6:15 PM:

Defining work paths.

The first thing my database-driven web site needs (well, besides a database) is an administrative console: a place where all the innards of the db can be viewed and altered. If it doesn't work there, it won't work on the "outside"... and I can't very well design a web page around a database that doesn't work, now, can I?

An admin console is the best thing I can think of to start with because it's focused primarily on the two languages I'm trying to learn, and it lays the groundwork for the backend of the site without requiring the additional factor of a sexy web design. Straight text will do for now, thanks. Tags and junk later. (#)

7:25 PM:

How Not to Not Study a New Language

I had a little spare time and decided to break the one working piece of PHP I had, in order to see whether I could add something to it. Luckily, I un-broke it eventually, as I'd hoped I would. It was (and is) a very basic form that entered a text field into a table, displayed all the entries, and allowed you to delete any single one of them. The code I added was for changing an existing entry (making use of the UPDATE query, which wasn't in the form before).

The only thing the form doesn't quite do right, and which I am about to investigate, is paste the full current text of the entry into the editing form. Other than that, the UPDATE query goes through just fine. Go me! Little by little, piece by piece. I guess it's all just a matter of picking the right difficulty of task.

Actually, let me amend that. That's what sub-tasks, or short-term tasks, are about. The overall objective is to learn enough to put together the site. The smaller objectives are to master each little piece of the language that we'll need, and that's where it really helps to gauge the difficulty of the task, and figure out whether you know enough to do it yet or not. In this case, I did. (#)

7:29 PM:

How Not to Study a New Language

Not going and getting a sandwich when your body and mind are exhausted.
Skip ahead.
Don't do all the examples, and those that you do, cut 'n paste.
Grab, and attempt to immediately use, code you don't understand.
Skim. Find stuff that looks important, and then keep skimming.

Verily, so much for all that. If I'm in good shape tonight, maybe I'll try to reverse this. Time to go slow and re-read stuff. (#)

3:44 PM:

Ah-HAH

I may hate regular expressions, but even I know a good thing when I see it. This will not only be used for articles, but I suspect it will form the basis of my solution to the dynamic skin development puzzle I asked myself earlier. It will also aid in the breaking of articles into multiple pages. Er, when we get to all of that. (#)

2:12 AM:

Why I (Me, Kermix) Rule

"User successfully added!"

That is the result of me finally parsing and troubleshooting a basic PHP script to add/delete username/password combinations in a table. Complete with (ultra-easy) password field.

I think this counts as my Hello SQL World. (#)

10:48 AM:

Theory @ Work

Because we can't put things into practice from here.

I'm continuing to browse the PHP/MySQL tutorial, and right now I'm on Part 6: the Content Management System. Pretty straightforward, but I noticed (rather easily) that it's extreeeemely easy to delete stuff. Lots of message boards will allow you to "delete" an entry but will instead simply hide it from view. (#)