Talk:How to become a MediaWiki hacker

Archives:
 * 2002–2010

SELinux :(
Just a note that we need to put somewhere more useful sometime: SELinux makes it difficult to install MediaWiki, and so "do you have SELinux installed?" is a useful question to ask if someone's having a very hard time installing MediaWiki. Sumanah 08:03, 20 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This looks like a topic that should be included in a FAQ section of Manual:Installing MediaWiki or Manual:Errors and Symptoms. Actually, it's already at Manual:Errors and Symptoms. guillom 18:39, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Good basic HTML & JavaScript tutorials/resources

 * Crockford's JavaScript videos
 * basic HTML & CSS tutorials
 * Google's HTML/CSS/JS videos

Good examples of code to learn from
I talked with Aaron Schulz today and he mentioned that he'd prefer new developers only look at good code when seeking examples to admire and copy.
 * Message.php (well-structured, uses chaining)
 * FileBackend (less great, but good)

Testing
We also need more testers/debuggers. There are very few test wikis (basically only translatewiki.net serves as such!) and the beta cluster is unused. See Project:Test reports. Nemo 09:46, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

On learning PHP
Some recommendations I've heard:

One of the classics is the "Luke and Laura" book http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Development-Luke-Welling/dp/0672317842 by Laura Thomson & WMF's Luke Welling. It's huge, pricey, but accessible and thorough. If you are a beginner, try one of the O'Reilly learning books, "Learning PHP" or "Learning PHP & MySQL". There's also zend's dev site, with some good articles: http://devzone.zend.com/

There is also a Head First book (from O'Reilly press) about PHP & MySQL.

Lastly, this includes resources and a free quiz: http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp Sharihareswara (WMF) (talk) 13:24, 10 February 2013 (UTC)