Can I Learn PostGres and PHP This Fast? Or Should I Run for the Hills?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m a FileMaker programmer. That’s what they hired me for. That’s what I’m good at. I’m Mac-centric (from the Old Mac platform of MacOS 9 and earlier, in the process of learning MacOS X) with a limited ability to klunk around in the world of Windows (mainly pertaining to FileMaker functionality, though).

Big company’s big (but local) office’s IT Department is going to become regional, i.e., WAN instead of LAN, and they want us (the FmPro programmers) to learn PHP and PostGres because they’d really like to develop in that direction. They said this about a month ago and dumped about 4500 pages’ worth of manuals on us to get started with.

[aside] One book started off, in the Preface to the Introduction chapter, with the statement “It is assumed that prior to beginning this chapter, youl will have downloaded the source code and compiled it for your native hardware, installed the server software on a server, installed the client software on your local computer, created your first database and named it “test”, and have it open and running on your screen” [/aside]

They seem to be pushing up the time table. They are now talking about this fall as the time frame for converting several central FileMaker databases to PostGres and PHP that we, theoretically, will write.

Here’s the learning curve ramp from my end of it, looking up:

• As I said, I program in FileMaker

• I can also write a little AppleScript

• I can make a web site of static web pages if I’m allowed to use PageMill. I saw DreamWeaver running on someone else’s computer once, and I could probably use that, too.

• I can write raw HTML sufficient to make text bold or italic, and if you’re patient with me I will eventually successfully come up with the HTML to make a successful link. I even know what a tag is.

OK, so I went to AltaVista and Google and found training courses in PHP (haven’t gotten to looking for PostGres courses yet) and found one that has a prerequisite of “Advanced HTML” which in turn has a prerequisite of “Intermediate HTML” which, to continue the cascade, has a prerequisite of “Beginning HTML” which I might be able to skip or preempt (then again maybe not).

If I were confident that they would never want to get rid of me or anything, I’d say “yeah, fine, I’ll code this stuff as soon as you teach me how” and go back to my office and continue to write FileMaker and leave the ball in their court. If I were confident that I’d pick it up and become a virtuoso in these new programming languages, I’d say “yeah, fine” and rush off to get training. Frankly, I mostly just want to rush off and hide somewhere.

Do any of you have any good training centers or courses in the NY City area to recommend pertaining to these areas?

And…do y’all think I should concentrate on training, or on job seeking? Is there any way in or outside of hell that I’m going to pick this stuff up in the kind of time frame they’re describing?

2

Just a fast reply before I have to go to bed…

It depends on the complexity of the applications they want you to code, fortunately PHP is quite simple for almost anyone with coding experience - I’d say you could become decent in it, in about 3-4 weeks, but that is ofcouse just a guesstimate… I had a 3 day course once and that was ok, though much of it can easily be optained from a book.

About Postgresql, I have 0 filemaker clues, but I assume it isn’t sql based, stuff like simple inserts, updates and selects are however quite easy to get an ok knowledge of.

Do you have anyone at all thats good at php and sql? a coworker to ask when you have trouble, especially in the beginning would be a nice thing I’d guess.

My apologies for any misspellings, typos, errors etc. it’s almost 4am and I’m falling asleep over the keyboard… :slight_smile:

3

PHP is pretty easy, it is just a preprocessor. Sure, you need to learn HTML (by now you should really look at XHTML), but XHTML is something that you can learn in a weekend. Then you can spend a week at most at PHP.

postgresSQL is a bit more difficult, but not by much. Suppose you have access to a server with it installed. Start with the basics of SQL. Two weeks tops just to get the ropes of that.

No sweat, you get done in a month.

4

PHP is incredibly easy if you’re already familiar with its basic constructs and syntax (which mirrors those of languages like C++ and Java) and (X)HTML. What I suggest is learning HTML immediately. You can only learn these things well enough to use without needing to constantly consult references through experience. Even then, I’ve found that all you need to know to get through most PHP tutorials is how to create things like hyperlinks and forms.

Basically, just dive in and try not to overwhelm yourself. It’ll be fun.

5

Hell, PHP is incredibly easy even if you have zero programming or scripting experience, like me. I muddled my way through both PHP and MySQL in about a week, and I now I can do all the web scripting I need (with the exception of sessions) with only the occasional check of the PHP manual.

6

OK, folks. Despite the rather frightening mention in passin gof C++ and Java, I’m going to take your word for it and start off with an HTML for the Compleat Idiot sort of book tomorrow.