Title: Learning to become a WordPress (PHP) programmer
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Learning to become a WordPress (PHP) programmer

 *  [iaw4](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iaw4/)
 * (@iaw4)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/learning-to-become-a-wordpress-php-programmer/)
 * I am an experienced perl programmer. I have written lots of cgi scripts.
 * I decided to jump ship. the future lies where 90% of web developers sit, and 
   this seems to be php. and half of those sit with wordpress. I don’t want to have
   to recode in perl, when there is a CMS that has 90% of what I want—blogs, user
   management concepts, etc.
 * from my perspective, wordpress is like part of php. I am learning the latter 
   in order to program the former. wordpress should be like a library / IDE for 
   php for me.
 * Alas, I now need to learn both php and wordpress. are there any focused books
   for wordpress php programming? I don’t need books on html and css, or what a 
   theme is. I already know this. I also don’t want books using ancient versions
   with deprecated programming features and styles. I want to buy a book that teaches
   reasonably current wordpress/php, more or less as an integrated IDE ecosystem.
 * the google firehose gives me a lot of old cruft. I purchased “Modern Php”, but
   it seems to be geared towards improving existing php programmers, and not on 
   teaching the right language for php (much less for wordpress).
 * Recommendations? How do I become/learn to be a modern WordPress programmer?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/learning-to-become-a-wordpress-php-programmer/#post-6539201)
 * Welcome to the wonderful WordPress community!
 * Books are very personal, what works for me you may detest. I’ve actually learned
   PHP & WordPress simply by doing custom projects and researching answers to help
   folks here 🙂 The challenge to find an answer to a hack question where you don’t
   already know the answer is actually a great way to learn the inner workings of
   WP. You learn a lot just from reading through source code. I too came from other
   languages, so reading code wasn’t that difficult even when I wasn’t fully up 
   to speed on correct syntax.
 * Besides PHP, knowing some javascript and jQuery is very helpful. With mobiles
   being ever more important, Java and objective-C are going to start figuring into
   the picture as well. Still, you’re nowhere if you can’t get your server to do
   something, so PHP is where everything spins off of IMO.
 * You probably already know of some perl books you consider good. See if there 
   are PHP/WP versions from the same series. Otherwise nothing is better than being
   able to browse through an actual copy to determine if it’s the book for you. 
   Good luck!
 *  [Andrew Nevins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/anevins/)
 * (@anevins)
 * WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/learning-to-become-a-wordpress-php-programmer/#post-6539202)
 * I would recommend first getting a solid grasp of object-oriented PHP. It’s not
   necessary to build a WordPress website, but I have a feeling it’s what is expected
   from a “wordpress programmer”.
 *  [leejosepho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leejosepho/)
 * (@leejosepho)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/learning-to-become-a-wordpress-php-programmer/#post-6539212)
 * > …simply by doing custom projects and researching answers to help folks here
   > 🙂
 * Definitely. I will never be a coder, but I learn enough to fix my own stuff by
   trying to help people find answers for theirs.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Learning to become a WordPress (PHP) programmer’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 3 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [leejosepho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leejosepho/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/learning-to-become-a-wordpress-php-programmer/#post-6539212)
 * Status: not resolved

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