PHP for beginners.

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome to the PHP section of Experts Round Table.

Here are some links relating to the Carlsberg of scripting languages.

• PHP: The Hypertext Preprocessor This is THE official source of all PHP knowledge. Here you can download the PHP software either to integrate into your web server, run as a CGI application or even on an old fashioned (but oh so useful) command line. Binary versions for Windows and source downloads are available. Additional binary formats are maintained by external developers and not directly by the PHP development team.
  
  
• PHP Documentation Whilst the documentation for PHP is primarily in English, many other languages are supported. Translation is performed by people, not computers, so you will get accurate translations. As new English documentation is submitted and integrated into the manual, the translation teams around the world will update their respective languages. This can take a little time. The English manual is always up-to-date. The documentation can be read online or downloaded in HTML or CHM format. The popular ThoutReader also has the PHP documentation available as a free download.
  
  
• Zend: The php company This is a commercial company providing services for those clients which require "... expertise and sound technology solutions ...". These are THE guys.
  
  
• Zend Certified Engineer Think you've got it in you to be a professionally qualified PHP developer? Then this is the place for you. This is the only officially recognised PHP qualification. Designed by the current maintainers of PHP. By the way, I am a Zend Certified Engineer. I was one of the first 1,000 worldwide to pass this prestigious qualification. (Sorry about the brag, but if you've got it, flaunt it!).
  
  
• PEAR :: The PHP Extension and Application Repository If you are looking for good examples of PHP classes, then PEAR is the place to start. Here you will find many useful classes all based on a solid foundation. Whilst the classes are available for everyone, development of the classes is very structured and controlled. No junk methods or wasted properties here! Nice, clean, well documented and very useful code.
  
  
• PECL :: The PHP Extension Community Library This is the repository for PHP Extensions, providing a directory of all known extensions and hosting facilities for downloading and development of PHP extensions. Because PHP is capable of so much, the downloads you get at PHP are do not include every feature available. Instead, extensions are used. These are binary format for windows or in source format for other platforms.
  
  
• What is PHP? A discussion of our own which could answer a lot of your questions.
  

If you have any questions, please ask them.

Richard Quadling.