I am looking for some comments about how long it takes roughly to start making up your own scripts and such? I would class myself about intermediate with HTML/CSS at the moment and I have played around with a good few PHP programs and understand sort of the logic, I just need to learn the code I guess. What would you say about how long it takes to learn anyway?
I picked up the basics php in about a day (had no choice, was dropped in at the deep end when my new employer's mail script fell apart) but I've not stopped learning since. I already had commercial experience of C, C++, ASP and a few scripting languages so found the transition quite easy. It all depends on the way you think, how fast you learn and what you mean by good
I have no reason to post here but that quote is absolutely awesome so i felt like posting. unreal lol
It depends greatly on if you have past experience (PHP is roughly based off C), and so forth. Also the definition of "good" is far and wide. In my sense, to become a "good" programmer it would take 5+ years because you'll be getting into algorithms, keeping up to date with modern technology, design patterns, so forth. Last but not least, I think you must enjoy the language to become a "good" programmer, otherwise it will be torturous. Sorry for the rant.
It's pretty much like learning the language of another country - let's say French. If you already speak a language that's similar to it, then you can convert quite easy. If you just want to pick up enough to get by on a holiday, you can probably learn what you need in a few days of serious study. If you want to pass as a native it will take a good few years of doing it 8 hours a day, every day. And even native speakers of that language (French people) will still occasionally learn new words so you will never actually stop learning.
Just when you think you are "Good" at something....you probably arnt. You jump into a new area of programming (usually due to some crazy new project) and you realize you are just a chump. Ive been using PHP as my main language for 6 years now, and i still dont feel like i know everything. My tip to you, is to do a personal project, pick something compicated (like copy myspace), and build it from scratch. Once you are done, you`ll have this wobbly barely working mess with hackish code and all the like. But if it works, great. Then do it again, from scratch. You`ll find you`ve done the project alot quicker AND probably with much less code. The best way to learn is to dive into something over your head, and pound on it until it works.
I'm building a page for the company I work for, which is a tech support company, that is basically a bulletin board for support questions. Then i'm going to add a page to keep track of inventory, invoices and the like. I think i'm doing pretty good so far, but having this bb has been EXTREMELY helpful