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PHP 4
by ILoveJackDaniels
---> INTRODUCTION: I have decide to put together an opinion on one of the web's newest additions - an excellent tool for web programmers and designers called PHP. I've decided to split it into two sections - the first is an introduction which I'm keeping simple and non-techy ... and the second part is going to be ... full of stuff that makes no sense to people who get to go outside.
---> BACKGROUND:
PHP, now in it's fourth version, is a scripting language used to create interactive websites. It is a very simple, very new, and very easy-to-use programming language that combines elements of tonnes of programming languages already used on the web (for example Java, Perl and C).
PHP is an open-source language, which basically means it's free. It also means that most people who write using PHP will make what they've written available for free on the web. This means that people who don't have the time to spend learning a language will usually be able to find a program similar to the one they need already created on the web.
It's a very easy language to learn. It takes about a week to gain a basic understanding of how to write scripts and set up databases, and that's with only a working knowledge of HTML. It takes about 2-4 weeks to be able to set up a website with a fully interactive member system and message boards etc. The actual reason PHP was written in the first place was to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.
If you are a web designer and have been thinking about learning to develop your own applications to use in your websites, then PHP is a gift from Heaven. It is extremely flexible and very easy to learn. For more information, you should have a look at www.php.net (which has lots of information and links for how to get started) or www.zend.com (who developed the fourth version of PHP).
Altogether, what this means is that the development an
d growing popularity of PHP among programmers should see a greater number of website using interactive features, and a greater quality of interacticity overall on the web - which can't be a bad thing.
---> TECH-BABBLE:
OK, so now I'm probably just talking to web-designers and similar "Outside? Where's that then?" types. You are probably wondering why you should listen to me and use PHP instead of Perl or Java or C++ or whatever you spent ages learning already.
Well, if you've already learned a language or two, the chances are that the language you already know is more powerful than PHP. PHP is designed to be easy and fast to use, and as a result languages such as Perl can be used to create more powerful applications.
Learning PHP is a doddle, as I've said above, and even more so if you know other languages. It borrows from Perl, C and Java, and users of these languages will find it very easy to pick up PHP virtually instantly.
It works very well with databases (especially if you want to create a community based site), and MySQL and Access databases are both compatible and easy to use with PHP.
PHP 4 is what I'm writing about, so it's would be a good idea for me to outline the basic differences between versions 3 and 4 (version 2 is now no longer used).
PHP 4 has basically been written from the ground up, while based on PHP 3, to be faster and more efficient. PHP 3 tended to run very slowly with high-traffic sites, and PHP 4 has been written with high volume traffic in mind.
There are also a large volume of new functions available with PHP 4. For example, PHP 4 supports FTP downloads and now recognises the 'Foreach' command (Perl programmers will recognise this). It is also backwards compatible, meaning those people who have written applications for use with PHP 3 will not have to re-write them from the ground up. Indeed, little or no modification wi
ll be needed to current PHP scripts.
Finally, PHP 4 includes support for sessions, which should help PHP designers to create more secure and faster e-commerce enabled sites.
---> END TECH BABBLE
PHP 4 marks a change in the way web pages will be written from now on. Gone are the days that Perl rules the interactive part of the web - now every man and his monkey can create a fully interactive web site in days, and with very little fuss or programming experience.
Whether you are an experienced web-guru or just starting on your first hobby-site, you should consider using PHP 4 to run your site - you will not regret it.
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Java in general
by wampyrii
Anyone who usess the web will have encountered Java more times than they could possibly ever dream of. Many of the games, animations, applet windows you see are written in the Java language. Of course, as a general web user you have absolutely no need to know this and no reason whatsoever to care. ou load the page, let the Java virtual ... machine do its thing and get on with your browsing. If on the other hand you have more than just a passing interest in Java and even might want to try your hand at learning Java either for fun, profit or enforced learning(my case) then read on...
I'm not going to say much here, just give you the chance to save yourself more than few pennies if you decide that you might like to learn Java. Java is effectively a language just like any other. You learn it just like any other and once you have become fluent in it you can start putting it to some use. Your computer however has its own language, called machine code, which is literally a collection of 1s and 0s which, although not impossible for humans to use, would be incredibly foolish to even dream of using to write a program with. As a result you use what are known a higher level languages and then use another program called a translator or interpretter to turn the program which we understand into a program which the computer can understand. Java is an example of a higher level language, others including Pascal, Fortran, Cobol, Visual Basic and C++ which is probably the closest relative you will find to Java. A Java program can be written anywhere, be it a piece of paper, or more usefully in a wordprocessor etc. but the computer will not understand it until it has been interpretted.
