NYCPHP Meetup

[Joel De Gan]

On Wed, 2004-06-30 at 12:41, inforequest wrote:
> I completely appreciate the posts, but right from the start these things 
> are exactly what stops a VB person from going PHP.

Hrm, when I first started PHP I was coming from a Microsoft shop. They
had me build a code repository in PHP as a way for me just to get my
feet wet.

> In VB/M$ land, "Hello World" is an example of professional programming. 
> In OS/PHP land (to read these recent posts) even writing phpBB is unworthy.

There are good examples and bad examples, the majority on "app" sites is
not good, we are not saying they all are. Pick careful.

> People need to feel they are "OK programmers with an opportunity to be 
> great" not crappy-programmers-in-need-of-improvement. Granted, we are 
> all crappy programmers seeking perfection, but might that confidence be 
> the separator between the M$ camp followers and the OS people?

True, have him make a simple app with no real expectations for it. Give
him a two week (or one) timeline. The main points to focus on are
Database queries (selects/inserts/deletes) and display (for web based
stuff)

> Asking this guy to build a box is way over his head. Agreed that is a 
> problem, but giving him a box to build doesn't get him there. Asking him 
> to hack on an ad-server app will require careful 1:1 scrutiny with a 
> considerable level of PHP expertise - not an option. I agree completely 
> about the need to rate hotscripts and the like for "appropriateness" but 
> that doesn't exist either. These are great ideas for talking an average 
> PHPprogrammer to new levels of understanding (I'd like to do them 
> myself, thanks for the suggestions :-) but not the newbie/VB person.

I agree, asking a noob to 'build' a box is going to send them into panic
mode. I suppose that baby-steps would be a better option here.

> I am very close to setting him loose with the CLI as a parsing tool and 
> having him build an access log analyzer.... tons of good PHP to do, 
> modular approach, constant parallels to VI and *nix CL tools, etc and I 
> can even set him loose on WebTrends so compare results... but he's not 
> my hire so unless I can garner value from that idea I can't afford the time.

Perfect, that will also teach him a lot about linux in the process
without throwing him in the deep end.

> I might add that these people spend alot more money on tools and stuff 
> than the OS people I know... perhaps if there isn't a community resource 
> to encourage/support crossover to OS/PHP land,  there is opportunity for 
> a short course on building a box/setting up LAMP, to be sold to such 
> people used to buying things like VB add-ons and widgets?

VB programming has a lot of comparatives in PHP (you would be surprised)
a lot of the core ideas and techniques are the same..

Speaking of which, mono 1.0 came out today so I am off to play with
that, I may move my little sprites app over to GTK#

-- 
joeldg - developer, Intercosmos media group.
http://lucifer.intercosmos.net