Where do I begin?

[telek_q2]

I looked at the newbie stickies and I still found myself confused. They were talking about scripting commands. I haven't even downloaded a PHP scripter, much less started scripting. A friend suggested Wampserver, but I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm keen to learn how to PHP script, but I need to know where to start. Sorry if this is too nooby a post.

Imagine yourself in my shoes:

1. Describe idea to someone. They tell you you'll need PHP to do that.
2. Go out to learn PHP armed with nothing more than an idea / end goal.
3. ... ?

Sorry once again if this post is inappropriate.

[zbee]

My suggestion would be first to download PHP. If your using Linux, it probably has it already. If your using Windows, may I suggest XAMPP http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html, which has a web server (Apache), MySQL, PHP and Perl, all in a "bundle" that is preconfigured. Download the PHP manual fron PHP.net, and that should get you started. For editing your PHP files, I suggest, since you're getting started, Notepad++ http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=95717&package_id=102072

[dougal85]

maybe this; http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627