PHP Question?

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Like, what can you code now?

I would rather stay away from framework when I first start. When you use a framework, all codes are simplified. For example, a database query in codeigniter is much simpler and easier to write than the raw code. The downside is when you don't use codeigniter, you will need to start from the beginning when you want to write a query. In my opinion, you start with the raw code, no framework first, when you are familiar with the code, you can start using the frameworks.

Nick,

Check out the PHP tutorial links in this post. Lots of good stuff in there!

Thenewboston has good tutorials but they are not quite complete and some of the explanations are shoddy. Though the same can be said for most of the video's on programming found on Youtube.

The key for me is to focus on the hows and why's of the language and capability and not on the specific application the person in the tutorial is implementing PHP.

There are three main versions activley being used out there in the real work for PHP. 5.2.x, 5.3.x and 5.4.x each one has their own features and 5.3 and 5.4 have depreciated or removed commands and features that exist in 5.2 and previous so you need to becareful and know who it is that will be using whatever you create and cater to that version of PHP.

One of my hosts in their shared hosting uses PHP 5.2.17 while another uses 5.3.4. What I create for 5.2 works on my 5.3 host but somethings for php 5.3 won't work as is with 5.2 for example.

Hosting companies are usually two or three versions behind the current stable release that php.net comes out with so this is important to pay attention to when coding. I would personally avoid coding for specific 5.4 features as many people wont be able to use the software due to their hosting providers feature limitation.

I don't know any host that specifically only has PHP 4 but there could be somewhere, with that said I wouldn't code for PHP 4 at all but stick to 5.2.9 as the lowest PHP version to code for and mid 5.3.x stable release for the maximum version then in a couple years move the maximum end to the lower to mid 5.4 stable versions.

You won't find hosts that cater to the newest released versions of any language unless they are small hosts that want to be on the edge. Go look at the current version of PHP and MySQL that hosts like HostGator currently offer and that will give you a range to focus in.