Expanding your PHP understanding

what do you do?

[jatar_k]

I find that once you have done a certain number of projects that differ in their focus there is a tendancy to stagnate in your development.

You use the same functions for the same things, only when you encounter a problem do you really change your style. It is still the same basic solution with some tweaks after all. You crank out scripts at a faster rate because of your previous experience and hopefully get paid more to do it. ;)

How do you approach continuing developing your understanding of the language?

I do a few things that I know of, though working on projects that are completely different helps a lot.

1. I read all of the changefiles on new php releases.

How does this help you may ask. it familiarizes me with functions that have been added and then i can go look them up. I sometimes see things that I didn't notice earlier.

2. I read the manual

Especially for oft used functions such as for strings, arrays, filesystem, mysql, oci, as well as others. These are functions that I use all the time. Any changes, additional functions or even new user notes can help expand my understanding to allow me to better address problems in the future.

3. This forum

Reading the many ways that all of the contributors here address similar challenges always helps me gain fresh perspective on old issues.

These are far from all but I will leave them open. I am truly interested how people keep expanding their knowledge of the same tool they have always used. It's still PHP after all. :)

[coopster]

Read through other source code

I'll pull somebody else's code once in awhile and have a peek through it. You know, grab an interesting sounding package off sourceforge and rifle through some of the source.

[lorax]

>> 1. I read all of the changefiles on new php releases.

Whuff! That can be excrutiating. ;)

I will sometimes do random searches on the PHP or MySQL sites for something I know and am comfortable with and then look down through the results for things I didn't know.

I have a hard copy of the MySQL manual and will occassionally bring that to the loo and skim through it.

I will also occassionally bookmark pages that I find in my searches on Google or other SE while trying to resolve a problem but weren't pertinent to it. After the issue has been resolved I will go back and read.

Since I work alone for the most part I don't have the benefit of pulling someone else's code though occassionally I do download and play with open-source scripts/applications like osCommerce. The problem with these is getting my head into what the programmer was thinking. It takes a lot of time to get comfortable with someone else's application but it can be very educational when you do - but not always.

[timster]

Build follies

I get curious about something "useless" and make a project out of it. All the better if it requires lots of computing power, big datasets, or quirky data structure.

It's easy to hit the books if it's "for play." And it's easier to concentrate on efficiency when you're saving minutes instead of milliseconds.

[jatar_k]

>>Read through other source code

not for the faint of heart though, some bigger packages are just overwhelming.Takes 3 days just to unravel the line of includes.

>>Build follies

I seem to have no time for them anymore, if there is no purpose there is no purpose. They are good practice if the time and drive are available.

Anyone have any books that actually cater to advanced users? Most I have seen are great for beginner/intermediate but most of the ones that say "Advanced PHP" don't really do anything for me.

I have to say that regardless of skill level the manual is the place to be. I can never say often enough what a well structured, user friendly, informative site that is.

[henry0]

try
"PHP advanced"
by Larry Ullman

have fun

cheers
henry