Random questions

cluelessPHP

Currently I'm working my way through PHP Objects Patterns and Practice 4th edition what else should be considered recommended reading? Also is level AAA worth worrying about? And how many cups of coffee a day do you drink? I had six today now it's 3am :glare:

NogDog

The Pragmatic Programmer is worth a read: not coding language specific, but more about general concepts and practices.

Essential PHP Security is a short book that gives you a good overview of the things you need to think about in that regard.

Assuming you mean AAA web content accessibility, that's more an HTML/CSS/JavaScript issue than a PHP one, and how important it will be to you depends on how much client-side work you do and how important it is that the site in question be accessible. (While I'd like to think that all sites would want to maximize accessibility, realistically, for some it's less important, while in others there may actually be legal requirements to be accessible.)

I drink very little caffeine any more: it does not-so-nice things to me, but I do still miss it.

cluelessPHP

Thanks 🙂

Going to take time away from code again, got some job interview as a cleaner in a factory, the more I look at maxxd's code the more I realise me trying to learn code was a stupid idea.

NogDog

cluelessPHP;11055315 wrote:
Thanks 🙂

Going to take time away from code again, got some job interview as a cleaner in a factory, the more I look at maxxd's code the more I realise me trying to learn code was a stupid idea.

If you like it (and I get the impression you do), keep at it. You can continue learning while not at work (or even at work, depending on the job 😉 ).

laserlight

Factory cleaner by day; code cleaner by night! (Plus you can dabble with the Factory Method pattern and other factory patterns.)

cluelessPHP

Guess I can take a few days away and come back to it, between waiting on results from classes and my fiancée half way across the world since last year things have been difficult.

maxxd

cluelessPHP;11055315 wrote:
the more I look at maxxd's code the more I realise me trying to learn code was a stupid idea.

Please don't think that - you do seem to enjoy not only coding, but genuinely learning about code; by that I mean the theory as well as the practice. That's an excellent (and sometimes all-too-rare) thing! Everybody starts somewhere - I started coding PHP back somewhere in the 90's, so I've got a lot of practice with it. Having said that, I learn new things everyday from the people on this and other boards that are far and away above my level.

dalecosp

maxxd;11055331 wrote:
Please don't think that - you do seem to enjoy not only coding, but genuinely learning about code; by that I mean the theory as well as the practice. That's an excellent (and sometimes all-too-rare) thing! Everybody starts somewhere - I started coding PHP back somewhere in the 90's, so I've got a lot of practice with it. Having said that, I learn new things everyday from the people on this and other boards that are far and away above my level.

Hear, hear! I started in '02 with a book by Larry Ullman and the guru-like genii that come here.

I've been in IT since about that time and haven't starved yet 😉 (I'm not a millionaire either, alas, but most of us probably aren't quite there yet ....)

cretaceous

The more you do it, the more you find things have somehow transmuted themselves into your head.
There's a hell of a lot to take in, especially if you're also picking up Javascript, SQL and the delights of HTML 'n CSS.
If you're worried about applying for jobs without a qualification go ahead and apply, be honest about what you know, show some working projects you've completed and see what happens.

sneakyimp

Although I have heard coders speak of the "programming awakening" -- a mythical moment when one finally "gets it" -- you shouldn't expect to quickly understand complicated code or even coding in general. I learn something new every week. Some things I forget and re-learn. Coding is a bit like songwriting -- your first efforts are not going to be the Rite of Spring or the Nutcracker Suite or Beethoven's Ninth or Blood and Thunder.

The key to maintaining interest for me is to write programs that help me do something that's important for me personally . E.g., programs that save me hours of work or that effortlessly perform a tricky search on enormous amounts of data are gratifying. Or programs that do something I cannot reasonably do. I wrote a PHP script that lets me schedule tweets in advance. It is currently tweeting a tweet every 10 minutes for the next several hours. I could not do this otherwise. (stay tuned for the Battle of Jutland!).

Getting paid also helps a lot, but is not sufficient to keep the coding interesting.

Getting paid and doing interesting programming is a pretty good gig. Sure beats retail -- at least in my opinion.

sneakyimp

I would also add that just reading a book about programming is probably not the best way to develop a command of the language. Some books might be pretty good, but PHP Objects Patterns and Practice is probably going to present you with a lot of programming techniques, but I doubt it will present any compelling reason for you to learn those techniques. Find something you really want to do and start working toward it.

As for caffeine, I drank about a quart of black tea today, some of it hot, some iced.

Weedpacket

Two things you need to do: 1) Read code. 2) Write code.
And try and get at least passing acquaintance with as many languages as you can. Like natural languages: you may not need to know enough to translate Shakespeare, but it's good to know if the other person is threatening to call the police.

cluelessPHP

You guys are too kind 🙂

I will go back to PHP tomorrow, it's a nice day here and I haven't really been outside properly since I was in China meeting my fiancée's family in January. I did play around with after effects for once learnt how to use particle effects which was fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nE4A5mVOw