It really makes me tense to see programmers saying.. I have over 5 year experience in php/xhtml/css/java/ajax.. and very expert in blah blah blah... the question is do they really know everything about the programing languages they are talking about?? and if they do then shame on me coz i still consider myself as a php beginner. i learn at slow pace !
i don know but it feels like they are over confident.. (i may be wrong).. i do have basics of java, c, c+ etc.. and i tell you its not that simple for everyone to develop a logic in any programming language for anything.. (again, i may be wrong)
i agree with lostshootingstar, some people are experts in all of those things and maybe their learn those thing more than few years(maybe 5 years) and i think those people keep learning without stop, everyone can be experty in those language as long as their keep learning
At least, they should be honest. I have been doing HTML (xHTML is like HTML except you have to do it properly, so you could just say xHTML) for 6 years, and PHP/MySQL for 5 years. CSS I just started picking up last year, and I have a few years experience with Java, VB.NET, etc.
Why wouldn't they be honest? Oh, that's right they want the job. So by the xhtml is basically html statement, that would mean that if you know html 4 you know html 3.2 >? And you could tell me which tags were deprecated ? And would that qualify as expert knowledge ? Or would an expert know the differences between browsers ? Can do the same thing with PHP. There's over 700 functions native to php, would an expert know 500 of those? How many would they be able to explain(expected parameters, return values etc) without reference materials? And that neglects the less tangible aspects of a programming language, more of a question of their ability to remember the function names.
i totally agree.. its not possible to remember all functions.. statements, syntax without reference.. and at least i wont call any body an 'expert' if he's opening a book of "learning php/mysql" very much frequently.. as i said.. i dont think so its possible to develop logic and remember syntax for every project you get.. one has to refer to google and various books. i guess at the end it comes to how frequently a developer refers to a book or an online help.. if he is referring too much.. he cant be an expert.
The thing about being an expert in some random language is not that you know the functions and such, its the thinking. Ok, you may know much php if you know those 700 functions but what is the best way to use them efficently. And furthermore many people thinks that programmers can just look on a blank page and voila its there, but I know aguy which have been programming for a big part of his life and he says that the language is only 5% of what your doing, the planning and the thinking how to do what. With that said, i just wont to state that you can be good in language without having the right thinking just that everything is going to take 10times longer.
The logic aspect is the basis of programming in any language, be it php, c or python. But being an expert in a particular language would imply you know the specifics of that language. I picked functions as an example since its quantifiable. It's not a valid metric though. If a coder just didn't want to memorize all the possible options for a function call like date(), they could create their own function call with the date parameters preset. An expert in PHP would be familiar with a subset of often used functions mainly to avoid 'reinventing the wheel'. And while I don't care for the years of experience as defining ability, the longer someone works with a language the more likely they are to encounter functions of a specific nature (like DNS or XML related functions). I agree with both of you though, the important part isn't memorizing the functions list. We have reference sites just for that purpose.
Well, no. I didn't say that makes you an expert. I didn't even call myself an 'expert'. I just simply stated that the only difference between xHTML and HTML is the way you layout an HTML document. Example: All tags in xHTML must be lower-cased and must be closed when you open a tag. In HTML it doesn't really matter, because there is no set standard on how to write a page. That is a bit off topic though. I don't know all 700 functions off by heart, I know all the functions I need to know to get the jobs done. If I'm ever in doubt, I just go to php.net and double check.