It all boils down that PHP is a “childish language”

January 4th, 2010

Lurking around StackOverflow I’ve been looking for topics of Java and encountered this one from a fellow grad student that wants to follow a path taking a master language. So far from reactions, many programmers seems to ditch the idea of learning PHP, that they should go more towards Java, C, C#, etc etc. I’ve seen rants of programmers against Java, but they still show respect (in a weird way), but when it comes to this scripting language. It turns into a bashing topic.

Anyway, just listen to what you like in the end people. Don’t be a victim of a flame war and choose something popular yet you dislike. There is market in PHP, but so in many languages.

I’ll help you, but first hear me

December 31st, 2009

When we first started out, as programmers and web designers, we lurked in forums, university, etc. Using all the resources we could to learn. Have you ever stumbled with people like this:

“Newbie”:

Hello, my name is David. I need help with this layout and I’m using some constant with the layouts and so on. I have this function that is not working. I’m expecting it output images from random users profiles, but for some reason it’s outputting just the <img> tag, without the SRC.

Now, from what you can see I’m just looking for help. Nothing weird in that right? Now you see these kind of people entering in the conversation:

“Super Helpful Nerd that follows all existing standards in the world”

Hello,

Please refrain from posting in this forum, it’s only to talk about PHP scripting language. Now, I checked your code, you should consider using tabs, and you are not using naming conventions. “Every” programmer already “knows” that it is required to make the code more readable. I noticed you are using tables in your layout. Please changing your layout to tableless, also I see that your layout doesn’t work in Firefox, I’m guessing it works in Internet Explorer, but who uses that anyway.

After taking a look at your code. I’d recommend not using constants in template, they become troublesome on the large run. Now, don’t use static functions, jesus, and why is it in a object? It should be re-usable, extendable, and with purpose in mind.

Anyway, check your constant have the wrong variable.

So this zealot, who seems to hold dearly all nerdy hypes wants to convert you to his “religion”. I’ve stumbled with these kind of people before, the so “helpful person” want to demonstrate you, that they are right no matter what. Of course they are, maybe, but the answer to your question will remain unanswered. So yea, ignore this kind of people, they’ll probably try to brainwash you and make you lose your objective in your project.

Why? Why would a starter in X technology worry about things like design patterns, naming convention, tableless layouts, etc? It just going to make the newbie feel lost, that’s a first, and then lose motivation looking at the many things he/she needs to learn. If this happens to you, just wait for another person to reply something more useful, or switch forums.