Best book to learn PHP for vB? How did YOU learn?

[Razasharp]

Hi All

I was just wondering if any of you guys have any recommendations for the best way to go about learning PHP. Particularly if the aim is to better understand vB in order to create hacks for it.

Would have to be for a complete novice as I know next to nothing of PHP!

I'd also, be interested in any other methods any of you used - online tutorials etc? If so which?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[akanevsky]

www.php.net ... That's how I learned What I like about php is that they have an official site with a normal manual

Which can be found here:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php

[Razasharp]

Thanks Dark Visor...

Do you have any particular advice? For eg did you go full on read the manual? Just an idea of the path you took would be great just to give us an idea

[Adrian Schneider]

I suggest something like SAMS PHP in 24 hours to figure out the basics, then browse through functions on php.net and other PHP files you see and learn from there.

[akanevsky]

No, of course you don't read the full manual. You cannot memorize it all at once, and nobody can...

What I did is I downloaded the *.chm version of the manual (can be found here http://www.php.net/docs.php). Then I went through the first 3 sections of it (up to features). Then I read the next two sections (up to 5th), reading only what I might need in the nearest future.

Then, I started writing my own scripts. While writing those scripts, I kept referring (and I still keep referring) to sections IV, V and VI of the manual, for the particular functions or tricks that I need to use. Like if I need to find out a certain file management function, I go to "File Management" subsection of section VI... That's how it goes - I refer to certain parts of the manual when there is a need to use them.

I suggest something like SAMS PHP in 24 hours to figure out the basics, then browse through functions on php.net and other PHP files you see and learn from there.

Well, IMHO it is too basic... There is nothing better than an official manual if there is one, because an official manual usually also tells you about any special things that you have to pay attention to

[Adrian Schneider]

For not knowing any PHP or other programming languages PHP is pretty complex, but if you are coming from another language, the manual is all you need. Everyone learns at different rates.

[Razasharp]

Thanks both.

Thats a good point TheSpecialist. Dark Visor - how much programming did you know before you started learning php?

[akanevsky]

Practically none... Maybe a bit of an extremely invalid HTML 4.01 and some javascript that worked only in internet exlorer When I started making dynamic pages was when I also learned valid XHTML and more javascript.

With all due respect to TheSpecialist, I would not agree with him. In my opinion (which may be wrong as well), PHP is one of the easiest languages there are. To have any trouble with it, you must either come from a completely different language such as C++ or not read a manual before trying to write your scripts.

[Razasharp]

Ok last question @ Dark Visor... when did you first start learning php? (this will give us a very vague idea of ho wlong it might take to get to your level!)

I suggest PHP and MySQL Web Development. It's a huge book that's cut into 3 main parts. PHP/ Mysql/ Creating Major Web Applications with PHP & mySQL. Although, it covers PHP 5, it's still a great book. Even when your done reading it, it serves as a great reference too.