Recommend a programming course online?

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dogfighter

dogfighter

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May 21, 2007
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I really want to learn PHP and MySQL, and I've been reading a book that was recommended on this forum as well as playing with some tutorials. But it's becoming obvious to me that I'm going to need to take a course because of time restrictions and just my own inability to learn without instruction.

Has anyone had any positive experiences with online training schools that they can share? Heard good things about any particular place? I don't want to plop down the money and commit to the time required until I get some recommendations. Much appreciated.
 


You want an actual graded course with an instructor? I have never taken their courses but O'Reilly (yes the book publisher) actually offers courses. You complete a bunch of them and they even give you a certificate.

If you do real good, you get a gold star, too.
 
A gold star? HOT DOG!!

Thanks for all the links and replies.

To answer the question of whether or not I really need an instructor..

I learn by doing, not reading. I need projects to do. My first project should assume that I know DICK. Second should assume I know what I learned in my first project, etc etc. This is similar to how the projects flow in the book that I'm currently reading, but I just have the WORST time following instructions out of a book, always have, going back to when I was a kid.

I'll definitely give some time and attention to these links though. I've taught myself other types of programming in the past, but that was when I wasn't working 10-12 hour days.
 
chatmasta said:
That is fucking cool. I'll bet theres some security holes though. :anon.sml:

edit: oops I just broke it. I deleted his variable and now it won't progress. :X
Click to expand...

Hehe I broke it too by missing a Quote. Its in a loop...

But I like it so far.
 
Seriously tutorials are ok. However you're going to have you most success with having a deep down desire to accomplish something. If you know that something is going to make you money "if I could just program I could get it to work" that's the situation to be in. At least for me it's damn near impossible to sit down with a book and do the exercises cause the programs/scripts I'm making in the exercises don't mean shit to me and we as humans are driven by passion and emotion usually. So find something simple you want to do, then pickup a PHP for Dummies book if you're at square 1 and all your answers are in there.

I'll be honest I'm sharing with you my style of learning and everyone has a different learning style. Were you the kind of person that went to college sat through those super boring classes to make crap you could care less about? If that's you maybe a tutorial would work well. If that's what you're looking for these guys are the industry standard for php classes:

php | architect - The PHP Magazine for PHP Professionals

They also publish a magazine and books that you find at your local bookstore.

If it were me find something simple you want to make and then ask questions and hunt around for you answers. You'll learn a lot in your hunting. Jump on IRC at irc.freenode.net and go to the channel #PHP, tell them your a n00b and just trying to learn and they'll help you with a lot of your questions real time. Hope this helps!

P.S. One more thing that really will help you is get a copy of Zend Studio, it has code completion and syntax checking on the fly. Also, has debuging built right in with stepping through your code so you can analyze all facets during execution, although you can't beat echo and var_dump. Will really help you learn.
 
dogfighter said:
I learn by doing, not reading.
Click to expand...

Then don't sign up for some gay class. I learned PHP a long time ago by reading tutorials, and skimming little parts of books when I didn't completely understand things. The great thing about tutorials is that they are goal oriented and aren't just trying to teach you the whole language.

For instance you might find a tutorial "making a membership system." I use that on a ton of my sites, and the tutorials for it are short sweet and to the point. You actually get down to coding right as you read them, and you can see cause and effect as they unfold.

Start out at sites like spoono, phpfreaks, pixel2life (php section), and of course PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. And as smaxor said, sign onto IRC (I use EFNET - irc.easynews.net#php) or go to sitepoint forums when you have a question.

You'll not only learn a lot, but you'll have fun with the hands on experience. What is all comes down to, really, is whether or not you even like programming. If you end up finding out that you think it's extremely boring and no fun at all.....fuck that, you're better off paying someone.

But I find PHP to be invaluable in my day to day activities online. And I don't mind doing it because I enjoy solving problems with my scripts. :)
 
I love this forum. I may very well have gotten enough info in this thread to save me $xxx-X,xxx on a class. You guys are the best, thx.
 
btw, if your in college, check your library website. esp if your at a technical school.

mine has safari tech books online where i can login and get lots of high dollar books viewable online ie ALL the oreilly books (php hacks, google hacks, even random shit like mind hacks and ipod hacks), all kinds of coding books on every language.

thats one of the most valuable gems i know of at my college. that and the free live chat with a librarian thats open til midnight. good for lazy research ;)
 
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