As an experienced PHP programmer, I'd HIGHLY recommend coders, especially beginners, tick with PHP version 4. I know its tempting to get the 'latest and greatest', however, v5 is still too new, and the majority of servers out there still only support v4 code, so you will run into problems if you already start using functions/methods available in v5 only, and dont own/operate/have root on the server in which your code is going to run, and only ever run.
I don't plan to make the switch to version 5 for at le
Yes, but as a somewhat, shall we say, intermediate programmer, and one who would especially like to learn all about the new OOP enviroments in PHP 5, would you recommend this for practicing with until PHP 5 becomes standard?
My webhost is just a college dude who rents a server out monthly and resells it to guys like me. Actually, I became a reseller under him, so I have root access to the server. I'm sure I could convince him to upgrade pretty soon. In the meantime, I'd love to fool with PHP 5 on my own ma
It doesnt hurt to learn new things, especially in the case of programming languages. I dont disagree with learning php 5, but I dont think you should get too used to it at this point in time.
If you consider yourself just an intermediate programmer, then I would recommend you put your focus on honing your php 4 skills first, then taking on php 5 will be a cakewalk instead of a chore in itself.
As far as OOP is concerned, I'd recommend you learn it in php4 as well, since it is also an OO based language.
In terms of books to look for, I found O'Reilly's PHP CookBook to be the most useful, and most accurate in terms of proper PHP code.
PHP is a VERY quirky language, and there are a lot of things that you can do wrong, and never know about without really understanding the langauge. (such as using " instead of ' to enclose strings, which causes your scripts to run slower since the php engine has to parse " strings for variables)
If you want to learn php 5, you first should KNOW php 4, so that you will be able ot tell the differences in the 2 versions, and not confuse yourself.
Stick with PHP 4 (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't plan to make the switch to version 5 for at le
Re:Stick with PHP 4 (Score:1)
Re:Stick with PHP 4 (Score:1)
If you consider yourself just an intermediate programmer, then I would recommend you put your focus on honing your php 4 skills first, then taking on php 5 will be a cakewalk instead of a chore in itself.
As far as OOP is concerned, I'd recommend you learn it in php4 as well, since it is also an OO based language.
In terms of books to look for, I found O'Reilly's PHP CookBook to be the most useful, and most accurate in terms of proper PHP code.
PHP is a VERY quirky language, and there are a lot of things that you can do wrong, and never know about without really understanding the langauge. (such as using " instead of ' to enclose strings, which causes your scripts to run slower since the php engine has to parse " strings for variables)
If you want to learn php 5, you first should KNOW php 4, so that you will be able ot tell the differences in the 2 versions, and not confuse yourself.