Which is where the expense comes in.
I could write a program right here and now in Java:
class Hello
{
public static void main (String[] args )
{
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
}
which will make sense to me,
and other Java programmers and no doubt anyone else who has touched programming because its the most simple program you can write and the one which just about every training text will start you off with. Its simply outputs Hello World! on the screen for anyone intrigued. Now to a computer this makes no sense because what it needs to see is 000100100010010010010010001000100011.....etc. so for this to be achieve we need to buy a program which will interpret it....which can cost the big bucks!
A lot of student friends of mine rushed out in the Summer holidays and purchased a proffessional package like J-Builder or suchlike for a tidy couple of hundred quid...but there is literally NO NEED to do this. Sure, you get a package which is neatly tarted up, but at the end of the day that is all you get - well, all you get for a beginner programmer. You will have no need of the tools etc. you have in this package, not for a long while after purchase so you might as well go for the entirely free alternative - and one which works equally well, and in some cases better. Sun Microsystems offers a program called the Java Development Kit(JDK) completely free for donwload from their site:
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/
It comes in at around 20Mb in size with an extra 9Mb to download if you want the rather large instruction manual(also searchable on the site). Personally, I have used both this and J-Builder and to be honest I prefer the free version - and its the software package of choice for my university! Installation is easy and once installed you are literally ready to go...
But then of course you'll want to learn Java. well, you can go on an expensive course somewhere or purchase a bunch of books like Java for Dummies to get started...or you can save yourself a bunch more money and simply learn online. there are loads of resources online to teach you how to program in Java - or at least how to get to a good beginner grade, many of t
hem far far better than any books I have come across. Sun Microsystems itself offers a tutorial for learning Java which is good for checking back to:
http://java.sun.com/
but a much better one can be found at:
http://chortle.ccsu.ctstateu.edu/cs151/cs151java.html
This is an online book from a lecturer at the Central Connecticut State University in the USA. Its written in a plain simple style and is extremely easy to read and learn from it. There are around 80 chapters each with accompanying flashcards, quizzes and programming exercises for you to try - its brilliant. I used this more last year than my lecture notes...lol.
Using just these two sites you are guaranteed to save a bundle on Java programming so its well worth checking them out if you are looking to learn the language.
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Visual Basic in general
by MrClyfar
This isn't a beginner's guide as such, but I hope everyone who reads this can gain something from it. I have been using Visual Basic for many years now, my opinion on this development tool in general is that for the majority of software projects it is more then capable of producing the goods. VB is easy to learn ... - the language is very easy to follow, a beginer can create a simple Windows program in minutes. You can easily develop web applications using web classes or activex documents (but these two tools aren't the best made for doing such projects).
But the beauty of VB is the fact that you CAN create very powerful, flexible software - if you have the know how to do it. It's no good saying 'VB isn't as powerful as C++...', blah, blah, blah. By using the API or COM it is possible to build really amazing stuff. Granted VB isn't as powerful as C++ on a language level - but by taking advantage of Windows system calls it can catch up.
Another great asset to VB is that writing software that does use the API or COM is a lot easier then using C++. Yes you do loose some flexibility or perhaps some control over what happens i.e. VB takes care of what happens in the background for you. But at the end of the day the end result is almost (90%+) the same, and produced in less time, so why worry?!
I read a lot of comments about C++ vs Visual Basic, but let's have some common sense here. Different languages provide different resources, results, performance, etc. C++ is more complex, more powerful and better suited to, perhaps, software that depends on speed or portability. The point is that VB is the choice development platform for many millions of Windows developers. Why? Simply put it provides a more proficient envirnoment - by that I mean the time it takes to develop a program is shorter then a C++ equivalent.
This isn't too say that C++ is a poor choice, but for many time critical pr
ojects, whipping out a program in VB is the only choice and a good one.
I understand many C++, or other language, programmer's will have their opinions on VB not being up to scratch, fair enough - I mean an opinion it like an asshole, everybody's got one - but I think there is an argument for VB to be considered a premiere programming tool. It's the dark horse of development tools and as it's popularity grows, I feel the number of C++, JAVA programmers might not increase as much such as in previous years, certainly with VB .NET coming out, but that's another story...
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