On Fri, Feb 06, 2009 at 05:52:06PM -0500, Michael Pobega wrote: > I actually consider PHP to be a good starting point for programming; > it's easy to use, and easy to build a GUI around (HTML is exponentially > easier than GTK/Qt/Tk), teaches functional programming, and has C-styled > syntax.
Unfortunately, PHP is not merely a very easy language to pick up bad habits in, the language's design practically encourages them. Specifically, the core of PHP is code embedded in HTML pages - also known as mixing logic with presentation. There definitely are techniques and frameworks available in PHP which do properly separate presentation from logic but using them takes away much of the "do something in five minutes" aspect that appears to be behind your recommendation. They're also generally considered to be more "advanced" and omitted from beginning materials. Much better to start with something more strict and learn good habits first, then apply them to languages which are more permissive, rather than picking up bad habits from the start. -- Dave Sherohman NomadNet, Inc. http://nomadnetinc.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
