Program flow

[Hal Davey]

Pekka; I learn code best by picking working code apart to try and see what the designer had in mind. In C or basic I had no problems - but i am having trouble following the programmatic flow in php. Do you have a flow chart or diagram of EE?
EE is a beautiful piece of programming.
Hal Davey]

[Pekka]

I don't have what you requested on paper - only in my head... Basically EE code is quite straightforward (directly working on database, mostly array handling), but it uses some seemingly 'original' structures especially in style section, index page, building help code and in multilanguage code solution (soon released). It is most likely not coded by any current conventional trends as I have done it entirely my way (as Frank Sinatra put it) and most decisions I have made are based mainly on future expandability and visitor operation speed - and by my own logic which is sometimes a bit odd I agree.

There is PLENTY of code there just to make sure that no odd exeption can make any error messages appear. I'm sure you know too that that one of the most important aspects of programming is ruling out all that you don't want to happen: it's quite easy to make one tightly defined feature to work but it takes a lot of effort to cater for user error, missing file or variable, exeptions and anything out of ordinary - anything for not destroying the application flow and user experience.

The most useful thing you can learn with PHP and MySQL is not PHP coding, but making SQL tables work for you. What I spent literally months with was database structure and especially database normalization and table logic from application point of view. Pen and paper stuff - flowcharts of table relationship etc.. EE is for most parts at highest level of SQL normalization which means it is very fast (basically works with integer numbers only) and it is very easy to add future features. I often thank the higher being for giving be wisdom back then to dig deep into those theories - without deep SQL knowledge and understanding EE could have been a disaster after first user wishlist. Now it's fun and logical to code, even if it is getting much more complex.

If you have anything specific to ask, please do.

[Hal Davey]

Pekka; Thanks for the reply and the pointers. I'll keep working till I figure it all out.
How was your England trip?
Hal Davey