Preserved Topic: want to learn new language

right now i only am using html / css and javascript for my site. Do you think i should learn php? Would it make my site smaller and easier to make? Are there any free hosts that allow php? do you know of any tutorials for php? or would it be better to learn something else? sorry for all the questions, thanks.

wierd, i just posted this, but c? shows up higher on the list.

www.f2s.com all the way for php.

php is the only server-side language i know, and i have to say, im very satisfied!

if you wanna do it the hardcore way, go with asp.

http://www.phpbeginner.com/

I haven't looked at the site indepth yet, but they do have some articals and tutorials on their home page that I assume are for beginners.

can i test my pages on my computer? i went to php.net and download the windows binary. i installed it and when i put

<? echo "Hello World";?>

in a html file, it didn't do anything.

the file has to be a .php type name. As well as having the correct shite set up in the .htconfig file, if you are using an apache server.

GRUMBLE...I seriously hope that you are not implying that ASP is in any way more complex or powerful than PHP...of course, depending on how you define "hardcore" you could mean something diifferent than what I am thinking.

ASP is certainly more onerous than PHP...In reality ASP and PHP are used to acheive the same goal, yet in somewhat different ways. I have a lot of experience in both, and I have to say that PHP is outrageously faster (Especially with the Zend Optimizer). I personally rely on PHP's portability, where with ASP I am restricted to IIS (win32 based systems(this one is going to start an argument with ASP lovers...)). I would only recommend learning ASP over PHP if you have experience in VB or VBScript...otherwise, PHP all the way!

-Timothy

JakeB, did you configure Apache correctly (you have to modify httpd.conf, just follow instructions from install.txt that comes with PHP)?

Oh, BTW My favorite language will always be PERL (together with mod_perl for optimal speed)...

forgot the links...

http://www.php.net
http://www.zend.com
http://www.phpbeginner.com/
http://www.devshed.com
http://www.phpbuilder.com
http://www.evilwalrus.com
http://www.thickbook.com
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/

jakeb, what webserver are you running? check the readme and helpfiles to configure your php correctly.

timothy, by hardcore, i meant, that asp is more often used on professional pages, but of course i could be wrong. i dont know asp, but i often heard that it is the language of professionals.

uhhh....language of professionals<scratches head>...

I guess you could say it is in the eye of the beholder...from experience working with clients and investors, I would say that it gives NON-geeks peace of mind when dealing with a Microsoft product. It seems strange to me, but when dealing with potential (and existing at times), they fear anything that is NOT Microsoft when dealing with the computing world.

Open Source is BIG, and it is here to stay...and can only get bigger. But how can a bunch of geeks compete with the multi-million dollar marketing department of Microsoft? Sure, programmers love anything related to Java, PHP, MySQL...but you have to sell your reasoning...

As for "the language of professionals" being ASP...I don't agree, I would say it is one out of many professional languages, for professionals to choose from...

Myself, I would choose PHP...it gives me piece of mind...very fast...and very stable...

Back to the actual topic...

How are you doing JakeB?? Any more questions??

There is a very good walkthrough of how to set yourself up to run Apache and PHP on windows by Julie Meloni here http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/00/44/index4a.html?tw=programming

-Timothy

Ok, Visual Basic being the language of professionals... Maybe 10 years ago... no wait, not even then.

I think that is more M$ marketing ploys.

-mage-

oh and BTW RTFM it really will help.

HAHAHA...damn you warmage...I think that was my second or third post that was NOT sarcastic...and you had to go and ruin it!!! LOL, C'mon VB has its place still...it might be a very small place, but it *is* a place...

-Timothy

"what webserver are you running?" this is my computer it's not going to host anything on the net. Do i still need to download apache for php files to work?

um... I think so... I am not sure... I have never tried it without apache or the IIS...

-mage-

Yes you need to install some type of server on your computer to test your .php pages, unless you have a web host that supports PHP. Apache is realatively easy to install and configure on a windows machine. If you don't want to do that, and your host doesn't support PHP, you could always do what Grumble suggested in his first post, and sign up with f2s.com. It's free and you can do PHP.

Oh yea, the author of the Web Monkey link timothymcnulty gave you (Julie Meloni) has an excelent PHP book out for beginners, "PHP Fast and Easy Web Development". It gets you up and using PHP and MySQL very quickly, along with pretty good installation and configuration instructions for installing Apache/PHP/MySQL

i got apache installed, and it's working. I then installed php. But it doesn't work. in my apache httpconfig file apache gets an error on this line

# for the apache module
LoadModule php4_module c:/php/sapi/php4apache.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php4

it's cause in my php folder there is no sapi folder. and my computer doesn't have php4apache.dll

Again RTFM. It will help.

-mage-

i don't have a fm! i have php's and apache text files that came with the installer(i read them). i also have the link someone gave me. i followed the text files exact instructions, but why don't i even have a dll needed? it should have came with an installer. i got the newest windows binaries from apache and php.

JakeB

Here check this out it may help

PHP Triad installer, installs PHP, MySQL and Apache at once


Walking the Earth like Kane

Man, how nice is that, great link bitdamaged. Even though it's pretty straightforward, I'm not sure how quickly I could have configured the three of them without a good book with me.

JakeB, did you install PHP from zip file or you used installer? It is better to download zip file.

Oh, and as far as those web server bundles are concerned, I've mentioned a new bundle called FoxServ in another topic in Ozone forum...