PHP Mod advice

[Gucci Mane]

Whats the best way to learn PHP by looking at other peoples mods??

I know PHP syntax

[Zero-Affect]

That is exactly how i taught myself, i didnt have CE or any other forum for help at first it was just me a notepad and MC codes lol

[Joshua]

same for me >,< codes and notepad, then found CE :P

[corruptcity || skalman]

dreamweaver and mc for me then CE/MWG

[Gucci Mane]

I se lol. I have notepad ++ and mccodes script lol how could I teach myself PHP that way though?? (tips)?

[Nickson]

few people may have learned their php via MCC and mods, but to be honest, this surely is NOT the best way to learn a scripting language. While this is a possibility, there are a lot better ways out. If you decide to learn php from scripts, you get a whole bunch of code supplied, and no explanations or anything, you just have to figure out yourself what part does what exactly. Sure this is still possible, but as you can imagine yourself, not ideal. Also, you have to keep in mind that every written script is being written by a certain person that uses a certain coding style. Many things in programming languages, yet the way you want to do something are far from the same overall. Yes, even tutorials may give you troubles with coding style related issues, but since you're going step by step, you'll actually have no problems understand what has changed, and what is new. Not all (read: hardly any) tutorials you'll see will be complete, there is a lot to discover, that's why we have a manual for more details into depth.

Also, do not be afraid to try out some code you've written! Trial and error, is an important lesson in your learning process! You learn more from diagnosing your mistakes and fixing these, then writing code that works from the first time, odd but it does. If you can not understand something, search the internet for solutions, if you're still getting nowhere, or are fairly sure nothing is helping, make a post on these forums, describing well what your problem is, and where it arises. People will help you (it just depends on your attitude and what you supply). Don't forget the importance of the editor you're using. All you actually need is syntax highlighting, some also prefer live, on the fly, syntax checking. All you actually need is a simple editor like notepad++ (not notepad itself as it doesn't have syntax highlighting).

 

What I would advise you is to use a couple of sites and follow some PHP tutorials, they explain step by step some of the basic functionality. Knowing syntax is one thing, understanding the concepts and how a language is being used is a second thing, using it yourself in an empty file is a completely different one! You can go quite quickly through these and actually understand quite well, what is happening. Don't be afraid to use google, it's a search engine that helps you find stuff on the web, don't google for code snippets but for tutorials. Also have one windows opened on php.net! Why? to quickly look up in the manual what the function does, together with an explanation of a tutorial writer. It actually gives you a very good detailed answer on those matters.

4 sites that can actually help a lot, and give you a quite good basis.

http://www.tizag.com/phpT/

http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_intro.asp

http://www.php.net

http://www.google.com

[Danny696]

I leant by, looking at code, trying to make simple codes, then asking people why they wouldnt work, any critisism, like n00b, i would just ignore. best thing to do is try and make codes that do different things.

[Zero-Affect]

I still think looking at code testing it and then getting negative criticism from people is the best way to learn i mean if i code something which is rubbish i want to be told about it rather than someone saying its nice and then 2 weeks later noticing its flawed.

Constructive criticism and negative criticism work well when learning something.