NYCPHP Meetup

[John Lacey]

Brian O'Connor wrote:
> Hi I've been working with PHP now for close to 7 months now, and I
> feel the biggest obstacle for furthering my knowledge is lack of
> projects / sites to create.  I've already worked with MySQL a lot, a
> little bit of PEAR, and worked a bit with OOP.  I was wondering if
> anyone had any suggestions for projects that I do, or a strategy that
> I can use to learn different styles of php.  Thanks.

Hi Brian,

Well, I've been "off-project" for more than a year doing other things, 
so I can relate--however, I know a little bit about learning, so here's 
some advice that may help.

As you've mentioned above, you want to be involved in a project, 
primarily for the learning it provides, and one of the most effective 
ways is being involved in one that you are motivated to work on because 
you have a need.  The key here is a goal-oriented project rather than 
"this might be nice to learn" project.  For example, a friend of mine 
needed a testing application for his credentialling organization a 
couple years ago.  Of course, I looked for PHP/MySQL apps and discovered 
"phpTest", and spent a fair amount of time customizing and adding a few 
enhancements.  I lucked out (learning-wise) since phpTest is very well 
written IMO, but needs some work to improve security, etc.  A hacker by 
the name of Brandon Tallent wrote it when he was 20 or so.  His stated 
goal was to make a test engine that was "the first choice of anyone who 
needed to test any subject".  He said his second goal was to hack on and 
learn PHP and MySQL.
So much for the motivation aspect.

Now, as to projects, I am sometimes asked similar questions by my 
students and my first response is to work on something that you can be 
somewhat passionate and addicted to.  Sorta the "one more thing before I 
go to bed" project.  No one can tell you what that is.

If you're looking for *ideas* (NOT necessarily well-coded scripts) you 
can look here:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/index.html
(remember, this site has a bit of a rep for schlock code, so "choose 
wisely")

another great fishing ground for ideas is here: (same caution as above)
http://freshmeat.net/browse/160/

and of course there's sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/

and you can get some ideas here:
http://www.zend.com/codex.php

hope that helps,
John