Technical growth plan for PHP programmers (for you who are confused)

According to the understanding of the development trajectory of many PHP/LNMP programmers, combined with personal experience, I abstracted out the confusion of many programmers about the future, especially the blindness and panic about technical learning, and briefly sorted out the skills of PHP programmers at each stage. requirements to help many PHP programs set learning and growth goals.

This article makes a basic summary based on the current mainstream technology. The entire setting is based on the assumption that the PHP programmer does not have a very solid foundation, and all settings are very specific and clear, which may make people feel uncomfortable. Please understand that only On behalf of the family. (Future technological changes are beyond the scope of discussion)

The first stage: basic stage (basic PHP programmer)

Key point: Become proficient in LNMP (the core is basic operations of installation and configuration)

Goal: Be able to complete basic LNMP system installation, simple configuration and maintenance; be able to do basic PHP development of simple systems; be able to support the development of a certain PHP function module in a medium-sized PHP system.

Time: The time it takes to complete this stage varies from person to person. Some grow faster than half a year and some grow slowly in two or three years.

1.Linux:

Basic commands, operations, startup, basic service configuration (including rpm installation files, various service configurations, etc.); can write simple shell scripts and awk/sed script commands, etc.

2.Nginx:

Be able to install and configure nginx+php, know the basic nginx core configuration options, and know basic configurations such as server/fastcgi_pass/access_log. The goal is to make nginx+php_fpm work smoothly.

3.MySQL:

Be able to build mysql by yourself, know the basic mysql configuration options; know the difference between innodb and myisam, know the different configuration options for the two engines of InnoDB and MyISAM; know the basic differences between the two engines and the difference between the above choices; be able to do it manually Compile and build a MySQL database and configure the encoding to run normally and stably; the core purpose is to build a runnable MySQL database.

4.PHP：

Basic syntax for arrays, strings, databases, XML, Socket, GD/ImageMgk image processing, etc.; familiar with various APIs linked to MySQL operations (mysql/mysqli/PDO), knowing how to solve various coding problems; knowing how to be proficient in routines The PHP framework used (ThinkPHP, Zendframework, Yii, Yaf, etc.); understand the basic MVC operating mechanism and why it is done, and know a little about the differences between different PHP frameworks; be able to quickly learn an MVC framework. Be able to understand the file directory organization in the development project, have a basic good code structure and style, and be able to complete the development of small systems and the development of a certain module in a medium-sized system.

5. Front-end:

If time permits, you can properly learn HTML/CSS/JS and other related knowledge, know what web standards, web/wap page mode of div+css, know the difference between HTML5 and HTML4; understand some basic front-end and JS frameworks (jQuery and the like); Understand some basic JavaScript programming knowledge; (This item is not required. If you have time, it is okay to learn a little bit, but it is not recommended as a focus unless you have a strong personal interest)

6. System design:

Be able to complete the basic design of small systems, including simple database design, and be able to complete the basic design and development work of browser -> Nginx+PHP -> database architecture; be able to support hundreds of thousands to millions of traffic websites every day development and maintenance work;

The second stage: improvement stage (intermediate PHP programmer)

Focus: Improve LNMP skills and be able to apply LNMP more comprehensively and proficiently.

Goal: Be able to set up an LNMP environment anytime and anywhere and complete routine configuration quickly; be able to trace and solve most development and online environment problems encountered; be able to independently undertake the architecture and development work of medium-sized systems; be able to undertake certain tasks in large systems The development work of a medium-sized module;

1. Linux:

On the basis of the first stage, you can smoothly use Shell scripts to complete many automated tasks; awk/sed/perl also operates well, and can complete a lot of text processing and data statistics; you can basically install most non-special programs. Linux programs (including various libraries, packages, third-party dependencies, etc., such as MongoDB/Redis/Sphinx/Luncene/SVN, etc.); understand basic Linux services, know how to view Linux performance indicator data, and know basic Issue tracking under Linux, etc.

