Php Course Advice

PHP
1

For one year I’ve been struggling with php programming.

I will work several months before I get the money to do this:
http://shop.zend.com/eu/php-training/zend-framework-training-certification-bundle.html

Is this worth it ?

Not sure if newbies are entitled. The description isn’t clear about that.

Please advice, :smiley:
Márcio

2

Personally, I went (and am still going) down the track of learning how to code rather than how to code PHP.

  • Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
  • Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
  • The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
  • Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
  • Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  • Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Once you get the mechanics down, you only have to worry about implementing the theory in any given language.

My latest bookshelf: http://twitpic.com/1ynre1

3

That course looks very Zend Framework oriented, which is nice if a potential employer uses ZF, but almost useless if they use Code Igniter.

As for books, I have one PHP book: the PHP4 bible. Yes, it’s old. :slight_smile:

After programming PHP for one year, I thought I was good at it.

Now, after using PHP for 6 years, I know I was not very good at it at all.
Getting to be good at PHP takes a while. I know it’s the same old advice, but just keep practicing. Having read some of your posts here over the last couple of months, I think you’re doing quite well for someone who’s only been working at it for a year. :slight_smile:

4

True. Still, I do take zend as a “almost” standard due to the company close connection with php. :slight_smile:

Still (again), I should focus more on better understand design patterns and php, so that I can easily switch framweworks in the future.

Do you consult it one in a while? Or have you read it like, start to finish?
Or, have you study it? (take notes, do the exercises etc…?) (time consuming)

So, no books for keep me on track? I just want to relieve you for my endless questions. At least partially. :stuck_out_tongue:

I do have:
PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites
(it’s ok… but… I miss “the way the code should be organized” and other newbie questions that are not entirely related with pure code".
PHP the good parts (I see it once in a while).
Pro PHP: Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More (too advanced for me).

:slight_smile:

Márcio

5 

if ($lackEnglishVocabulary === true) 
{
  $newbility = 'State of those who understand more or less, with a lot of holes';
}

Wondering if the first is accessible to my newbility? :s

By order? The last 2 seemed, by name at least, quite heavy for my newbility. :slight_smile:
I will have a look. :smiley: thanks.

Did I see a zend certification book there? :stuck_out_tongue:

One thing is still missing: are those books to be studied, to read from end to end, or to consult frequently ?

Regards,
Márcio

6

Personally, I wouldn’t bother. :stuck_out_tongue:

What books are you reading Márcio?

7

I took a few classes at PHP Architect and I loved them.

8

None. I have several however.
Actually, that is another question:

  1. Where/how to read them?
    Neither we can read a little each night before we sleep, because we cannot test the code or something that, sometimes, those books request; And we cannot read them while we working because when we do so, we are doing very specific work, that almost never will correspond to what the book exemplifies.

A question for the forum:
How/Where do you read those kind of books?

  1. What kind of level? Those books I get are either absolute newbie targeted or expert targeted. ( political tone goes in: ) What about we, the ascending newbies? :smiley: The newbies that like to play with PDO, that like to complicate on propose? :smiley: What about the newbies that, even for small projects, like to structure them on a OOP way, the best they can, and newbies that like to use filter functions for validation… we that, do not get satisfied with “but this works!” ?

Either I see books that talk about design patterns and unit testing in a way that we should already know what they are, and it teach us only how to properly “play” with them.
Either I found books that talk about how do we declare a variable, what is a function… etc… it’s important… I get that… but I need the “connection stuff” - hard to explain - .

Any intermediate level book, or a “good all picture for newbie book” that you may suggest ? :smiley:

Note:
(I hate this question, because it will normally be replied with a dozens of books, but if we can read and understand what I’ve wrote above, maybe they are not that many?) :slight_smile:

Márcio