Learn PHP from Scratch or outsource? | Hacker News Reader

Learn PHP from Scratch or outsource?

3 pointsmrducky12 comments

Hi, I would like to apologise upfront if the question has been asked and answered before. If you have the link please send it to me!!

I'm am considering developing an e-commerce/community site using PHP or AJAX. The only issue is that I have no web programming skills though I have dabbled in VB, Delphi and Haskell. I also did a little MS Access application development, though I must admit database programming is not my strength! Furthermore, my constraint is time and funding. I do not want to pay too much to develop this. Do you think I should outsource this programming to say, elance.com? I'm worried about intellectual property as well as having to continue to upgrade my site as I get feedback. Your suggestions are appreciated!

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I did this exact thing - learning php, mysql and a bit of javascript from scratch to do a site. My experience was that if you put some effort into it it's not that hard.

The sites that I have used as references are primarily http://www.php.net, http://www.w3schools.com and http://www.mysql.com/

And of course this site that will answer all my questions if only I know how to ask: http://www.google.com

Good luck :-)

i'll 2nd that...

it's not hard... just give a couple of days and you will be up and running Apache/PHP/Mysql in no time... coz having done some programming will help the process...

Give it up, you're going to fail. If you have to ask something like that you've already lost. It's obvious you're just in it for the cash.

You can get a loan and have someone do it for you which would just make you a VC or make it yourself. For the latter to work you need to be a geek with talent and tenacity. The sort of person who wouldn't need to ask that question for support.

In the end, less than %1 will make it and you will probably not fall into that 1%. If you really wanted to create something you would be coding, reading, and getting your hands dirty.

As RMS mentions this is unnecessarily harsh. Besides I don't think it's true.

The winners in the startup game are not the ones that can code, but the ones that overcome problems and persist. And are willing to learn new things in order to succeed.

A guy that posts here, intending to learn how to program definitely shows some potential for persistence and learning. I think he will have better chances than most.

This is unnecessarily harsh.

But he needs blow to the head. I'm pretty sure Edison didn't walk around asking people similar questions.

People are surprising similar in all walks of life. People will read tons of articles about working out and never set foot in a gym. I know people with dozens of books on programming but don't know what a pointer is.

It's procrastination plain and simple. If you don't have the get up and go, you'll be a loser asking others for assistance in getting your business going.

Thanks so far for the feedback: - mixmax: I have already bought some books to teach myself, but am finding it hard to concentrate! It has been a while since I have had to do any technical learning. - uruzseven: To a certain extent, everyone is doing it for the money. After all, I did mention that the site was going to be an "ecommerce/community site".:) I believe my question was a fair one as I have not had experience in web programming, but am interested, now that I am in between jobs.

Learning to program well is a valuable skill that is well worth the time invested into it. For however long it takes to learn you free yourself from needing others to do all of your future development (sans time constraints of course).

Learn PHP. I started trying a while ago, it doesn't take that long to build a basic application so you can at least get a prototype going.

How are you going to build the community?

Were you referring to the strategy of increasing the community size or from an implementation perspective?

Increasing the community size

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