i personally think there is no long(or short) way in learning. but one more time, this is my oppinion. i will always code using the text file. no matter how long or short will be.
acording to my vote guidelines, if you say YES, you prefer to install, without seeing, a hack. you preffer not to bother analysing the code and understand the mechanism. no matter what you will do after, it will never be the same as you code it with your own hands. that's all.
any piece of php software was not written with aid, but with sweat and logic. that's why i preffer to use a text editor, my coffee and a good Dunhill to do things related to VB...
cheers.
PS. i removed the guidelines, to let people comment on it.