PHP + MySQL Documentation Redux, 2012

By Xah Lee. Date:

I haven't done PHP/MySQL for 5 years. Spent the past 4 days and read almost entire PHP manual and half of MySQL manual again, and coded a job interview project. whew. I feel am back in IT. (pretty much the entire PHP manual. The MySQL manual, chapter 1, 3, 11, and scan 12, 13. That's the most important chapters.)

For the record, here's a list of chapters of MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual. Those most important i marked with star ★.

PHP has changed, of course, in past 5 years. Now it supports the whole faak of OOP: inheritance is core of oop, alrighty, but also {public, private, protected} (yes all that scope shit), static (yes, static!), interface, abstract. You read it right, the “interface” of Java OOP is in PHP, and even Abstract class! And they are going about it earnestly. [see Official Java Tutorial on Interface, the Inanity]

(Read this page to understand all that shit: What are Object Oriented Programing Jargons and Complexities (OOP Model as Functional Programing))

PHP's built-in mysql lib is getting deprecated. New is mysqli and PDO. Though, still pretty much the same. (the “i” in “mysqli” stands for “Improved”, while PDO is generic db interface that can work with different db.)

the manual got a bit more complex. Now, the database lib, you have a choice of OOP and Procedure interfaces, onto the road of complexity, just like perl started a OOP craze around 1998 that faaked it up more bad than good. (but actually, for dealing with database, OOP is more natural, because you have db handle, cursor index, etc states.)

the PHP manual, is still a extreme pleasure to read. No faaking jargons, comp sci pretension (like the python faakheads [see Python Documentation Problems]), or unix tech geeking hacker joke pun drivels (like perl monger idiots), and the english writing is also simple and to-the-point. Everything is straight forward, with good code examples. [see Idiocy of Computer Language Docs: Unix, Python, Perl, Haskell]

in the next few days, i'll be writing a basic tutorial on PHP OOP, and MySQL. Already 40% done each, and i'll be improving my half-assed PHP tutorial. [see PHP Tutorial]

PS I love VirtualBox. I think it's even better than dual boot, because you can work in Windows and Linux at the same time. If you haven't already, i recommend it, and take your time to read the manual about Guest Additions. Because that makes the screen larger, and lets you copy/paste between host/guest. Both features are critical for using VirtualBox doing real work. (the manual is the Help file, press F1.)