Extremely fresh...

Doominator

Greetings..

Just started to dip my nose into the php scripting, my skills are as of now are limited to
<?

$var1="noob";

echo "I am a total php" . $var1;

😃

so, I just downloaded ConTEXT as I figured that would be a decent editor to start off with? Anyone got any suggestion, hints or tips what else do I need...where to start, any good tutorial pages on "first scripts" basis?

Happy for any suggestions I could get 🙂

Merve

It all depends on your knowledge of computers.

Are you an experienced programmer who knows a lot about computers and a bunch of different languages? Then jump right into the www.php.net manual.

If you're a complete newb, don't worry. Try a few basic tutorials on the web (the php.net introductory tutorial is a little bit advanced in my opinion). Just google for "php tutorial" and you're bound to find something. That'll get you started. Then I really advise you learn the basics of programming in general (what are functions, classes, constants, control structures...if only I'd done that...)

Hope this helps, and good luck learning php.

halojoy

QUOTE

<?php
$var1="noob";
echo "I am a total php" . $var1; 
?>

1. I just downloaded ConTEXT, as I figured that would be a decent editor?
2. Anything else I do need?
3. Where to start, any good tutorial pages on "first scripts" basis?

Happy for any suggestions I could get 🙂
===================== End quote =======================

I think I tried to install ConTEXT one time.
What OS do you have? Linux/Windows
Some good knowledge, and common sense when writing your php.
Do NOT pack too much code into one php page.
Make includes or put links to next operation.
Keep it simple. That is my number one advice!
Have a look at
Zend.com Series: 'Absolute Beginners Tutorial' :
I have learned a lot of good things from these articles myself.
And I am not an absolute ... but an advanced beginner 🆒

:p Zend.com - 15 parts Basic PHP Tutorial :p

/halojoy 2005 sweden

Doominator

Cheers guys and thanks for the tips.

->Halo, yes ConTEXT is indeed a good editor imo...installed it on win XP pro..

I got a question for you guys out there now aswell. I laborated my way from 0 skills in php up to "if statements" now...
I was wondering about the "{" and the "}"... Do they actually fill a purpose other than to structure the code to be easier to read?

Look at my examples here to see what I mean:


$name="John";
if ($name=="John")
   echo "Your name is John<br>";
echo "Welcome to this site!.<br>";

and vs


$name="John";
if ($name=="John") {
   echo "Your name is John<br>"; }
echo "Welcome to Toodiloo<br>";

both these snippets are perfectly valid and will result in exactly the same outcome... am I missing something?

Cheers!

Matt_Kindig

No, these braces { and } are needed to specify which code PHP is supposed to execute if the given if() condition is true. If no braces are used, then PHP defaults to executing only the first line of code after the if() statement. If you want PHP to process multiple lines of code for the given if() statement, you need to enclose them in braces { }.

I'd recommend structuring all your code with braces, even when there is only one line to execute (like in your example). It makes your code neater and more readable.

Rodney_H_

Code Walkers

And...

Tizag

I am a total newbie, and these helped me...