Hey Fr Robert Ballecer, SJ and Shannon Morse, I feel PHP should be the next language covered I...

[G+_Brandon Ingli]

Hey Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ and Shannon Morse, I feel PHP should be the next language covered. It only makes sense to continue with server-side web-based scripting, plus I feel it's a bit easier to understand and works better w/ the static html on a page. Who agrees?

[G+_Rick McBride]

I think it is a great idea. I am reading a book on PHP now so I can further enhance my hand coded family reunion website.  

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

I totally disagree.

 

For most of the Perl lessons, you need a webserver to work with.

 

If you have a web server, you probably don't need the lessons.

 

If you don't have a web server, your probably not going to get one to follow the lessons.

 

The Perl (and other typeless script) episodes are causing the direction of the show to move away from learning about code.

 

Adding a PHP episode sequence would almost require the show to be renamed to "Website Scripting 101". The Perl sequence lost all but one of the folks here (and they getting paid to watch the show).

 

I think that PHP might be OK as an additional episode in the Perl sequence (for completeness), since PHP is a "server side executed include" of basically a hacked up version of Perl Script. NOTE: I really dont want to start a war with that statement.

 

I am hoping that "Coding 101" moves away from "Scripting 101" and gets back to basics. In 25 episodes, we have covered a wide variety of very little in the world of basic coding.

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

Rick McBride May I ask what you want to see in a series of PHP episodes that is not already covered in the book you are reading, that would further enhance the hand coding of your website?

 

Perhaps you would like to see something that is in the book, but covered more clearly?

 

I am trying to get an idea of viewer expectations. What sort of things would you like to see?

[G+_Brandon Ingli]

Joe Hecht

Well, maybe we can add on to the basics we've learned by adding additional fundamentals in a new language. There is always a chance to include more principles! :)

 

Also, I agree with your web server comment. Maybe there should be a special episode on how to setup a web server (maybe with a raspberry pi since it is only $25/$35) , set it up on your network, load the necessary tools, access it, etc. This way, future modules are setup for any web-based endeavors.

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

TWiT needs a Coding 101 Development VM Appliance that has a web server and dev tools to give away. Would not cost them a dime to do it, and would teach folks about VM;s as well. Thats the first class way to fly this show.

 

If any coding experts are following this, expect to see a bunch of +1's to this post. Let keep count, just for fun!

[G+_Irene Smith]

I actually took a free college class on SAAS and they had a pre-configured VM for us to use. It was quite handy. The VM had Ubuntu installed on it. I still keep it up to date and use it to keep my Linux skills fresh.

[G+_Darryl Medley]

PHP wouldn't be my choice for the next language either at this point. Server-side scripting is primarily used for interacting with a database so unless they want to do a full PHP / someSQL DB module it would be of limited use.

[G+_Rick McBride]

I am not home to check my laptop but I think I installed WAMP which includes Apache server and MySQL. It took all of 5 minutes to install and I test using localhost in a browser. Joe, you are right. We certainly don't want to focus on languages that don't attract a lot of interest and participation. I was just thinking that the combination of PHP and MySQL might be good to expose people to web programming with databases, but that might be beyond the scope of this podcast. I have found generally that I learned how to deal with databases on the job as it was never stressed much in college. I don't know if that is still true or not as I am no spring chicken. What are you thinking should be next?

[G+_Joe Maruschek]

It seems that working with PHP leads almost immediately to working with MySQL.  I'm afraid that for beginner programmers, the triple dose of HTML, PHP, and MySQL will be just too much to handle.  Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ , have you considered perhaps taking eight episodes to do an intro to HTML and SQL as a prelude to PHP?  You could perhaps do 4 episodes on HTML and CSS (basic tags, basic CSS, styling forms, multi-column layouts, for example), and then 4 episodes on SQL basics (installing MySQL, creating tables, inserting data, selecting data, for example).

[G+_Stephen Hart]

For a web server image:

1. Get VMware player for free

2. get a Turnkey image free from

http://www.turnkeylinux.org/

3. Fire up the image and configure it through a web interface.

 

I have one running an internal mediawiki.

 

There was a FLOSS weekly show about Turnkey

http://twit.tv/show/floss-weekly/299

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

VMWare Rocks. I have been a customer from the start.  I highly recommend the free VMPlayer for Windows and Linux, and if you have the cash, VMWorkstation for Windows and Linux, and VMFusion for the Mac. We do not run hardly anything outside of Virtual Machines here.