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Posted by Toby Inkster on 11/14/06 14:10
Mason wrote:
> PERL?
Perl is a lovely language. In many regards, it has a similar syntax to
PHP, but it has far fewer built-in functions, which makes it a bit neater
in many ways.
For example, if you need to use a database, there are built-in database
functions, but just by including this line:
use DBI;
you import the database interface, and can connect to and query a
database. If you're not using a database, then you don't need to worry
about creating a new function called "query()" -- in PHP when writing a
function, I always have to worry about whether there is already a function
called that built-in, or in some widely used PEAR/PECL module.
I came from Perl to PHP (which is not to say that I don't still use Perl
as well!) and found the transition fairly smooth -- many functions have
the same names and syntaxes in both languages. I would imagine that the
transition back in the other direction would be just as easy.
> XML and then AJAX?
Although a good idea, you don't actually need to know much about XML to
use AJAX. AJAX can be a very useful set of techniques, and I'm glad I've
started using them. I find it especially useful to be able to validate
form fields against a server script in a javascript "onblur" event.
Another suggestion would be to learn a few more SQL engines. Although
the idea of SQL is that it should be a common interface for all databases;
there are nevertheless slight differences in query syntaxes between
different database engines. It's useful to know what these differences
are, to help you write database-agnostic scripts. PostgreSQL, MS SQL and
Oracle are all great database engines and can be downloaded for free.
(PostgreSQL is Open Source software, the other two offer free "lite"
versions with some restrictions on their use and capabilities.)
Another thing, is to really get yourself comfortable with the cross-over
bits of these technologies. AJAX is an example of this, as it lets you
pass information between a server-side script (which may be accessing a
database) and a client-side script. Think also of things like PHP scripts
which output CSS and images instead of outputting HTML. The cross-over
parts are important, as they're what help you create a cohesive project,
and also allow you to "farm out" tasks to particular technologies rather
than just be stuck writing everything in one place.
Lastly, I'm sure there are still some parts of PHP that you have yet to
master. (I'm not trying to be rude here -- PHP is a "big" language, and
there are plenty of functions I've never used.) I'm sure there are also
some general programming techniques that you're yet to pick up. In
general, good learning ground is writing a system with multiple users who
need to securely log in; once logged in, are treated as different people
(different permissions, preferences, etc); and can interact with each
other and with the site. There are several examples of such sites
including forums; multi-user blogs with comment facilities; wikis; etc --
there's plenty of this sort of software already out there, but you can
learn a lot by writing your own.
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
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