Hi,

I just wanted to announce that we will be releasing a PHP log in system video tutorial within a few days.

Like all our videos, as you learn to build the project at hand, you will be secretly taught reusable PHP techniques and even some dreaded PHP nerd theory! Don’t worry though, the nerd theory will be woven into the videos, so you won’t even notice it seeping into your brain.

Many of the videos will be released on this blog for free, but the whole course (and source files) will only be available to Killersites University subscribers or as part of our upcoming complete web developer training package.

… Yes, a shameless plug but nerds need to eat too (and play video games) so we have so charge you guys a little sometimes!

Follow this blog to keep in touch.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Hi,

I’ve been busy with things and so not too many updates lately. Not to worry thought, we have a brand new course and lots of free videos coming out soon on advanced MySQL.

In the following podcast (it was a video but I changed my mind …), I talk about the pragmatism of the Zend Framework dudes.

MP3: zendframework-and-doctrine

Short and sweet.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

They just keep on coming! This is video 6 of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

The video:

Yes, I’m using Youtube … it saves me bandwidth! I’ve been pushing 250 GB a month just on Killerphp.com!

Many more to come,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Hi,

Learning to program can be a frustrating process for a lot of people; especially for designer types wanting to learn a little PHP. The following tips should help a lot of you along the way to becoming a PHP nerd. My PHP learning tips:

1. Be patient:

Patience is a virtue, especially when learning to program. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t sink in right away. It will come with time.

2. Learn to write code on faith:

… That means writing PHP code that you may not fully understand. The process of actually writing out the code, seems to help the brain take it in.

3. Learning PHP programming is a lot like learning a sport; you can pick up stuff by sitting on the sidelines and watching, but you don’t really know what you’re doing until you actually get into the game. In PHP, that means actually writing code and not just sitting listening or reading about it.

4. Take a breather:

If something is not sinking in right away, move on to something else and come back to it later … actually, give it 24 hrs to sink in. I find that the brain will work on problems over night and almost magically, things that you could not understand the day before, will become obvious.

5. Try variations in your code:

Play with different ways of doing things, try to add variation to your code. If for instance you are learning something as simple as a conditional statement .. like the ‘if’ statement, try some examples with mathematical equations and then maybe try something using a function that returns a true/false value.

6. Break your code:

One of the best ways to learn any programming language is to purposefully break code. Why? Basically it comes down to seeing what type of error messages you get for certain types of mistakes in your code. In time, you will see that particular errors will give you consistent error messages. Once you know these, debugging code will be a lot easier.

I’ve found that breaking things on purpose and in a controlled manner, can really help down the road when you run into real errors, because you will recognize the error messages.

In this video, I discuss how learning another programming language will make you a better PHP programmer. This may seem strange at first, but watch the video and you will see that I am not smoking anything …

Check out the video:

The major points:

Most modern programming languages:

- PHP
- Java
- Actionscript
- Javascript
- etc

… Share a common foundation, and as such, are very similar. Though similar, they all do things in their own unique ways. So for example, learning how to create classes in Actionscript 3.0 and then comparing this to how you would do it in PHP, is like looking at something from another angle.

Contrasting and Comparing Programming Languages

Being able to compare languages this way, will give you insight into both languages that might take you much longer to learn otherwise. This is something I discovered years ago by accident, when I started to dive into Java … learning Java gave me a much deeper understanding of Javascript. It was a huge eye opener.

Does that mean you should drop PHP?

No! PHP is the Web programming language of the day. I would suggest you choose a second or third language that will compliment your day-to-day PHP work. For example, something like Javascript so that you can get into Web 2.0, Ajax and libraries like JQuery. Or maybe Flash Actionscript, if you think you may want to get into rich internet applications.

What?! Actionscript and PHP!

You bet. Actionscript/Flash has been used with PHP for years. And now the connection is getting even deeper where Flex Builder will be working with Zend.

Conclusion

Whichever language you choose, by selecting something that is complementary to PHP, you will be killing two birds with one stone, as you deepen your overall programming knowledge.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

Hi,

In response to my a recent podcast where I recommended that PHP programmers learn the Zend Framework, I was asked why I choose Zend, rather than other PHP frameworks.

The video:

Some notes:

Just in case you can’t stand listening me bather about this in my videocast, here are the bullet points:

• Choose an MVC framework.
• Choose a framework that is flexible.
• Choose a framework that has a strong community backing it.

The details to the above points are of course found in the videocast.

HD videos are still a work in progress:

I know the new video presentations need some polish – they are a work in progress. So I appreciate your patience with me as I work out my kinks.

Anyway, I hope you find them useful.

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

I just released a new PHP video podcast where I answer a few questions put to me about php. I answer these questions:

1. Do you need to learn the Zend Framework?
2. Do you need a PHP certificate?
3. How does PHP fit into Web 2.0.

I am using a totally new format for this video and would appreciate your comments, good and bad about it.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

In a nutshell, it comes down to the size and complexity of the job. For the details, listen to me yap:
php-podcast-project-structure

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com