Thought it would be interesting to find out where everyone is coming from in terms of language used prior to learning about php.

For those whose introduction to programming was php please describe what drew you to the language.

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NEWEDGE Services, Inc. - Developers of ClientExec

I learned almost everything about html, a little javascript, and some visual basic.. I was buying scripts (for gaming sites) for awhile.. Now I am learning php so in the future I can write those scripts myself without having to pay for them.

I really have no idea where I started programming. I guess you could say I really started on my TI calculator a while back. Then I believe I got into PHP shortly after that. No idea why, I was always amazed by some of the websites on the web and I wanted to know how to do it. So I started teaching myself by reading a few websites. I only purchased two PHP book throughout this learning process because they didn't seem to help me too much. I learn better by examples than anything else really and that's why I stuck to code snippets on other sites.

I was using HTML before but i switched to using PHP because of all the amazing things you can do in this language.

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Well, really you need to know HTML to make anything productive in PHP! ;)

I use html code and prefer it cuase its petter for SE spider and ranking.

I spent a long time coding in C, so for me, PHP is kinda natural, except for the different commands in place of some of them and slightly different syntax. Actually the manual itself for PHP was probably the most helpful of all the books so far.

me too only know html just starting on php from this month

i know html and am learning php

php was the first sssl i learnt
now im learning asp.net and mssql

How's ASP.Net coming along for you? Do you like it or dislike it?

Before I even got into web development, I was more interestered in application development like desktop applications and so on. I guess I decided to learn PHP because I was getting more into developing websites and these days it's all that I use!

to be honest im finding it very easy! and im enjoying it quite a bit

within 24 hours i had built a working address book where you could insert and view entries. and i didnt follow a tutorial. just built snippets of code then put them together.

i would post a link but i dont have access to any asp.net / mssql webspace at the moment.

now im working on building my own asp.net powered forums. idea behind them is not for major development but to show off my lanaguages. so they will contain an example of everything i know. such as asp.net/mssql/javascript/xml/xhtml etc etc im still studying xml/xhtml but that will be developed as i learn more about them

I come from English. ;) I started with basic html using notepad to Frontpage to allow clients to edit pages, and dreamweaver. I've done very little with PHP, and probably know enough to be dangerous, to whom I'm not sure. Prolly to my own servers. ;)

I prefer quality written scripts, so I stick away from coding my own. :)

I started with html, Spent an hour learning and coding it got good at it and got bored, I just moved strait onto php, theres more of a limit to what you can do in html, but not so much in php thats why i like it.

I started programming with BASIC. Then when I got on the internet, I looked what up information I could on how to make a webpage (which wasn't much back in 1995/1996).

My first page was god-awful. Basic HTML w/ no tables. Of course the latest browser out at that time was Netscape 1.1 and I think IE 3.01 (from Win95), so it wasn't like we had all these new fangled things yet.

Anyway, moved on into Visual Basic application programming, and other free compiler versions of it like Liberty BASIC. After awhile, I gave up on programming altogether. Then I picked it back up again, and found myself interested in learning C and C++, so I did so, and about that time, a friend told me about PHP3, I didn't think much of it at the time.

A few months later another friend said something about learning PHP, so we both went to the book store and each grabbed a book on it.

His covered PHP3 and went into more advanced techniques shortly after introductions to PHP, mine was for PHP4, and was basically an extreme beginner's book. Although I learned most of what I know from it, and reading on php.net.

While I learned, I worked on a website, to help me, which also forced me to learn CSS and JavaScript at the same time. http://www.silvercrossings.net/ was my project. It included a full CMS, and web-based chat system integrated together. I took a lot of how the PHP/Post Nuke CMS's worked, to create my own system.

Anyway, so yeah, my roots stretch back to BASIC, and move through several languages, up to PHP. :) I've always been fascinated with software programming of any kind, so anything new I can learn, that helps me in that endeavor, I take the time to learn. I don't have a big interest in MS-related technologies anymore though.

I run Linux as my desktop, and would prefer to code in a language that is available through Open Source. :)

NS

Sounds like you've had a pretty interesting background. :)

PHP was one of the first languages I learned and that was to help with installing and creating hacks for a forum I help run. LOL, we had about 4 of us that didn't know jack and had to feel our way along every step of the way.

PHP was the first real programming language I learned. I have since started learning C++ but really wish I had taken some programming classes in college to get a good foundation.

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Brandon Eley
EleyTech Web Solutions
2BigFeet - Large Shoes for Men

But, i always have been suggested (and i myself suggest too, from now on), you should learn programming concepts not a particular language. languages are mostly same, just syntax diference, but if you are not good at programming basics like security, easeness, maintainance then its no use whatever you learn.

just my 2 cents

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