Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Peter H. Coffin" Newsgroups: comp.lang.php Subject: Re: Wchich software should beginner use? Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 21:54:53 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 28 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Info: mx01.eternal-september.org; posting-host="le/2G4+BNpieVhQI6uJ2Lw"; logging-data="9692"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19EB4Afw1F8W/D3Juk7Gr21" User-Agent: slrn/0.9.9p1 (OpenBSD) Cancel-Lock: sha1:DdydfBIMKVNq6FQE6e/+m30fxmo= Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.php:1380 On Mon, 2 May 2011 11:12:21 -0700 (PDT), Petey wrote: > Hey > > I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use. If you're a beginner, you should be using the absolute minimum software required to learn php. Ideally, this won't even included a webserver. You'll be using a text editor to write programs, then executing them from the command line. Once you know how to write php, THEN you can start adding databases, webservers, IDEs and all the rest of that crap into the mix. The reason for this is simple: look over the history of the group. See how many questions from beginners actually end up being about PHP. See how many questions are ACTUALLY about some of the other cruft: for example, tracking down a spurious linefeed at the end of an include file that's causing a header problem with some fancy redirect thing, only the beginner takes four days to even find the error message because some web page said that error reporting was a security risk. Does the beginner know that this isn't a PHP problem? No. Does this in any way help the beginner learn any PHP? Only incidentally. -- 38. If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age. --Anspach's Evil Overlord list