2. Nginx:

Based on the first stage, understand the more complex Nginx configuration; including multi-core configuration, events, proxy_pass, sendfile/tcp_* configuration, know the related configuration and performance impact such as timeout; know that nginx can also undertake proxy server in addition to web server , reverse static server and other configurations; know basic nginx configuration tuning; know how to configure permissions, compile an nginx extension to nginx; know the basic nginx operating principles (master/worker mechanism, epoll), know why nginx performance is better than apache performance Good waiting for knowledge;

3. MySQL/MongoDB:

On the basis of the first stage, in terms of MySQL development, master many tips, including regular SQL optimization (group by/order by/rand optimization, etc.); in addition to being able to build MySQL, you can also hot and cold backup MySQL data, and you also know Configuration options that affect the performance of innodb/myisam (such as key_buffer/query_cache/sort_buffer/innodb_buffer_pool_size/innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit, etc.), and also know the appropriate values for configuring these options; also understand some special configuration options, such as knowing how to set up mysql master-slave synchronization Environment, know the difference between each binlog_format; know the performance tracking of MySQL, including slow_log/explain, etc., and also know the basic index creation and processing; know the basic MySQL architecture (Server + storage engine) in terms of principles, and know the basic InnoDB/ MyISAM index storage structure and differences (clustered index, B-tree); know the basic InnoDB transaction processing mechanism; understand the solutions for most MySQL exceptions (or know where to find the solutions). If conditions permit, it is recommended to learn about the MongoDB database, which is a representative of NoSQL, and compare the differences with MySQL. Colleagues can use MongoDB safely and prudently in suitable application scenarios, and know the basic combined development of PHP and MongoDB.

4. Redis/Memcached：

Cache processing will definitely be involved in most medium-sized systems, so you must understand basic caching; know the similarities, differences and application scenarios of Memcached and Redis, be able to install Redis/Memcached independently, and understand some basic features and limitations of Memcahed, such as the maximum The value, know how to combine PHP with their use; understand the basic working principles and usage of Redis, understand the conventional data types, know which types should be used in what scenarios, understand Redis transactions, etc. In the principle part, you can have a general understanding of the memory structure of Memcached (slab mechanism). Redis understands the underlying implementation storage structure of common data types (SDS/linked list/SkipList/HashTable), etc. By the way, you can learn more about Redis's transactions, RDB, AOF and other mechanisms. Good

5. PHP：

In addition to the first stage capabilities, in terms of installation and configuration, you can freely install the compiled and installed configurations of PHP and various third-party extensions; understand most of the configuration options and meanings of php-fpm (such as max_requests/max_children/request_terminate_timeout and the like that affect performance) Configuration), know the difference between mod_php/fastcgi; have become proficient in various basic technologies in PHP, including various more in-depth PHP, including in-depth understanding of PHP object-oriented/SPL/special features at the syntax level such as reflection. In terms of frameworks, I have read the code of at least one conventional PHP MVC framework, and know the internal implementation mechanism and design ideas of the basic PHP framework; I have been able to skillfully use conventional design patterns for application development in PHP development (abstract factory/unit Example/Observer/Command Chain/Strategy/Adapter and other modes); it is recommended to develop your own PHP MVC framework to fully liberalize development, let yourself deeply understand the MVC pattern, and also allow yourself to quickly upgrade in business project development; be familiar with PHP Various code optimization methods, familiar with solving most PHP security issues; familiar with the basic PHP execution mechanism principles (Zend engine/extended basic working mechanism);

6. C/C++:

Start to dabble in certain C/C++ languages, be able to write basic C/C++ codes, and be familiar with basic C/C++ syntax (pointers, array operations, strings, regular standard APIs) and data structures (linked lists, trees, hashes) , queue); have a basic understanding of C language development concepts under Linux, can write simple makefile files, and can use simple GCC/GDB program compilation and simple debugging; have a general understanding of basic network programming learn. (This item is to lay the foundation for a higher level)

