Pretty Hot Programmer

By Author: Mark Harry
Total Articles: 11
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PHP, short for Hypertext Pre-processor, is a general purpose server side scripting language which has gained tremendous momentum in the field of web programming and development. From wikipedia to your favorite banking site, PHP powers more than 20 million domains on the world wide web. Being one of the first server sided programming languages to ever be developed, it has been adopted by the web programmer community fairly well. A PHP Programmer designs, develops and implements scripts based on the PHP language.

Usually, PHP Programmers use the scripting language to create dynamic and flexible web based applications. The information and content is stored in a database, preferably using MySQL. In such a set up, the programmer designs the scripts in such a way that they act as information retrievers, which access the database and display the appropriate content to the user. PHP Programmers find the language easy enough, as it is an open source platform for web development, and is maintained by a group of voluntary programmers who believe in collaborative programming.

Anyone can easily become a PHP Programmer ...
... with the aid of appropriate tools and information. However, to become a successful PHP programmer one has to develop a good foundation in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). This is because more often than not, PHP code is embedded into HTML based pages, which provides the best of both worlds, so to speak. Also, both of these programming languages have similar syntax rules. There are innumerable courses online that provide tutorials and courseware that can help learn PHP programming. These tutorials provide a holistic and generalized understanding of the programming language. However, reputed PHP programmers claim that being able to implement PHP code into a project is not enough, and that the PHP programmer needs to understand the underlying structural buildup of the language in order to excel in its use, and effective deployment.

Once a PHP programmer gets a project assignment, he performs a thorough analysis of the customer's needs. Based on the requirements, he draws up a basic blue print that defines the generalized structure of the website to be built. The programmer then decides upon the methods he needs to adopt in order to achieve the desired results, and then begins the coding process. Once the coding phase is complete, the programmer starts debugging the entire site, looking for anomalies, vulnerabilities and code bugs. After the bug fixes if the customer needs any modifications, the PHP programmer finally deploys the project as a full fledged website.

PHP Programmers are not just responsible for coding and building web pages using the PHP language; more often than not, they are also tasked with debugging and testing of the web pages that they develop. This way, they not only build web sites, but also provide technical support to their customers. Apart from all this, freelance PHP programmers have the added perk of improving their portfolio, and thus highlighting their skills and abilities as PHP programmers. This is pretty much in high demand, as there is no dearth of website design/build projects.