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

[akanevsky]

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!)

To my level? I am not that great. I still don't know many aspects of PHP. Though, it is not needed to know many aspects in order to be able to make great scripts Here is the answer to your question: It took me a year to get to where I am right now. Do not let that misguide you. As TheSpecialist said, everybody learns at their own pace. Feel free to ask more questions, it's ok

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.

I think I've heard the title. Is that an O'Reilly book? If yes, then it is a great book, as well as all other O'Reilly books are If there is no official manual to something, the first place I go to is an O'Reilly store.

One of the best ways to learn a new programming language is to actually have something you need or want to do in the language, and then use online resources to help you figure out how to do it.

That is true. Another good way is to take a fine-coded script like vBulletin and to try to understand how certain things from within it work. This is, by the way, one of the good ways to learn a language, or to find out a good algorithm that does something you are struggling with.

P.S. My first PHP script was a PHP engine for a non-php site, lol.

Then, it's just a matter of finding code somewhere that does sort of what you want to do, and making it do exactly what you want it to do.

Yep. However, I would recommend using only a code that you understand and agree with explicitly. Otherwise, if you use random codes from various pieces of software, your script might become buggy and eventually cease to work. Leave alone the possible security violations it might pose. Therefore, if you are going to use other people's code, I recommend starting with simple code imports that you can easily understand, and then gradually going up to larger and harder codes.