| Wchich software should beginner use? [message #173746] |
Mon, 02 May 2011 18:12  |
Petey
Messages: 2
Registered: May 2011
Karma: 0
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Junior Member |
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Hey
I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use.
I use Eclipse for development and apache for server hosting. What else should I learn that might be useful in future - related to DB's, programming, comparison.
Should I start using git or svn?
Please provide me some useful tips and tricks :)
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| Re: Wchich software should beginner use? [message #173747 is a reply to message #173746] |
Mon, 02 May 2011 21:51  |
Michael Fesser
Messages: 215
Registered: September 2010
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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.oO(Petey)
> I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use.
>
> I use Eclipse for development and apache for server hosting.
Good. :D
> What else
> should I learn that might be useful in future - related to DB's,
> programming, comparison.
If you're on Apache and PHP, then getting familiar with MySQL and SQL in
general would be the next logical step. You should learn SQL and - if
you intend to use MySQL - how to use the command line tools 'mysql' and
'mysqldump' (not that difficult, their parameters are almost the same).
You don't have to do all DB stuff on MySQL's command line, but it helps
a lot if you're able to do it. You can also use GUIs like phpMyAdmin,
HeidiSQL or the tools in Eclipse, but you should also be able to use the
command line if necessary.
While a command line interface might seem a bit archaic in the Web 2.0
era, it's still the most powerful tool, which also allows for scripting
and a lot of automation.
That's for the server-side stuff. Dependent on what you want to do, it
might also make sense to get familiar with client-side scripting, i.e.
JavaScript. It's a rather easy language, but difficult to handle. Many
(most?) scripts out there are just crap. Writing good, efficient and -
most important - compatible JS is much harder than you may think. There
are many things to consider and even more things that can go wrong.
Personally I don't care much about it and concentrate more on server-
side stuff to achieve a maximum of compatibility. JS here and there to
improve a site's usability, but never for essential stuff. But that's
your own decision.
> Should I start using git or svn?
A version control system will also help, even if you're the only person
working on your scripts at the moment. It helps you to keep track of
changes and also allows coding experiments (keywords: branches, tags)
without crashing your main coding line. If something goes wrong or
doesn't work as expected, you can easily revert it and switch back to an
older version. Simply spoken - version control is cool. ;)
You might have to do some research about the available version control
systems and their features. CVS is well-known, but it's outdated and has
been replaced by more powerful ones. But every developer has its own
preferences. I use SVN, which works very well, does all that I need and
integrates nicely with Eclipse (Subversive). YMMV.
You might also want to check with your host if they have some version
control system available on their servers. This would offer you a very
easy way to sync your local files with the remote server. It's almost
unbelievable, but syncing is still one of the biggest problems left in
Eclipse: except for some old FTP hacks and ugly workarounds there's not
a clean, reliably working solution yet! They're working on it …
Thankfully my host has SVN installed, so I just have to login to the
remote server via a secure shell (SSH) and call a little shell script,
which then syncs all necessary files with my own local SVN repository.
With some additional scripting as mentioned above I could also let it
sync the databases etc.
> Please provide me some useful tips and tricks :)
My advice besides learning PHP and SQL would be to get familiar with a
command line interface (CLI), preferably a Linux shell. In many cases
you can achieve your goal much faster by entering a well-thought command
than by clicking through a dozen menus on a web interface (comparing the
MySQL CLI to phpMyAdmin for example). And you can use scripting to
automate many things.
HTH
Micha
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| Re: Wchich software should beginner use? [message #173751 is a reply to message #173746] |
Tue, 03 May 2011 02:54 |
Peter H. Coffin
Messages: 245
Registered: September 2010
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 2 May 2011 11:12:21 -0700 (PDT), Petey wrote:
> Hey
>
> I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use.
If you're a beginner, you should be using the absolute minimum software
required to learn php. Ideally, this won't even included a webserver.
You'll be using a text editor to write programs, then executing them
from the command line. Once you know how to write php, THEN you can
start adding databases, webservers, IDEs and all the rest of that crap
into the mix.
The reason for this is simple: look over the history of the group. See
how many questions from beginners actually end up being about PHP. See
how many questions are ACTUALLY about some of the other cruft: for
example, tracking down a spurious linefeed at the end of an include file
that's causing a header problem with some fancy redirect thing, only the
beginner takes four days to even find the error message because some web
page said that error reporting was a security risk. Does the beginner
know that this isn't a PHP problem? No. Does this in any way help the
beginner learn any PHP? Only incidentally.
--
38. If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring
anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately,
instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of
vengeance towards me in my old age. --Anspach's Evil Overlord list
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| Re: Wchich software should beginner use? [message #173755 is a reply to message #173746] |
Tue, 03 May 2011 07:53 |
alvaro.NOSPAMTHANX
Messages: 277
Registered: September 2010
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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El 02/05/2011 20:12, Petey escribió/wrote:
> I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use.
>
> I use Eclipse for development and apache for server hosting. What
> else should I learn that might be useful in future - related to DB's,
> programming, comparison.
The first obvious piece of software is a decent GUI tool for your DBMS:
HeidiSQL if you use MySQL; SQL Developer if you use Oracle; SQL Server
Management Studio Express (cough cough) if you use SQL Server...
although Eclipse probably includes one. I've seen too many people
fighting with crappy web interfaces. It's very important to know that
SQL is an independent language and can be debugged separately (again,
I've seen too many people that post their PHP code when they get a SQL
error).
I've also found file compare tools pretty valuable. In Windows I use
WinMerge but there're many alternatives.
I'd also suggest a real Usenet reader such as Thunderbird or Opera.
Google Groups web interface is possibly the worse Usenet reader ever
written. Once you get the software, you can ask for a free account at
http://www.eternal-september.org or the Usenet provider of your choice.
> Should I start using git or svn?
Absolutely! Version control software is a must: you can't do serious
development without it. The difficult bit is which one you should pick
because nowadays there're many possibilities out there.
What's your operating system? GIT is an excellent piece of software but
it's basically designed for Linux and its GUI tools for Windows are not
very good yet. On the contrary, Subversion itself is quite a mediocre
tool but it has first-class applications on Windows. Perhaps you can
evaluate Mercurial as a compromise between GIT and Subversion.
> Please provide me some useful tips and tricks :)
Learn to use the official documentation! In particular, many newbies
tend to replace the PHP manual (which is superb) with random Google
searching.
--
-- http://alvaro.es - Álvaro G. Vicario - Burgos, Spain
-- Mi sitio sobre programación web: http://borrame.com
-- Mi web de humor satinado: http://www.demogracia.com
--
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