7. Front-end:

On the basis of the first stage, be familiar with the basic HTTP protocol (protocol code 200/300/400/500, basic HTTP interaction header); if conditions permit, you can write slightly more elegant HTML+CSS+JavaScript in depth, or Be able to use some front-end frameworks (jQuery/YUI/ExtJS/RequireJS/BootStrap, etc.) in a rough and simple way; if conditions permit, you can learn JavaScript programming in depth, such as closure mechanism and DOM processing; if you want to go deeper, you can read the jQuery source code for more in-depth knowledge study. (This item is not a key study unless you are interested in the front-end)

8. System design:

Able to design the website architecture, database, and basic PHP framework selection for most medium-sized systems; perform performance testing and troubleshooting, etc.; be able to complete tasks such as: Browser -> CDN (Squid) -> Nginx+PHP -> Cache -> ; Basic design, development and maintenance of database structure websites; able to support the development and maintenance of basic websites with millions to tens of millions of traffic every day;

The third stage: Advanced stage (senior PHP programmer)

Key points: In addition to the basic LNMP program, you can also have in-depth learning in a certain direction or field. (Development in depth)

Goal: In addition to being able to complete basic PHP business development, you can also solve most in-depth and complex technical problems, and you can independently design and complete medium and large-scale system design and development work; you can independently hold and go deep into a certain technical direction, in this area More professional. (For example, in-depth research in any direction such as MySQL, Nginx, PHP, Redis, etc.)

1. Linux：

In addition to the second stage capabilities, in addition to regular operations and performance monitoring and tracking under Linux, you can also use many advanced and complex commands to complete the work (watch/tcpdump/starce/ldd/ar, etc.); in terms of shell scripts, you can already Write relatively complex shell scripts (more than 500 lines) to assist in completing many shell tasks including backup, automated processing, monitoring, etc.; I have become proficient in applications such as awk/sed/perl, and can freely operate and control text statistical analysis. data in a complex format; have some understanding of the internal mechanisms of Linux, basic processing of kernel module loading, startup error handling, etc.; and also understand some other related things, such as NFS, disk management, etc.;

2. Nginx:

On the basis of the second stage, I have been able to operate Nginx very proficiently and can perform more in-depth operation and maintenance work on Nginx, such as monitoring, performance optimization, complex problem processing, etc.; depending on personal interests, more aspects can be considered Focus on in-depth study of the working principle of Nginx, mainly starting from reading the source code, such as the specific master/worker working mechanism, Nginx internal event processing, memory management, etc.; at the same time, you can learn the development of Nginx extensions and customize some of your own Private extension; at the same time, you can have a certain degree of understanding of Nginx+Lua to see if a better model can be combined and applied; the requirement at this stage is an in-depth understanding of Nginx principles, and you can consider becoming an in-depth professional in the Nginx direction.

