to start scripting (I never really though of PHP as a programming language to be honest), but for others it might not be. As an example, I started with Perl (well, JavaScript actually), and moved to PHP because I wanted to interact with a database, and it seemed a lot easier in PHP. The first time I tried it though, I went running back to Perl with my tail between my legs. But I'm a total convert now. The easiest way to find out is to dip your toe in the water. Get your feet wet, have a go. It's very hard to break anything, so it won't hurt to try.

do i have to install a whole load of stuff like a personal web server thing and php itself on my computer? my computer is *very* fragile - it runs windows 98 but i don't have a disk....

Well, yes and no. There's a lot to be said for installing it locally, not least that it will save you money as you can play with it offline. There's also the "wait factor", in that PHP generated pages will load almost instantly on your local machine, but it'll take longer remotely, which can get *very* tedious after a while. That said, PHP is very easy to install on Windows, as are the Apache webserver and the MySQL database server, applications I would recommend to compliment it. But just to get started I would recommend installing Apache (first) and PHP. These days the installers are very mature, and require very little interaction from you. It's really just like installing any other software.

is it ok if my web host supports it? will it just mean that my scripts will run at my host and i can't test them on my pc?

But you can do it this way too, bearing my previous comments in mind. If your webhost supports PHP, you can upload your scripts there and test them.

As to learning PHP, the best place to start is the PHP tutorial, which starts out nice and simple. After you've tried some of the stuff there, you could try following some of the links on that very page (left-hand side, in the panel), to some excellent tutorials, particulary the ones on DevShed, Webmonkey and PHPBuilder.

And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. And make sure you ask on the forums out there too, particularly PHPBuilder.com, because the community are very supportive. I might see you there.

HTH,
adam




[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 09-08-2001).]

fizzy

thanks so much for explaining everything so simply

hopefully i will pluck up the courage and install it soon...at least i am still clinging on to iol no limits at the moment so i can spend a while trying stuff out online in the meantime!

[This message has been edited by fizzy (edited 09-08-2001).]

dahamsta

Pleasure. I am, after all, <dun dun DAH> The PHP Evangelist.

adam

[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 09-08-2001).]