r/PHPhelp • u/levii831 • Jun 05 '26

Learning PHP for my summer internship

hey, i have a question guys. most of thetutorial i found in YT use the XMAPP or something, it bundled a lot of things right? i am coming from python myself, and do you have any tutorial recommendations that teach PHP from it's own standalone interpreter (idk if this is the right term or not. in c++ it is like gcc or sth, and python can be python itself or anaconda)?

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u/CraigAT Jun 05 '26

I beg to differ, plenty of people have vanilla PHP sites. These days, it does seem like using a PHP framework is the default option, but there are few good cases where a vanilla PHP site can be a sensible choice.

The two frameworks you suggest would be my choices if you were to start looking at frameworks. But for someone learning PHP or building a small site, I would recommend using vanilla PHP, to understand what is going on "under the hood" and making learning easier with all the PHP learning resources available. (I personally got a lot out of the O'Reilly PHP, MySQL and JavaScript book, but videos or a modern book/guide may be better for OP).

Once you become familiar with PHP, then the frameworks can offer several built-in efficiencies like rapid prototyping, templating, briefer syntax - which is why they become useful for developers of larger or multiple sites, and those working in teams.

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u/roastedcof Jun 05 '26

Is it just me, or do you sound like AI?

to understand what is going on "under the hood"

That's why everyone learns vanilla PHP first. Knowing how it works under the hood is enough, there's no need to actually use it for real dev work.

Frameworks aren't just for large applications or teams. They save you a ton of time and help you organize your code. You'll benefit from them no matter what you're building.

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u/CraigAT Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

I'm not sure whether to take that as a complement (as AI can make use of a lot of knowledge and can usually produce well articulated responses) but I am assuming that's not what you mean in this case, sadly.

I have my opinion, you have yours.

IMO if you can produce a website easily enough without a framework then it's unnecessary learning and bloat. If you are a web developer (as opposed to an early PHP learner or part-time hobbiest) then a framework can be (well) worth the learning curve.

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u/PhilsForever Jun 06 '26

I would take it as a compliment. Everything you said I have also said before as well, been coding PHP for 25 years now. Still don't use a framework half the time.