3. MySQL/MongoDB:

On the basis of the second stage, in terms of MySQL applications, in addition to the previous basic SQL optimization, it can also complete some complex operations, such as importing and exporting large batches of data, changing the table structure of online large batches of data, or adding or deleting index fields. Wait for high-risk operations; in addition to installation and configuration, it has been able to handle more complex MySQL problems, such as tracing various problems, solving master-slave synchronization delay problems, cross-computer room data synchronization solutions, MySQL high-availability architecture, etc. ; For the MySQL application level, you are familiar with the core key technologies of MySQL, such as transaction mechanisms (isolation levels, locks, etc.), and have a certain understanding and application of triggers, partitions and other technologies; for MySQL performance, including disk optimization (SAS Migrate to SSD), server optimization (memory, server configuration), other core performance optimization options in addition to the second stage (innodb_log_buffer_size/back_log/table_open_cache/thread_cache_size/innodb_lock_wait_timeout, etc.), connection pool software selection application, and show * (show status/ Show profile) type of operation statements, able to complete most performance problem tracing; in-depth familiarity with MySQL backup technology, including disaster recovery and restoration, in-depth understanding of Binlog, hot and cold backup, multi-IDC backup, etc.; in MySQL principles In terms of learning, there is more understanding, such as starting to read part of the source code about the working mechanism of MySQL, such as learning the source code of master-slave synchronization (replication) technology, or learning and understanding the source code of a certain storage engine (MyISAM/Innodb/TokuDB), etc. , if conditions permit, you can refer to the CSV engine to develop your own simple storage engine to save some data and enhance your understanding of MySQL; during this process, if you are interested, you can also consider developing in the direction of DBA. At the MongoDB level, you can consider, for example, starting to apply MongoDB online when writing less and reading more, or doing some online data analysis and processing operations. The specific scenarios can be based on the work, but the core is to have a better and in-depth understanding of RMDBS. For applications in different scenarios from NoSQL, if conditions or interests permit, you can start to learn more about the working mechanism of MongoDB.

4. Redis/Memcached：

On the basis of the second stage, you can apply and learn more deeply. Because Memcached is not particularly complex, it is recommended to read the source code, especially the memory management part, to facilitate in-depth understanding; in the Redis part, you can do more complex data structure applications (zset is used for ranking ranking operations/transaction processing to ensure Atomicity is used in flash sale scenario applications); it mostly involves learning applications of synchronization mechanisms such as aof, and designing a highly available Redis application architecture and cluster; it is recommended that you study the source code of Redis in depth and put it into the second stage The accumulated knowledge can be applied. In particular, you can read about core event management, memory management, internal core data structure, etc. to fully understand it. If your interest allows, you can become a very professional user of Redis.

5. PHP：

As basic core skills, we need more in-depth study and application based on the second stage. In terms of basic code application, you can solve 95% of the problems encountered in PHP development and understand most PHP techniques; you can quickly get started using most PHP frameworks within a day, and understand the advantages of each mainstream PHP framework. Disadvantages: It can quickly and conveniently make technology selection during project development; in terms of configuration, in addition to the knowledge of the regular second stage, you will also understand some more obscure configuration options (php auto_prepend_file/auto_append_file), including some complex advanced configurations in extensions and principles (such as memcache.hash_strategy in memcached extension configuration, apc.mmap_file_mask/apc.slam_defense/apc.file_update_protection in apc extension configuration, etc.); have a good understanding of the working mechanism of php, including php-fpm working mechanism (such as php-fpm enables process number calculation and principle under different configuration machines), has basic familiarity with the zend engine (vm/gc/stream processing), has read the basic PHP kernel source code (or read related articles), and has an understanding of the internal mechanism of PHP Have an understanding of the implementation of most core data structures (basic types/Array/Object), and have an in-depth understanding of the core infrastructure (zval/hashtable/gc); be able to carry out basic PHP extension development, and understand some intermediate and advanced knowledge of extension development (minit/rinit, etc.), be familiar with the details of different communication and interaction methods between php and apache/nginx (mod_php/fastcgi); in addition to developing PHP extensions, you can consider learning to develop Zend extensions to understand PHP from a lower level.

