[Webdev] PHP: exception handling / dereferencing / backtracing / conference

[adam beecher]

Hi Russell,

[ Sorry for the delay, server meltdown. Never rains but it pours. ]

> >                          exception handling
>
> If something bad happens, you throw an exception. You tell an exception
> handler what to do with it. Example: your bank account must be in
> credit, but you try to buy something that would exceed the amount of
> money in your account. The program could be told that it has to handle
> the "not enough money" exception by asking for the cash instead, if that
> fails just to tell you to go away. (try/catch/finally in Java - you can
> also just say that a class will throw an exception and let the calling
> class deal with it - don't know if that's the case with PHP.)
>
Cool. I like that.

> >                                              dereferencing
>
> If you have a reference to a variable (ie, don't know the name, but
> someone has pointed you at it) you can get at the contents by
> dereferencing. Passing references is more efficient in some languages.
>
Ah. I'm only a baby when it comes to references. Like I've said many times
here, I only "got" OOP late last year, and to be honest I only "got"
references recently. Maybe I really should try and learn programming
properly. Get one of those book things? :)

> > backtracing
>
> Can't help you there, I'm afraid.
>
I guess I'll just have to Google then!

> Forgot to mention I'd never used PHP and was just explaining those terms
> in general. It may or may not be the way PHP does it :)
>
I'd say it is. PHP tends to be a little quirky here and there, but they're
really trying to get it up to a level these days.

Thanks very much Russell, most helpful.

adam