Rating: 
Summary: A great kick-start to Apache, PHP and MySQL
Review: This is a great book to start out with. It tells you what you need to know to start using PHP very quickly. Within 2 hours I was writing my own PHP scripts. I would not recommend it for experienced users.I had never written any PHP, C or Java before this - I had been brought up on Pascal, some VB and lost of System/370 assembler and Rexx. I had a clear understanding of web sites and html and I would now say that I am now a fairly competent PHP programmer. The book explains very clearly how to set up Apache, MySQL and PHP on your Windows or Linux system and takes you through some examples. It also points you at further sources on the web then once you are going, the book becomes fairly redundant.
Rating:
Summary: A great kick-start to Apache, PHP and MySQL
Review: This is a great book to start out with. It tells you what you need to know to start using PHP very quickly. Within 2 hours I was writing my own PHP scripts. I would not recommend it for experienced users. I had never written any PHP, C or Java before this - I had been brought up on Pascal, some VB and lost of System/370 assembler and Rexx. I had a clear understanding of web sites and html and I would now say that I am now a fairly competent PHP programmer. The book explains very clearly how to set up Apache, MySQL and PHP on your Windows or Linux system and takes you through some examples. It also points you at further sources on the web then once you are going, the book becomes fairly redundant.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for beginners with programming background
Review: This is one of the best "introduction to" books I've used in a long time. Essentially, you're retyping simple, but potentially useful, well-documented examples -- much friendlier than the "this is left to the reader as an exercise" approach of textbooks I've read. This book **does** assume you know some programming. You should know basic concepts such as variables, arrays, loops, etc. before purchasing this book. Of course, had the author discussed these concepts, this book would be many pages longer and cost 25% more. The examples in the book are available in the publisher's website, although when I downloaded them, the example code wasn't organized well to match the book. The book, likewise, has a few, but critical typos. Also, not that **any** programming book I've read helps you debug code, but if you mistype something and have to debug your code, you're totally left on your own (although I haven't emailed the author like another reviewer did). A very good introduction to PHP!
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginners with programming background
Review: This is one of the best "introduction to" books I've used in a long time. Essentially, you're retyping simple, but potentially useful, well-documented examples -- much friendlier than the "this is left to the reader as an exercise" approach of textbooks I've read. This book **does** assume you know some programming. You should know basic concepts such as variables, arrays, loops, etc. before purchasing this book. Of course, had the author discussed these concepts, this book would be many pages longer and cost 25% more. The examples in the book are available in the publisher's website, although when I downloaded them, the example code wasn't organized well to match the book. The book, likewise, has a few, but critical typos. Also, not that **any** programming book I've read helps you debug code, but if you mistype something and have to debug your code, you're totally left on your own (although I haven't emailed the author like another reviewer did). A very good introduction to PHP!
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