PHP5 programmer learning Python

[Luis M. González]

On May 27, 12:41 pm, romiro <rroger... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm a PHP5 developer looking to "broaden my horizons" so to speak by
> learning a new language. I emphasize the 5 in PHP since I have fully
> engrossed myself in the full OOP of version 5 with my own ground-up
> projects as well as some work with PRADO (http://pradosoft.com)
>
> I've dabbled with a number of languages in the past, Python being no
> exception, but always ended up coming back to PHP due to being
> comfortable with it.  Python has stuck to me as a language I _really_
> think I should know more about.  I've recently tried C#, a very short
> lived re-attempt at C++ and Java, and Ruby.  None of those seemed
> "fun" except for Ruby, although from what I've seen the syntax between
> Ruby and Python are very similar to each other compared to the other
> languages.
>
> Anyway, my first question was if anyone knows of a tutorial that
> focuses on PHP -> Python learning, in such that there might be a block
> of PHP code alongside an example of how to do the same thing in
> Python.  One example of something I've already mapped a comparison to
> thanks to standard tutorials is a PHP numeric indexed array being
> similar to a list and a PHP associative array being similar to a
> dictionary.  Of course finding such of a tutorial isn't a deal breaker
> by any means, but I figured that having it available would be a boon
> for me to actually make some headway in my Python learning adventure.
>
> If there's anything else that could be said about the migration
> between the two languages, I'm all ears. I also don't really need to
> hear about how "disgusting" php is as a language...I am aware of the
> contained chaos that is PHP4, which is why I develop strictly in 5
> using its OOP to the extent my feeble brain allows, a wariness toward
> the insecure pitfalls the language has begat in the past, and an
> attempt to produce as clean of a syntax as the language can allow.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.


I don't know of anything like a PHP to Python migration guide.
But I think that you should just forget about PHP for awhile an
inmerse yourself into learning Python, which is a general purpose
programming language suitable for many tasks, and not only for the
web.

Start with the official tutorial or, if you want something more
advanced, read "Dive into Python".
Once you get a rough idea of all the cool things you can do with
Python, you can concentrate again in web development.

You'll be able to write more complex web sites with less code and a
cleaner syntax, although you will have to spend some time deciding how
to use Python in a web development context.

There are many frameworks to choose from, and trying them all can be a
daunting task...
The choices range from the so called "full stack frameworks" (such as
Django or TurboGears) that give you everything you need to build
complex web sites and even more (templates, dispatching mechanisms,
object-relational mappers, etc, etc) to minimalist solutions such as
webpy.
But this is something to evaluate after you have a good grasp of the
language itself.

Be warned: Python is highly addictive and it can make you a hopeless
junkie...

Good luck!
Luis