RemoteGurus

Hi All,

I am new here. I am less of a programmer and more of a student. I have a lot to learn about programming, but I am all ears. I do plan to participate and contribute the knowledge I do have, while also sponging and learning from some of the more wise.

With that said, I do run my own web business. I have been an Systems Engineer for over 8 years. I have a vast amount of technical skills, but not so much programming skills. I can host and manage my own web server farm without a problem and create simple batch (or shell) scripts to complete task. When it comes to programming from scratch or creating an application or web page that is where I have trouble. My goal is to focus mainly on web programming, specifically PHP and learn as much as possible.

Anyway, feel free to drop a line to let me know you stopped by!

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Ooble

Welcome. We're all students here. You don't stop learning just because you've got a qualification.

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Infinite Recursion

Welcome! I'm curious as to why you chose PHP for web development? I use it for most of my web development work, just wondering what lured you to this particular language.

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http://jasonpowers.net

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

RemoteGurus

I agree.


I use .php for most (really all) of my current websites. I however have to go to HotScripts.com to get scripts as I do not understand PHP well enough to create a website from scratch. Though, I tend to edit the scripts to my liking and it seems to be somewhat simple to do (like HTML), but I would like to get more involved with it and do more advanced PHP programming to create more dynamic and robust websites of my own without relying on other people creations.

I honestly do not know the difference between PHP, ASP, CGI or any of the other web programming languages, I just tend to purchase PHP scripts as they seem to have the most inventory available, so it seems to be the web programming language of choice so that is why I decided I'll learn that one.

Do you think there is a better, easier, or more robust web programming language which a newbie like myself should learn, first? Please advise.

Some may get upset but I use PHP, MySQL, and IIS together on Windows 2003. I prefer IIS over Apache as I am a Windows person myself, but I have used Apache/Linux and open source many times -- but Windows is my preference. Though, I prefer .php over .asp -- no real reason why except that I am more familar with PHP through hotscripts.

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Infinite Recursion

PHP is definitely a good choice... Although, I've been seeing ASP.Net come into play in several enterprise level web applications... so I briefly thought about switching gears. Like you, I stuck with PHP because its what I know best in terms of a web development language. Personally, I don't think there is a better one out there... but that's just an opinion not a fact.

I'm really a half-and-half type of guy... in regards to operatings systems. Anything that relies on stability I tend to go with Linux. Most of my boxes at home run Linux, however, I do have a few Windows boxes thrown in the mix.

In case you may not have known, Apache runs over Windows as well. I'm not sure I would use IIS for a web server, but again, that's just my bias towards Apache.

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http://jasonpowers.net

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

RemoteGurus

I got you. Yes, I know about Apache running on Windows, I've used WAMP, LAMP, and WIMP I have been using IIS since the year 2000 and I know how to manage it much better than Apache. I even know how to rewrite the URL's using ISAPIRewrite the Windows versions of ModRewrite. I guess its just a matter of comfort-level for me. I hear a lot of horror stories about IIS, but I've been lucky (or skilled) enough not to run into any major concerns. I have worked in companies who main business was web driven, with over 10 Million visitors a month --- running Windows clusters with IIS. Of course, there were some issues, but nothing too extreme. I've also seen the same satisfying results with a Apache/Linux combo. So I think it is a matter of what a person know and is comfortable with. I never blamed either OS only the sys admin

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Ooble

I'm a big fan of PHP too, though I dislike IIS - it's much easier to configure Apache, in my opinion. Might be because I was thrown in the deep end with IIS and told "get that damn website working before our customer notices it's down, damnit!" but still, not a huge fan.

I'd definitely recommend learning PHP enough to write a website from scratch, though that rarely happens with so many free, open-source libraries and frameworks out there to help you on your way. The official site has a good guide to the language.

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RemoteGurus

Thanks Ooble.

That's the thing! IIS is much easier for me to configure than Apache. I can configure IIS with my eyes close. On a machine which already is preloaded with Windows, I can honestly install IIS, PHP, and MySQL in less than 20 minutes and have it all configured with working websites. It's that easy for me with IIS, but with Apache, I always run into a snag. It is really about the sys admin and their comfort level with the product opposed to a problem with IIS or Apache. Even when it comes down to securing the two, it depends on the competent level of the sys admin, because I can secure IIS without issues but will leave Apache wide open (unknowingly) because I don't understand its architecture as I do with IIS.

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Infinite Recursion

I agree. I actually started out with IIS, then moved into Apache. I spend most of my time with Apache so it is where I am most comfortable. I even made an extra effort to get mod_mono working so I could run ASP.Net web applications over Linux.

Speaking of clusters and your system engineering background, have you ever had an interests in beowulf clusters?

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http://jasonpowers.net

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

lectricpharaoh

Welcome to the forums, RemoteGurus.
Heh, I was wondering when you'd mention this. How's the project coming?

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