Describe in detail the growth path of PHP programmers

Programmers are a relatively lucrative profession in the eyes of many people, and a large number of people enter this industry every year. Some of these people are computer majors, and some are trained, but no matter which type, many people have been working for one or two years. Later, I chose to change careers. The reason was simple: there was no development. It’s not that this industry has not developed, but that I have no way to develop in this industry because I don’t have a correct path. Therefore, today our php Chinese website will lead everyone to sort out the growth path of php programmers, which can also be regarded as a simplified version of php programmer career planning.

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. All settings are very specific and clear, which may make people feel uncomfortable. Please understand that they only represent A family story. (Future technical changes are beyond the scope of discussion)

The first stage: basic stage (basic PHP programmer)

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

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

● Can build mysql by myself and 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;

● Able to compile and build a MySQL database purely by hand and configure the encoding to run normally and stably; the core purpose is to be able to build a runnable MySQL database.

4.PHP：

● Basic syntax array, string, database, XML, Socket, GD/ImageMgk image processing, etc.;

● Familiar with various APIs (mysql/mysqli/PDO) linked to MySQL operations, and know how to solve various coding problems;

● Know the commonly used PHP frameworks (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;

● Ability 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 and conditions permit, you can properly learn HTML/CSS/JS and other related knowledge, know what web standards, p+css web/wap page mode, and 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, you can learn a little bit about it, but it is not recommended to be 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 basic: browser->Nginx+PHP->database architecture design and development work; 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)

Key points:Improve the target LNMP skills enable a more comprehensive and proficient application of LNMP.

Target:

● Ability to set up an LNMP environment anytime and anywhere and quickly complete routine configuration;

● Able to track down and solve most of the development and online environment problems encountered;

● Able to independently undertake the architecture and development work of medium-sized systems;

● Able to undertake the development work of a medium-sized module in a large system;

1.Linux:

● Based on the first stage, you can smoothly use Shell scripts to complete many automated tasks;

● awk/sed/perl also works well and can complete a lot of text processing and data statistics;

● Basically able to install most non-special 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 problem tracking under Linux, etc.

2.Nginx:

● Based on the first stage, understand the more complex Nginx configuration; including multi-core configuration, events, proxypass, sendfile/tcp* configuration, and know the related configuration and performance impact such as timeout;

● Know that in addition to web server, nginx can also undertake configurations such as proxy server and reverse static server;

● Know basic nginx configuration tuning, how to configure permissions, compile an nginx extension to nginx;

● Know the basic operating principles of nginx (master/worker mechanism, epoll), and why nginx performance is better than apache performance;

3. MySQL/MongoDB:

● On the basis of the first stage, master many tips in MySQL development, including conventional 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. You also know the 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 you also know the appropriate values ​​for configuring these options;

● Also understand some special configuration options, such as knowing how to build a mysql master-slave synchronization environment, and knowing the differences between binlog_format;

● Know MySQL performance tracing, including slow_log/explain, etc., and also know basic index creation and processing;

● Principles: Understand the basic MySQL architecture (Server + storage engine), know the basic InnoDB/MyISAM index storage structure and differences (clustered index, B-tree); know the basic InnoDB transaction processing mechanism; understand most MySQL exceptions solution (or know where to find one).

● If conditions permit, it is recommended to learn about MongoDB, a representative database of NoSQL, and compare the differences with MySQL. At the same time, you can use MongoDB safely and prudently in suitable application scenarios, and know the basic combined development of PHP and MongoDB.

4.Redis/Memcached：

● In most medium-sized systems, cache processing will definitely be involved, so you must understand the basic cache;

● Know the similarities, differences and application scenarios between Memcached and Redis, be able to install Redis/Memcached independently, understand some basic features and limitations of Memcahed, such as the maximum value, and know how to combine PHP with their use; understand the basic working principles and usage of Redis, understand Conventional data types, know which types are used in what scenarios, understand Redis transactions, etc.

● Principle part: You can have a rough 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, learn about Redis’s transaction, RDB, AOF and other mechanisms. Better

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 other configurations that affect performance), and 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;

● In PHP development, you have become proficient in using conventional design patterns for application development (abstract factory/single case/observer/command chain/strategy/adapter, etc.); it is recommended to develop your own PHP MVC framework to fully liberalize development. Let yourself deeply understand the MVC model, and also enable yourself to quickly upgrade in business project development;

● Familiar with various code optimization methods of PHP and familiar with solving most PHP security issues;

● Familiar with the basic PHP execution mechanism principles (Zend engine/extended basic working mechanism);

6.C/C++:

● Begin to dabble in a certain C/C++ language, be able to write basic C/C++ code, and be familiar with basic C/C++ syntax (pointers, array operations, strings, regular standard APIs) and data structures (linked lists, trees, hashes) , queue) have some familiarity;

● Have a basic understanding of C language development under Linux, be able to write simple makefile files, and be able to compile simple debugging work using simple GCC/GDB programs;

● Have a general understanding of basic network programming. (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 you can simply use some front-end frameworks (jQuery/YUI/ExtJS/RequireJS/BootStrap, etc.);

● If conditions permit, you can study JavaScript programming in depth, such as closure mechanism and DOM processing; if you go deeper, you can read the jQuery source code for in-depth study. (This item is not a key study unless you are interested in the front-end)

8. System design:

● Able to design website architecture, database, basic PHP framework selection, performance testing and troubleshooting for most medium-sized systems;

