Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointingly inconsistent book
Review: The book is out of date as it covers PHP4 before security changes were made. It is also very inconsistant later on, as the various authors seem to believe in very different conventions, for example early on they claim type casting is unnecessary, then in Ch. 10 they use it loads - without any explanation, also in Ch. 10 they start introducing new functions without any explanation of how they work or even what they do (they explain some but not others) and the examples are really tedious due to similarity in some parts. The different authors also type the same commands differently (e.g echo ""; and echo(""); - again without explanation, and they obviously didn't collaborate enough to ensure consistency.Otherwise an ok introduction to PHP4, but I'm sure there are better guides out these that will be more consistent.
Rating: 
Summary: Train gives it four stars
Review: The book was great. I learned from in-depth examples. The only problem I had with the book was that some of the examples didn't work. You would really have to troubleshoot your code. Which for the beginner that kinda stinks. If I had the chance again I would definitely buy the book. The authors did a great job.
Rating:
Summary: Train gives it four stars
Review: The book was great. I learned from in-depth examples. The only problem I had with the book was that some of the examples didn't work. You would really have to troubleshoot your code. Which for the beginner that kinda stinks. If I had the chance again I would definitely buy the book. The authors did a great job.
Rating: 
Summary: Authors are great teachers
Review: The thing which impressed me the most about this book is how clearly and methodically the subjects are presented. The authors are natural teachers, judging by their product. Each code example is presented in full, then key sections of code are shown again and explained in detail to make the necessary points. I found the level of detail just right, assuming that you have some ability but clearly explaining the PHP way of doing things. This is not just an introduction, but a good first manual. The appendix lists the available PHP commands so you can explore further if you need to go in a particular direction.
Rating:
Summary: <?php echo $howToLearnPhp; ?>
Review: The title of this review says it all... if you are new to PHP, this is the first book you should get. There is indepth coverage of what PHP is, the "basics" as well as more advanced workings of the language. Every subject needs a primer, and PHP has its primer in this book. The samples are clear and concise, the writing style is easy to read... almost a personal mentoring style, and the authors show the reader that they know their subject backwards and forwards. I cannot think of anything else that would be a better introduction to the world of PHP programming/scripting.
Rating: 
Summary: Great introductory book, but ...
Review: This book does a good job to introduce PHP to beginners. The examples are pertinent and illustrate what can be done with PHP. However, some examples, pertaining mainly to filesystem operations and crypto, cannot be used "as is" on a Win system and take some tweaking to make them work, or are impossible. If you are using an Unix-like environnement, all should be fine for you and this book is a must buy if you have little or no experience ; if you are on a Win environnement, it is still great book to get some insights about what PHP is about.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but too much errors!!!
Review: This book is a good material to start off with PHP; however, it's just too much errors. Worst part is, there's one error not covered in the errata (on WROX web site), that is on page 419 (populating table name: user), it immediately gives error:ERROR 1136: Column count doesn't match value count at row 1
after I tried to populate the table USER. This errors drove me nuts. It could've been the best book on (beginning) PHP on the planet. Try to wait for the next edition, if the authors have the courage to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Tutorial
Review: This book is exceptionally well-written and perfect for beginning developers. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: GOOD BOOK, LACKS DETAILS AND EXPLANATION
Review: this book is heavy, its thick and its almost completely useless. well not totally useless, but it does lack alot of details and explanation about how some functions are created and used. there is alot more detail about installing php and mysql than there is about anything else. buy this book for a coaster, not if you want to learn php.
Rating:
Summary: Warning: error in most code
Review: This book is very well written, but you should know that the code in the book is written with "register_globals" turned on in the php engine. This makes the code insecure and should be turn off. You have to alter to make it work. Look at the errata for more info: http://www.wrox.com/books/errata/0764543644_errata.shtml
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