Newbie @ PHP. But what about HTML?

Hi, I have created many basic website with dreamweaver CS3 + CS4 and now on CS5 but i have never used the HTML editor and only used "DESIGN" mode.

I have seen how good PHP is and i wanted to start learning it. My question is:
Should i just start on learning PHP without knowing HTML?

Is it possible?

 

of course its possible. as you learn about php you will also learn about html. i say go for it.

 

Thanks! - I'll try to read on it. Is there any books or guides you can suggest?

 

Start with W3schools. They have hundreds of useful tutorials including HTML. You can also subscribe to this Free 11 week HTML Course by about.com

 

PHP is pretty separate from HTML. HTML only affects what the user sees, but PHP controls what the website does. tizag.com's PHP tutorials are pretty good. w3schools is wonderful for HTML/CSS, but isn't very good when it comes to server-side stuff.

 

I think you should first understand the basic commands in PHP by using the online tutorial websites which i will link below for you. After getting familiarize with the basic commands you should start editing pre-made scripts by other people and just start seeing what different things do.

tizag.com
w3schools.com

If there are any commands you do not understand while editing other scripts then just check out the PHP manual which is located here:
http://php.net/manual/en/index.php

I am still learning HTML and CSS alongside my PHP. I must admit it does suck a little not knowing HTML and CSS properly as there have been many things i have wanted to code but never knew how to lay out on a page so in the end they would just look like a white page with a paragraph of writing which had thousands of PHP code behind it.

 

I say learn CSS+HTML, you're going to need it unless you do pure backend PHP development, and even then you'll need to know HTML most likely to accept form data and such. Bad idea just learning PHP without knowing HTML/CSS at all in my opinion.

 

PHP is just one of the many methods of displaying HTML dynamically. Without knowing HTML, you're just wasting your time with PHP or any other web development language.

Anyway, HTML isn't that hard. It's hard to even call it a proper language. It's just a way of laying out content with lags. It's hundreds of times less complex than something like Java or C. If you understand BBcode, you pretty much understand HTML, IMO. Despite that, you should still make sure you know what you're doing in that regard. Flip through an HTML tutorial, it will do you some good, but memorizing tags is a waste of time.

 

I suggest you learn HTML / CSS first. Then after that start injecting your HTML code with PHP code.

 

Most people start with HTML/CSS and then move on to PHP.

It's important to note that PHP is not a programming language, it is a scripting language. So if you want to learn "real" programming, start with Java (or other OOP language).

If you only need dynamic pages, PHP is the best choice. But you usually cannot combine Dreamweaver (WYSIWYG) pages with PHP. You'll need to know how to edit the code - both PHP and HTML - manually in an editor.

Great and easy-to-learn is Pspad, when you'll need to be more productive, start using an IDE - like Netbeans.

 

So far i have read O'reilly PHP learning books but havent come so far because it doesnt start from the basics however i have started learning PHP from Lynda.com that is very easy to understand

 

you can learn php without HTML.But for building basic websites you will need to output something on to the user and there is when HTML comes into play.I suggest you get a basic idea about HTML..shouldn't take more than a day considering you are already a designer.Than go for PHP

 

You should learn both at the same time, because you'll probably hit road-blocks in advanced topic related to html/php. When you get analysis-paralysis then switch topic to something else. Good luck!