[themes] php and learning to theme

[brendan carney]

thanks Laura!
thats exactly the type of feed back i was looking for.  i was assuming 
that the conditional arguments would be of particular importance in 
directing which users see what, depending on where in the site they are. 
and i've already started poking around different themes trying to get 
some clues as to the way different people have approached things.

so, thanks again for your response!
---------------


Laura Scott wrote:
> As someone who learned (and is still very much learning) PHP to work 
> with Drupal, my recommendation is to focus on first things first: 
> Basic syntax. Basic commands. The various conditionals arguments, 
> especially. (if, elseif, case, switch)
>
> You can gain a lot of understanding, potentially, by going through 
> some of the existing contributed themes and see how they approached 
> different things. That's a start.
>
> Then maybe going into the theme snippets and php snippets in the 
> handbook would be next. Refer to your textbooks for background and 
> deeper understanding. (There are many online resources and books out 
> there. I've used the O'Reilly and Visual Quickpro Guide books, both 
> titled "PHP and MySQL".)
>
> I hope this helps. My philosophy is it's best to learn by doing, 
> whenever possible.
>
> Laura
>
>
> pingVision, LLC
> 4450 Arapahoe Ave, Suite 100
> Boulder, CO 80303
>
> www.pingv.com
> 303.415.2559
> inquiry at pingv.com
>
>
>
> On Jul 14, 2006, at 12:40 PM, brendan carney wrote:
>
>> hello! my first post in this list..
>> what areas of PHP should i get familiar with (first) in order to 
>> really customize themes?
>>
>> a little background:  i've been poking around drupal for a while, and 
>> am starting to get a feel for it.  i consider my knowledge of modern 
>> table-less xhtml/css practices to be somewhere between intermediate 
>> and advanced.  my knowledge of PHP (and programing in general) is 
>> very limited.  i've made it through a few tutorials, and parts of a 
>> rather poorly written php book.  in short, i know enough about php to 
>> be willing to experiment, but it's still a little scary. (but only a 
>> little) =)
>>
>> i love xhtml/css, falling hard for drupal, and am excited to start 
>> learning PHP.  as i'm a graphic designer, being able really customize 
>> themes is of extreme interest, and an area of the community i'd like 
>> to be able to contribute to in the near future.
>>
>> i'm planing to start going through online php tutorials more 
>> regularly in order to become more familiar with php in general, and 
>> specifically so that i can customize and develop drupal themes to my 
>> heart's content.
>> so again, what areas in php should i particularly focus on with 
>> regards to themeing?
>>
>> thanks!
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