How to begin web programming with PHP

I am often asked, 'how to begin web programming with PHP?'. Following is a response that I had given few weeks ago. Hope this will be useful for anyone willing to start learning PHP.

Things you need to know to begin web programming with PHP:

• Good knowledge of HTML
• Some knowledge of CSS
• Some knowledge of JavaScript
• Good knowledge of MySQL Database, SQL (as most php applications are database driven)
• Good knowledge of PHP
• Using and configuring Apache

Tutorial Links:

Here are the links to tutorials that may help you to accelerate your learning process.

• HTML:
• Very good short tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
• Good tutorial: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
• Advanced tutorial: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Advanced.html
• CSS:
• Very good short tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp
• A good tutorial: http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss
• A detailed tutorial: http://www.html.net/tutorials/css/
• JavaScript:
• Very good short tutorial on JavaScript: http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_intro.asp
• Detailed tutorial: http://www.webdeveloper.com/javascript/javascript_js_tutorial.html
• PHP:
• Very good short tutorial on PHP: http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp
• Very good detailed tutorial on PHP: http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627 (go through all the parts)

Recommended Setup:

• Wamp Server (http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php) which includes Apache web server, PHP and MySQL.
• Editor: Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download).
• HTML Editor: DreamWeaver, FrontPage.
• References (must have): php manual.chm, mysql manual.chm, javascript referenece books.

Recommendations:

• Keep the references handy/near to you.
• Search in Google for more tutorials
• Look into well known PHP frameworks (search for: top php frameworks).
  
• Look into open source projects to learn how real life applications are done.
• Practice well :)