Discussion Programming and Coding

[goldb]

This is a general thread about programming and coding. You can discuss the pros and cons of programming languages (such as C++, Java, C#, Delphi, PHP, JavaScript, etc.) and coding styles, make suggestions, request and post short code samples in this thread.

Since discussions about programming languages may lead to bashing and flaming, please try to remain objective and refrain from comments that are of questionable or confrontational nature. This thread is for programming tips, don't ask people to do your homework or such.

 

[Uriel]

After learning a bit more of PHP and knowing it's based on Java I'm wondering what is the real difference between languages if the logic is basically the same with slightly different syntaxis.

 

[Pat]

AFAIK PHP is based on Perl, these two languages, Java and some other languages have similar language constructs though. Many programming languages can accomplish the same task in one way or another but there're situations where a language is better suited than others. For example, in situations where there're lots of complex calculations and speed is essential, C is certainly a better choice than PHP which is used on servers to generate web pages and display information from a database. Community support and external libraries also play an important role, if somebody has already done what you need, there's no point in spending your time to reinvent the wheel. More often than not, people face situations where they need to choose another language which deals with the problem in hand in a much simpler way.

 

[Uriel]

What is Perl? Should I know it?
And lately I've been using PHP in my work. I want to say it's reliable, but I actually feel that works only for specific stuff and the structure of the code itself is a bit messy.

Although it's really fun to see all the variables a site has :P

 

[Pat]

I've never used Perl but as far as I can tell, it's mostly used to write CGI scripts on servers and connect different applications who, under normal circumstances, can't interoperate. Even though many websites still use Perl and it's a popular programming language, PHP seems to be the golden standard nowadays and I guess you don't need to learn it unless you face a problem you can't solve with PHP, which I doubt.

 

[Hakuteiken]

Lately, I have been reading and trying to learn some conceptual stuff for database systems. I wonder if I will ever be able to get down to the practical side of the work.
Same could apply to my Java learning process. Since I'm studying on my own, it feels as if something is way off without applying what I read to achieve something.

Any ideas about what I could do? Are there any recommendable books or any other sources of that kind for this specific surpose?

 

[kkck]

What you are asking about is basically a textbook lol.... Not sure of where you are at but you can usually find cheap textbooks on amazon which would do what you want (cheap ones could go as low as 5 dollars or so), just search database design. I don't know any specific online sites for this.

 

[Hakuteiken]

Yeah, but textbooks generally give very abstract level practice. At least, the one I own is pretty much that way.
I guess I will need to go deeper into the book and see if that will be of help in the latter stages.

 

[kkck]

Well, database design is in itself very abstract... One you have a project and you have to actually design an efficient database you get some perspective on the whole thing. have you gotten to SQL yet?

 

[Hakuteiken]

I have had some sort of SQL experience before. Not very detailed by any means, but I had a basic grasp of the queries in general via a school project work, though it has been quite some time since then, so, I picked up the subject as a whole, hoping to reach that stage after I cover the topics that may serve as a basis.
Basically, I might prepare a simple HTML file with a database work in background to practice it a bit, I assume. I think it may help me make progress with Java in synchronized fashion.

 

[Pat]

Basically, I might prepare a simple HTML file with a database work in background to practice it a bit, I assume. I think it may help me make progress with Java in synchronized fashion.

Are you planning to embed a Java applet in a web page to get data from a server database? I don't have experience about Java applets but I believe PHP is much easier and flexible in that regard, you can easily connect to a MySQL server and do database operations using SQL. Actually this is how our forum and most forums work, I'm not sure if this is what you're trying to accomplish though.

 

[Uriel]

I'm learning a bit, and so far I tend to prefer JQuery for effects and PHP to interact directly with MySQL. I don't know, seems more fluid. And you can go all the way without ever touching directly the tables. :P
And my little experience before any book Internet is a more reliable source to learn.

...Silly question, Miyagi: What this site uses to handle a forum? What kind of code is required? I'm assuming it's also tables, but I guess they're more complex. Can we peek a bit into the code? It would be cool!

 

[Pat]

vBulletin is proprietary software, so it's not possible to post the source code but it's indeed complex stuff with many tables and classes. You can check out phpBB to see what a forum software is like, they also have a demo on their site, you can download the source code and play with the demo to see what the code does.

 

[Hakuteiken]

Are you planning to embed a Java applet in a web page to get data from a server database? I don't have experience about Java applets but I believe PHP is much easier and flexible in that regard, you can easily connect to a MySQL server and do database operations using SQL. Actually this is how our forum and most forums work, I'm not sure if this is what you're trying to accomplish though.

Yep, embedding an applet is an option. I could also try to do it with PHP, but I remember myself doing a PHP-MySQL connection in the past. Perhaps I need to make a re-practice of it first.