NYCPHP Meetup

[Linda Amiaga]

Gary,

I think that is a great idea regarding the cleanup of the Joomla code base.

I think no matter what your level of experience with programming, there is something to be gained in looking at the existing code base.  In fact, I find this is the best way to learn.  In fact, as an experienced developer, my road to learning PHP is probably different from most. I find that the PHP syntax has bits and pieces of programming and scripting languages I already know (especially C and ksh) and I need the practice with PHP to distinguish the specifics of the language.

Please count me in to help clean up the deprecated functions.

Linda Amiaga  


________________________________
 From: Gary A. Mort <joomla+2012 at gary.mort.net>
To: joomla at lists.nyphp.org 
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 1:29 PM
Subject: [joomla] Learning PHP and Joomla
 

Hi Guys,

Something I noticed at last nights meeting was a lot of comments
        about individuals who want to learn a bit of PHP, especially as
        it relates to Joomla.

I was thinking if people are willing to pursue an alternative
        method of education, I can put together a tutorial on setting up
        your system for programming in Joomla along with a subsection on
        the website of tasks that can be done to both improve Joomla!
        AND learn PHP at the same time.


There are 4 aspects of Joomla Code that could always use a lot
        of help.

1) Documentation
2) Unit Tests
3) Depreciated Functions
4) Management of the above

We could work on this as a group, as opposed to individuals. 
        Where a JoomlaNYC repository of code can be kept - members can
        pull from a list of tasks, work on them, submit the fixes back,
        and then a maintainer can shepherd them through the giving back
        to Joomla! process[always the spot I have trouble with]

For example, take a look at line 74 in the Content Controller:
http://mandrillapp.com/track/click.php?u=11000867&id=c689c7bdc2df4dbba24014567db24006&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjoomla%2Fjoomla-cms%2Fblob%2Fmaster%2Fcomponents%2Fcom_content%2Fcontroller.php%23L74&url_id=486258189&tags=252069,957497

JError is a depreciated class - this means it will be going away
        at some point.  Generally calls like this are relatively simple
        to fix, you just need to replace one function call with a
        different call.   But these kinds of changes are boring for an
        experienced programmer to do, so they tend to linger.

Moreover, the longer they linger, the more damage they inflict
        on 3rd party components - since if the core code isn't fixed,
        you end up with 3rd parties who keep using the same depreciated
        code and then one day someone finally cleans all the stuff out,
        the depreciated method disappears, and 3rd party code breaks all
        over.

Keeping a clean code base is important...it's also a great
        opportunity for others to learn PHP since you will learn little
        snippets of coding as you go along - the base platform can be
        improved, and everyone wins.

I'm trying to go through this process myself just to give me a
        mental jump start for the day...do a few simple php
        fixes...submit the patch...move on to real work.  I was thinking
        if we centralized this on the NYC Joomla site, then people could
        learn and improve the code at the same time...  and if we can
        get a decent process in place, we can also move on to unit tests
        where you can learn even more PHP coding with the added benefit
        that you are learning GOOD programming practices at the same
        time.

 
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