Conventions in C#

Recognizer Data Matrix ECC200 in C# Conventions

This book uses different types of formatting to highlight special advice Here s a list:

Q: A:

In the code listings in this book, text highlighted in bold is a command to be entered at the prompt For example, in the following listing

mysql> INSERT INTO movies (mtitle, myear) VALUES ('Rear Window', 1954); Query OK, 1 row affected (006 sec)

the line in bold is a query that you would type in at the command prompt You can use this as a guide to try out the commands in the book

You can find the code for the example application discussed in this book at its companion Web site, http://wwwzf-beginners-guidecom/ Code archives are organized by chapter, and may be directly downloaded and used in your Zend Framework development environment

Learn the benefits of framework-based development Understand the history and unique advances of the Zend Framework Understand the structure of a Zend Framework application Install and start using the Zend Framework

t s no exaggeration to say that PHP is today one of the most popular programming languages in the world, and the toolkit of choice for millions of Web application developers across the planet According to recent statistics, the language is in use on more than 22 million Web sites and a third of the world s Web servers no small feat, especially when you consider that PHP is developed and maintained entirely by a worldwide community of volunteers with no commercial backing whatsoever! The reasons for PHP s popularity are not hard to understand It s scalable, easily available, and plays well with third-party software It uses clear, simple syntax and delights in non-obfuscated code, making it easy to learn and use and encouraging rapid application development And it has a massive advantage over commercial programming toolkits, because it s available free of charge for a variety of platforms and architectures, including UNIX, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS, under an open-source license Developers too report high levels of satisfaction with PHP In an August 2009 study of ten scripting languages by Evans Data Corporation, PHP developers had the highest user satisfaction levels (followed closely by Ruby and Python users) In particular, PHP ranked highest for cross-platform compatibility, availability and quality of tools, and performance, and second highest for maintainability and readability, extensibility, ease of use, and security For organizations and independent developers, all these facts add up to just one thing: Using PHP saves both money and time Building applications with PHP costs less, because the language can be used for a variety of purposes without payment of licensing fees or investment in expensive hardware or software And using PHP also reduces development time without sacrificing quality, because of the easy availability of ready-made, robust, and communitytested widgets and extensions that developers can use to painlessly add new functions to the language Now, although it might not seem apparent at first glance, PHP s much-vaunted ease of use is both good and bad It s good because unlike, say, C++ or Java, PHP programs are relatively easy to read and understand, and this encourages novice programmers to experiment with the language and pick up the basics without requiring intensive study It s bad because PHP s corresponding lack of strictness can lull those same programmers into a false sense of security and encourage them to write applications for public consumption without awareness of the necessary standards for code quality, security, and reusability

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With this in mind, there s been a concerted and visible effort in the PHP community over the last few years to move from ad-hoc anything goes programming to a more standardized, framework-oriented approach Not only does this approach make it easier to get up and running when building a PHP application from scratch, but it produces cleaner, more consistent, and more secure application code This chapter, and the remainder of this book, introduces you to one such framework, the Zend Framework, which provides a flexible and scalable approach to building PHP applications for serious developers