PHP primer for Perl hacker?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Next month I'm going overseas to help a non-profit customize and install a rather large PHP/MySQL project. I really don't have much PHP experience at all, but have been using Perl and MySQL extensively for several years. Any recommendations of a good online primer or tutorial for Perl hackers trying to pick up PHP?

Thanks!

Comment on PHP primer for Perl hacker?

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Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by revdiablo (Prior) on Dec 15, 2004 at 21:26 UTC
You might want to have a look at PHP in contrast to Perl. It takes a negative view towards PHP, which might be distractive in your case, but does have a number of useful comparisons. Keep in mind that I am not attempting to start an anti-PHP flame war; I think this page has some information that you may find useful when learning PHP after knowing Perl.	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by kvale (Monsignor) on Dec 15, 2004 at 20:29 UTC
I am sorry to hear that :) I like the O'Reilly book "Programming PHP" by Rasmus Lerdorf and Kevin Tatroe. I think of it as analogous to the Camel book for PHP. Easy to read, has all the basics well explained. There is a chapter on databases, but not much on MySQL in particular. Once you know the basic language elements, however, that should be enough to start tweaking already written, working code. -Mark	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by amt (Monk) on Dec 15, 2004 at 20:41 UTC
Picking up PHP from perl is a cakewalk, I had to do it for my job, but here are a few pointers. print is now echo, single vs. double quotes still applies, ALL variables are $foo, remember your <?php ?> tags for web pages, require is now include('file.php') if you want to organize your code, and checking /var/log/httpd/error_log is still very good ;) as for mysql: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.mysql.php and http://php.net is your friend. amt. perlcheat	[reply]
Re^2: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by revdiablo (Prior) on Dec 15, 2004 at 21:20 UTC
If you search at http://php.net, you will see that PHP has both `print` and `require` functions. It's worth pointing out that PHP's `require` is different from Perl's in a number of ways (PHP's `require` is more similar to Perl's EXPR form of do), but PHP's `include` is even more different. The closest thing PHP has to Perl's require is probably `require_once`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by bart (Canon) on Dec 15, 2004 at 23:55 UTC
A big difference between Perl and PHP is that a syntax error is not a fatal error (it just interrupts loading the current file), while a doubly defined function, is. And yes, in case you're wondering: in perl, it's exactly the opposite.	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by r34d0nl1 (Pilgrim) on Dec 15, 2004 at 19:57 UTC
First: unfortunatelly there is no qq { } under PHP :( . anyway PHP is easy to learn and there is an extensive documentation under www.php.net. It's very well documented and nearly every function have an example.	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by StrebenMönch (Beadle) on Dec 15, 2004 at 19:57 UTC
I do not mean to be harsh but Google is your friend... S t r e b e n M ö n c h	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by blueberryCoffee (Scribe) on Dec 16, 2004 at 10:02 UTC
The best book I have found is PHP Developers Cookbook by Sams. This and the online docs is all you will need.	[reply]
Re: PHP primer for Perl hacker? by Mutant (Priest) on Dec 16, 2004 at 12:06 UTC
It's very easy to learn PHP if you know Perl ... it's especially easy to learn to hate PHP :/	[reply]

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