Web Programming Help

[pahn]

Well I thought I could get help from the best... I need to create a PC configuration utility for my [test] website. I am trying to learn languages other than HTML. Now, I have seen many sites like gamepc.com or neotechpc.com use PHP as their solution. I am wondering how this is accomplished, and what steps I need to take to implement it. As of yet, I know nothing besides it is a server side language.

If you know of a way other than PHP, those suggestions would be greatly appreciated as well. I case you are confused as to what I am refering to, I am talking about those cost estimators on just about every computer retailer's website.

Thanks.

 

[igowerf]

PHP is written along with your HTML. You can use PHP to generate HTML code, based on different parameters.

For example, you can write PHP code to make the background color of your webpage different depending on the time of day. Unlike javascript, your visitor can't see your code because PHP is processed on the server. The user just gets a file containing HTML.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

If you want to just add some interactivity, php is fine. If you really want to get into programming, try something like python. php teaches some really horrible coding habits, and isn't all that great for anything but small web stuff.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
If you want to just add some interactivity, php is fine. If you really want to get into programming, try something like python. php teaches some really horrible coding habits, and isn't all that great for anything but small web stuff.

Ah, you can jsut turn off the warnings, they just annoy you about using undeclared variables and other pointless crap

 

[darktubbly]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
If you want to just add some interactivity, php is fine. If you really want to get into programming, try something like python. php teaches some really horrible coding habits, and isn't all that great for anything but small web stuff.

?! [ blinks ]
/me reaches for large trout.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: darktubbly

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
If you want to just add some interactivity, php is fine. If you really want to get into programming, try something like python. php teaches some really horrible coding habits, and isn't all that great for anything but small web stuff.

?! [ blinks ]
/me reaches for large trout.

Yeah, you can make big web stuff with it, but look at the code of such beasts. NASTY!

IMO it's extremely rare to find a large design that can be done well without OOP, and php is just slow and crappy at OOP.

 

[EmperorRob]

Isn't vbbulletin and phpbulletin and lots of other bulletin dbase stuff written in php? Not that I proclaim any knowledge of anything other than perl.

 

[labgeek]

That's basically garbage... PHP is as good or bad as the programmer wants it to be. And large projects are done in PHP as well. And like with any other programming language, there's good code and there's not-so-good code.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: labgeek
That's basically garbage... PHP is as good or bad as the programmer wants it to be. And large projects are done in PHP as well. And like with any other programming language, there's good code and there's not-so-good code.

PHP is NOT as good or as bad as the programmer wants it to be. You can't just say "oh, I'm a great programmer, so $sucky_language is as good as I want it to be!" As a talented programmer you can minimize bad habits, but you cannot turn a crappy language into a good one.

 

[pahn]

ok... so anyone have any info that can help me?

 

[labgeek]

I don't know of one that you could use, most likely as it will need to be written - by you or someone else. Have you checked sites like hotscripts.com to be sure it's not out there? And the choice of PHP or some other language is up to you. If you aren't up to writing it yourself, go over to WebHosting Talk and post a message about what you want in the Related Offers and Requests detailing what you want. There are always several people there that would be up to doing this. Check out thier references and check thier rep by running a few searches before agreeing to hand over any money. This should not be an expensive proposition by the sounds of it.