Rating:  - Learning PHP 5 is not about PHP 5
Basic book on php. Not very good although well written. Cheats on some tasks (like SQL) by relying on PEAR etc. Nothing about object oriented php nor specifics on PHP 5.0 As such, the title is a rip off. Typical O'Reilly fluff.
Rating:  - Good intro, but lacking in important areas
There are several problems with this book that the author should fix for a future edition:
1. He structures the pages in the examples and exercises such that they mix decision code with user interface code. That these two are not separated is a serious flaw; doing server side validation is different for pages where the different types of code are separated, and it is best to keep them separated when different people are working on each type of code.
2. The part of the code (in code samples from chapter 6 onwards) that check for the presence of the $_POST[`_submit_check'] generates an error if you have apache set to show errors. The fix for this is to place the following code before the "if($_POST[`_submit_check']"):
if (array_key_exists('_submit_check', $_POST)) {
// print "$_POST[_submit_check];
} else {
$_POST['_submit_check']=false;
}
(the commented-out portion was for troubleshooting)
3. In chapter 2, he goes about formatting output using printf(), \n, and placeholders to place leading whitespace in front of numbers to line them up in a column. However, HTML ignores excessive whitespace, unless such whitespace is enclosed in
< pre> tags, which if used leads to some other problems. The result is that formatting and extra line breaks to not appear in the browser when testing the code. \n should be replaced by < br/ >, and a < table > should be used (with the align attributes of the elements set) to format output.
4. He only touched on the "5" part of php 5, and for the most part this is restricted to the part of the book dealing with databases. The author would do well to go into creating classes.
5. It would be nice if the author could instruct the reader on how to store user-defined functions in a file that could be used in other programs via the "require" directive. This would be handy for the exercises in the book since some of the code validation and other scripts need to be reused.
The pros are that interaction with databases is done well, the lessons are clear and easy to understand. It is a good intro book, but barely warrants the "5" in the title. For better server side validation (i.e. with decision and presentation code separated) look elsewhere.
Rating:  - The best PHP book for begginers
This book is absolutly the best for learning PHP quickly, and learning useful thing's in the process.
With this book I was able to write many high-end scripts within a month:
* A forum
* several blog's
* Data managment \ Website managment
* Chat room
* Full blown text MMORPG
My text MMORPG is still in progress, but it will be compelted soon thanks to this book.
I highly recomend it for anyone looking to learn PHP fast and easily!
Rating: - Way too simplistic
I got this book because I figured it would be a good introduction to PHP, but it was not. I have experience programming applications (in java and C), but not for the web and was curious about php.
It feels that after reading the entire book, I hardly know about php 5. If all you want to know is how to make basic forms or how to interact with a database in a basic way then this book may be for you, but if you want to know the ins and outs of php this book is horrible.
I definitely think this book is pretty much useless for experienced programmers, but I would also be inclined to believe that its not good for beginners either. Oh well, I'm off to shop for a new book on php!
Rating: - Good place to start, but beware: no OOP coverage
I picked up this book shortly after PHP 5 became available, expecting that because it's specifically about PHP 5 it would give some attention to PHP 5's new features over PHP 4. Most specifically I wanted to read about PHP 5's completely new Object Model, which is not a minor change. This book only mentions objects and classes in passing though, so it wasn't helpful to me at all in that regard. The chapter on working with databases has been helpful to me. It focuses mainly on PEAR DB but includes some good information about PHP 5's improved MySQL functions.
It's still a helpful book for programming PHP in general, and I do check it from time to time to brush up on syntax or look at example code. It reads pretty well and the examples are solid. If you're coming to PHP with prior experience in Java, Perl, or anything similar, you'll probably find the pace pretty slow. If you want a well-rounded introduction to PHP you'll do well with this book. If you're looking for information on more advanced topics like object-oriented programming, look elsewhere.
|
