Ivan Yonkov has solid experience in the field of software development, quality assurance, and delivery, as well as many years of experience as a technical trainer, project manager, and team manager. In recent years, he has been working with technological frameworks like JVM (Java, Scala, Kotlin) and its first love – PHP. Ivan is a former Training Director at SoftUni and is currently a Training Consultant and a lecturer in Java. He is CEO of the Codexio Technology Startup and CTO of the blockchain-based project LockTrip.
What’s your story with PHP?
Ivan: Old and strange. Back in time, in 2004 in a distant galaxy at bulfleet.com, when Internet Explorer was the most massive browser even in our country, I looked at the address bar and saw bulfleet.com/index.php. That’s how it all started. A game that runs in the browser is written in a language called PHP. Why shouldn’t I start learning it? Well, things were not flowers and roses. Downloading index.php from my game site just downloaded one HTML (only the vision), and the first small program I tried to write from the tutorial on the web, clicking it with my mouse did not go away. It took tens of hours a day working tirelessly, and a few crises on the brink of quitting to come to the moment I can tell people that programming is very cool and the PHP is the coolest language
What are the advantages of PHP and what type of problems can the language solve?
Ivan: PHP has the advantage that you can see the results on each row directly on the web page. And with almost no waiting. You can easily make changes to existing things and has a pretty lighter model to make the changes reach the end-user. It is best suited for small- and medium-sized web applications that will be used by up to a few thousand users a day.
Is PHP suitable for beginners?
Ivan: One of the most suitable languages for beginners. After just a few lessons, one can try the PHP for a cloud-computing web application without fighting the black console of the operating system and seeing only bills on the screen.
Why is it worthwhile for people to invest in PHP and what are the prospects for that language?
Ivan: More than half of the web projects are written on PHP. It’s a fast language, and if a person’s affinity is to create web applications, they’re likely to get where it is done with PHP. Also, the fine-tuned PHP code does not differ much from the other languages that hold the other half of the market, and if a change of language is needed, things are instantaneous. But to get to the development of web projects, you have to start somewhere. The best starting point for beginners who want to learn PHP is the “Programming Basics with PHP” course. Take this opportunity!