● Ability to complete basic design, development and maintenance of websites similar to: browser -> CDN(Squid) -> Nginx+PHP -> cache -> database structure;

● 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 study in a certain direction or field. (Deep dimension development)

Goal: In addition to being able to complete basic PHP business development, it can also solve most in-depth and complex technical problems, and can independently design and complete medium and large system design and Development work; I can independently hold and go deep into a certain technical direction, and I am relatively professional in this area. (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, I have been able to 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 control and process text statistics and analyze data in various complex formats at will;

● Have some understanding of the internal mechanisms of Linux, basic processing of kernel module loading, startup error handling, etc.; 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 handling, etc.;

● Depending on personal interests, you can consider focusing 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 By learning the development of Nginx extensions, you can customize some of your own private extensions; at the same time, you can have a certain understanding of Nginx+Lua and see if you can combine and apply it to create a better model;

● The requirement at this stage is an in-depth understanding of Nginx principles. 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 and 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. ;

● At 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;

● Regarding MySQL performance, it includes disk optimization (SAS migration 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, have in-depth understanding of operation statements such as show * (show status/show profile), and can complete most of the performance problem tracing;

● In-depth familiarity with MySQL backup technology, including disaster recovery and recovery, in-depth understanding of Binlog, hot and cold backup, multi-IDC backup, etc.;

● Learn more about the principles of MySQL, 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 about a certain storage engine (MyISAM/Innodb/TokuDB), etc. Learn and understand the source code. 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 in-depth understanding. For applications in different scenarios of RMDBS and 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, more in-depth application and learning can be achieved. Because Memcached is not particularly complicated, 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 applications of complex data structures (zset is used for ranking ranking operations/transaction processing is used to ensure atomicity in flash sale scenario applications); it involves more learning of synchronization mechanisms such as aof Application, design a highly available Redis application architecture and cluster; it is recommended to study the Redis source code in depth and apply the knowledge accumulated in the second stage. In particular, you can read about core event management, memory management, and internal core Fully learn about data structures and so on. 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. From the perspective of basic code application, it can solve 95% of the problems encountered in PHP development and understand most of the PHP skills;

● You can quickly start using most PHP frameworks within one day, and understand the advantages and disadvantages of each mainstream PHP framework, and can quickly and conveniently make technology selection during project development;

● In terms of configuration, in addition to the general knowledge in the second stage, you will also understand some more obscure configuration options (php auto_prepend_file/auto_append_file), including some complex advanced configurations and principles in extensions (such as memcache.hash_strategy in the memcached extension configuration) , apc.mmap_file_mask/apc.slam_defense/apc.file_update_protection in the apc extension configuration);

● Have a good understanding of the working mechanism of php, including the working mechanism of php-fpm (such as the calculation and principle of the number of processes enabled by php-fpm under different configuration machines), have a basic familiarity with the zend engine (vm/gc/stream processing), and have read Basic PHP kernel source code (or have read relevant articles), have an understanding of the implementation of most core data structures (basic types/Array/Object) of PHP's internal mechanisms, and have an in-depth understanding of the core infrastructure (zval/hashtable/gc) ;

● Be able to carry out basic PHP extension development, understand some intermediate and advanced knowledge of extension development (minit/rinit, etc.), and 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 will be able to have a deeper understanding of the C/C++ language and be able to complete the development of small and medium-sized C/C++ systems;

● In addition to the basic C/C++ syntax and data structures in the second stage, you can also 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; understand most of the communication methods between multi-processes in multi-process situations, and be able to flexibly choose communication methods (shared memory/semaphore/pipeline, etc.); be good at multi-thread programming Solve lock conflict problems, and be able to develop and debug multi-threaded programs; at the same time, be familiar with network programming, understand the differences and selection of multi-process models/multi-thread models/asynchronous network IO models, and be familiar with the differences and selections of different asynchronous network IO models Principles and differences (select/poll/epoll/iocp, etc.), and familiar with common asynchronous frameworks (ACE/ICE/libev/libevent/libuv/Boost.ASIO, etc.) and their uses. If you have free time, you can also take a look at some domestically developed ones. Library (such as muduo); at the same time, it can design a 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.) ); Be able to use GCC and GDB more familiarly to develop compilation and debugging programs, and be able to quickly trace and solve problems after the online program is cored;

● In terms of general module development, you can accumulate or develop some general tools or libraries (such as asynchronous network frameworks, log libraries, memory pools, thread pools, etc.), but you should be careful whether to apply them after development to avoid 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 integration capabilities of various framework applications in the front-end, if you are interested in learning the front-end, you can go more in-depth. In the form of, you can develop some front-end frameworks like jQuery yourself, or develop a rich text editor. Trivial test of 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 do back-end business from a different perspective, 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:

At 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 systems, which can solve most of the problems of various online complex systems and complete tasks similar to browsers -> CDN - > Load balancing->Access layer-> Nginx+PHP -> Business cache-> Database-> Various complex backend RPC interactions (storage backend, logic backend, anti-cheating backend, external Service) -> More complex business of back-end Jiangzi;

● Able to support the normal development and maintenance of websites with tens to hundreds of millions of traffic every day.

postscript

As for the higher architecture or expert stage, this article will not discuss it for the time being. Friends who are interested can search for it by themselves. Finally, I sincerely recommend php from entry to programming, which is tailor-made for newcomers to programming on the php Chinese website Advanced self-study roadmap, I wish you all to become a PHP master as soon as possible.