| Re: Wchich software should beginner use? [message #173747 is a reply to message #173746] |
Mon, 02 May 2011 21:51   |
Michael Fesser
Messages: 215
Registered: September 2010
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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.oO(Petey)
> I'd like to ask what kind of additional software should I use.
>
> I use Eclipse for development and apache for server hosting.
Good. :D
> What else
> should I learn that might be useful in future - related to DB's,
> programming, comparison.
If you're on Apache and PHP, then getting familiar with MySQL and SQL in
general would be the next logical step. You should learn SQL and - if
you intend to use MySQL - how to use the command line tools 'mysql' and
'mysqldump' (not that difficult, their parameters are almost the same).
You don't have to do all DB stuff on MySQL's command line, but it helps
a lot if you're able to do it. You can also use GUIs like phpMyAdmin,
HeidiSQL or the tools in Eclipse, but you should also be able to use the
command line if necessary.
While a command line interface might seem a bit archaic in the Web 2.0
era, it's still the most powerful tool, which also allows for scripting
and a lot of automation.
That's for the server-side stuff. Dependent on what you want to do, it
might also make sense to get familiar with client-side scripting, i.e.
JavaScript. It's a rather easy language, but difficult to handle. Many
(most?) scripts out there are just crap. Writing good, efficient and -
most important - compatible JS is much harder than you may think. There
are many things to consider and even more things that can go wrong.
Personally I don't care much about it and concentrate more on server-
side stuff to achieve a maximum of compatibility. JS here and there to
improve a site's usability, but never for essential stuff. But that's
your own decision.
> Should I start using git or svn?
A version control system will also help, even if you're the only person
working on your scripts at the moment. It helps you to keep track of
changes and also allows coding experiments (keywords: branches, tags)
without crashing your main coding line. If something goes wrong or
doesn't work as expected, you can easily revert it and switch back to an
older version. Simply spoken - version control is cool. ;)
You might have to do some research about the available version control
systems and their features. CVS is well-known, but it's outdated and has
been replaced by more powerful ones. But every developer has its own
preferences. I use SVN, which works very well, does all that I need and
integrates nicely with Eclipse (Subversive). YMMV.
You might also want to check with your host if they have some version
control system available on their servers. This would offer you a very
easy way to sync your local files with the remote server. It's almost
unbelievable, but syncing is still one of the biggest problems left in
Eclipse: except for some old FTP hacks and ugly workarounds there's not
a clean, reliably working solution yet! They're working on it …
Thankfully my host has SVN installed, so I just have to login to the
remote server via a secure shell (SSH) and call a little shell script,
which then syncs all necessary files with my own local SVN repository.
With some additional scripting as mentioned above I could also let it
sync the databases etc.
> Please provide me some useful tips and tricks :)
My advice besides learning PHP and SQL would be to get familiar with a
command line interface (CLI), preferably a Linux shell. In many cases
you can achieve your goal much faster by entering a well-thought command
than by clicking through a dozen menus on a web interface (comparing the
MySQL CLI to phpMyAdmin for example). And you can use scripting to
automate many things.
HTH
Micha
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