6. C/C++：

On the basis of the second stage, you can have a deeper understanding of the C/C++ language and complete the development of small and medium-sized C/C++ systems; in addition to the basic C/C++ syntax and data structure of the second stage, you can also Be able to learn some special data structures (b-tree/rb-tree/skiplist/lsm-tree/trie-tree, etc.) to facilitate your needs in special work; in terms of system programming, be familiar with multi-process and multi-thread programming; in multi-process situations Understand most of the communication methods between multi-processes, and be able to flexibly choose communication methods (shared memory/semaphore/pipeline, etc.); multi-thread programming can well solve lock conflicts and be able to develop and debug multi-thread programs; at the same time Be familiar with network programming, understand the differences and selections of multi-process models/multi-thread models/asynchronous network IO models, be familiar with the principles and differences of different asynchronous network IO models (select/poll/epoll/iocp, etc.), and be familiar with common Asynchronous frameworks (ACE/ICE/libev/libevent/libuv/Boost.ASIO, etc.) and usage. If you have free time, you can also look at some domestically developed libraries (such as muduo); at the same time, you can design a good high-concurrency program architecture (leader- follow/master-worker, etc.); understand most of the issues in C/C++ back-end Server development (memory management, log printing, high concurrency, front-end and back-end communication protocols, service monitoring), and know the RPC communication issues of each back-end service (struct /http/thirft/protobuf, etc.); can use GCC and GDB more familiarly to develop compilation and debugging programs, and can quickly trace and solve problems after the online program is cored; in terms of general module development, can accumulate or develop some general tools Or library (such as asynchronous network framework, log library, memory pool, thread pool, etc.), but you should be careful whether to apply it after development, so as to save yourself from chasing bugs;

7. Front-end:

In-depth understanding of the HTTP protocol (including the special protocol codes of each detailed protocol and the reasons behind it, such as 302 static files are cached, 502 means that php behind nginx is down, etc.); in addition to the previous front-end various framework application integration capabilities, the front-end If you are interested in learning more in-depth, you can develop some front-end frameworks like jQuery yourself, or develop a rich text editor and other relatively trivial tests to test your JavaScript skills;

8. Language learning in other fields:

Have basic accumulation in basic PHP/C/C++ languages. It is recommended that you try to learn different programming languages at the current stage. Depending on your personal interests and hobbies, you can learn Python/Ruby for scripting languages and functional programming languages. Try Lisp/Haskell/Scala/Erlang and the like. For static languages, try Java/Golang. For data statistical analysis, you can learn about the R language. If you want to change your perspective and do back-end business, you can try Node.js and the above mentioned Nginx_Lua, etc., which are combined with Nginx. Learning different languages is mainly to improve your own vision and the differences in problem-solving methods. For example, you will understand that in addition to processes/threads, there are also lightweight coroutines; for example, in cross-machine communication scenarios, Erlang’s solution is surprisingly simple; for example If you don't want to choose C/C++, there are also similar efficient Erlang/Golang available, etc.; mainly to improve your horizons.

9. Study in other professional directions:

In this stage, in addition to basic LNMP skills, you will also consider learning knowledge in other fields. These are all possible, depending on personal interests and long-term goals. At present, there are many fields to choose from, such as cloud computing (distributed storage, distributed computing, virtual machines, etc.), machine learning (data mining, pattern recognition, etc., applied to statistics, personalized recommendations), natural language processing ( Chinese word segmentation, etc.), search engine technology, graphics and images, speech recognition, etc. In addition to these advanced ones, there are also many areas where you can learn more about engineering, such as high-performance systems, mobile development (Android/IOS), computer security, embedded systems, hardware, etc.

10. System design:

Based on the second stage of system design, you can apply the experience and skills you have mastered to design relatively complex medium and large-scale systems, which can solve most of the problems of various online complex systems and complete tasks such as Browser -> CDN -> Load balancing -> Access layer -> Nginx+PHP -> Business cache -> Database -> Various complex backend RPC interactions (storage backend, logic backend, anti-cheating backend, External services) -> More backend Jiangzi’s complex business; able to support the normal development and maintenance of websites with tens to hundreds of millions of traffic every day.

The fourth stage: Architecture stage (Architect)

ps: I won’t start the discussion for the time being. I will write a special article to describe and supplement the content of this part next time

The fifth stage: expert stage (expert in direction field)

ps: I’m so tall, I won’t discuss this ^_^

The sixth stage: scientist stage

ps: I’m so tall, I won’t discuss this ^_^

The above introduces the technical growth plan for PHP programmers (for you who are confused), including the relevant content. I hope it will be helpful to friends who are interested in PHP tutorials.