Archive for April, 2009
More Unglamorous PHP Thoughts
In the office today a discussion started around my blog post from yesterday (Lack of PHP Tutorials??) and we decided to post on a few forums to see if there was anything we were missing. Seems not. Obviously, as with anything, there are exceptions to the rule (such as SitePoint’s myriad of articles).
One obvious comparison was to look at a something similar… Ruby on Rails for example. RoR seems to have an air about it, even though it’s still code – lines of text at the end of the day. People seem to sex it up a bit, with nice designs, snazzy videos and commonly a mac text editor. Maybe it’s just the way RoR has come into everyone’s eyes during the whole modern web 2.0 thing, I’m not sure. I was pointed in the direction of Rachel Andrew’s blog which talks a lot about the differences between how RoR is depicted with PHP, which makes interesting reading.
It still seems that it might come to putting together some good PHP tutorials and creating a home for them!
Lack of Quality PHP Tutorials??
Is it just me or is there a lack of decent PHP tutorials out there? Being involved in the running of Total PHP I’ve just spent the last few hours trying to source some good tutorials in the hope to compile a list of the best ones I can find… zip. All I can find is poorly written, out dated, poorly designed sites and boring, drab topics. Is PHP development really that bad?
Is it too much to ask for a topic that’s at least mildly inviting, a nicely formatted article with plenty of code examples and even a working demo of what’s being written about? Surely these things should be the bare bones?
If you know of some really good PHP Tutorials please comment and let me know, For now it looks like I’m going to have to have a rethink, and possibly write some top quality articles to show everyone how it’s done.
Wireframes
During my random twittering today I came across this nice resource about wireframes, watching the videos and looking at the resources is a very interesting insight into the design processes behind some very nicely designed sites.
Ammunition Games Progress
As you’ll discover as you follow me on my internet adventure, I have a few different interests – all of which I plan to write posts about. One of these being table top wargames.
Over the last few months I (along with a few friends) have been developing a rules set for a Modern Combat Skirmish game, under the name of Ammunition Games.
Last night on one of our regular local games nights we had another play test of the latest version, using one of the Scenarios we’ve come up with. An Iraqi leader, wanted by the US Military, was in hiding. The US Marines had to seek him out and capture him for questioning.
As far as the rules go, I think we’re about there on the basics and just need to start fleshing out the armies. This is a big leap! Now I’m making a start on the next version, clearing some wording up, putting things in clear sections and fleshing it all out.
Next month we’re attending a show in Milton Keynes demoing the system to the public for the very first time!
Welcome
Welcome all to my new blog! I’ve been meanting to get this started for a while and here we are finally!