September 7th, 2007
Recently I decided to take my shot at programming in PHP. As i programmed in ASP before I knew that server side programming concept wouldn’t be problem for me but as I never programmed in C-like language I thought it’ll be difficult to crunch through the syntax. I was surprised.
It seems that once you now how to talk to your computer it’s not a big deal to change a language. You have the web full of examples and IDE-s with auto complete to help you. You can adapt to new syntax very quickly. Same thing with MySql – sql syntax is almost the same. If you know what you can do with it you’ll find an example in few seconds.
Main problem appears after you learn the syntax. Being used to “you start and I’ll finish for you” .net way of coding main problem for now is organization of a code.
- How to name your variables: case sensitivity matters now.
- How to arrange braces: those {} blocks are taking too much space if you indent much. If you don’t indent, you loose code structure and clearness.
- How to debug effectively: are var_dump() and die() statements good enough or is there better way?
- Is there any good IDE for PHP or is Notepad++ the best way?
I suppose that’s why programmers tend to be religious about their choice of language. They are used to one way and other way is alien to them. And our way is the best and only way.