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by tmh88j 5251 days ago
Great write up. I experienced a similar adventure in learning PHP over the past couple months and I completely agree that the first few weeks are by far the hardest.

Late last summer a friend and I came up with a great idea but we lacked the programming skills to create it ourselves. I knew a bit of HTML, a touch of c++ , and PLC ladder logic programming(huge help, right?). It wasn't until around October that I realized we were getting nowhere. I decided enough was enough and I was going to learn how to program. I spent an entire weekend reading and trying out zend's PHP 101 for beginners. Three months later and I had created a user authentication system with messaging, friends lists, administrative rights, and all sorts of other goodies. I was working a full time job so I did this with my spare time.

Your site looks great by the way. Keep up the good work.
1 comments
james-fend 5251 days ago
thank you! how many hours total do you think you spent during the 3 months?
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tmh88j 5251 days ago
During the initial learning phase I wasn't as enthralled because who cares what $this->someFunction($variable) means? I'd say I put in around an hour per day for the first month and then once I got the hang of it, probably 2-4 hours per day after that. I made sure to take off programming at least one day per week so I wouldn't get burned out considering I was working full time too.

So, I'd estimate around 150-160 hours. I should've kept track. I plan on learning ruby later on this year and I'll be sure to keep a record of that.

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tmh88j 5251 days ago
James, this is in response to what you said to my last comment. The reply button wasn't showing.

Anyway, that 150-160 hours was to the point where I was comfortable enough to sit down and code away. I'm still working on the system and I'm still learning a lot. I'd also like to become a lot better with css/jquery. I know the basics and not much more. A guy on my team is a front end whiz so I don't have to worry about cramming that into my head right now.

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james-fend 5251 days ago
That's pretty fast. Yeah.. once getting past that initial learning curve; it becomes a lot funner.
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