NYCPHP Meetup

[inforequest]

Joel De Gan joel-at-tagword.com |nyphp 04/2004| wrote:

>On Wed, 2004-06-30 at 11:53, Chris Shiflett wrote:
>  
>
>>Unfortunately, I don't know of any good examples. I've heard good things
>>about coWiki's code. Anyone know of other well-written PHP applications?
>>    
>>
>
>Well..
>basically, avoid just about anything on hotscripts.com it is 99% "my
>first application" stuff.. Though, sometimes there is some interesting
>approaches there.
>
>As for hacking on shit, I learned a *LOT* from hacking on the ad server
>called OASIS.
>
>Most of the apps that have web-based installs are also worth looking at
>as that displays a level of skill that the "my first app" guys will not
>have.
>
>Just some thoughts.
>
I completely appreciate the posts, but right from the start these things 
are exactly what stops a VB person from going PHP.

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.

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?

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 thought InvisionBoard would be good to show how OO *was* used with 
PHP4 scripts (it's totally coded around a constructor-based layout) but 
with PHP5's OO revamping of OO that may not be a good idea. I thought my 
own html header management stuff would be good for teaching how PHP is 
used as a server-side HTML management system, shy of templating, but 
there is way too much platform stuff involved, and the objectives are 
all SEO and semantic marketing - way over his head and not something I 
want to be training.

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.

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?

-=john