Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for a solid foundation in php and pragramming
Review: 3rd edition Published (December 16, 2003)
ISBN: 0672326191 Covers PHP 4.3First I'd like to mention that a lot of these reviews are from earlier versions of this book which makes reviewing this Third Edition very difficult. So it may be safe to disregard reviews dated before 12/16/03. This is an excellent book for beginners who know nothing about programming. However you must know XHTML before beginning this book. I have about 5 "Beginning" PHP books and this one is the best by far. The author has a very clean, straight forward writing style as he teaches the very basics of php and programming fundamentals including Object Oriented Programming. This book is a solid and comprehensive piece of work. It is by no means a "Shortcut" to learning PHP. If you want a solid understanding of PHP, this is the book. Something to note is that this book focuses on teaching the reader how to program and does not have comprehensive example applications. Rather, it has basic examples for each section that help keep the pace streamlined. After reading this book, you'll wont to get something like, The PHP Anthology By Harry Fuecks Vol. 1&2... or PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition by Luke Welling, Laura Thomson. These books will teach you by example and are excellent. A note to beginners... Learning to program can be very difficult. Unless you are some kind of genius, you must be dedicated and patient with your quest. Programming is a totally different way of thinking and there is a lot to learn... I think this book is a great way to learn PHP and to learn how to program in general. Good Luck!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for a solid foundation in php and pragramming
Review: 3rd edition Published (December 16, 2003)
ISBN: 0672326191 Covers PHP 4.3 First I'd like to mention that a lot of these reviews are from earlier versions of this book which makes reviewing this Third Edition very difficult. So it may be safe to disregard reviews dated before 12/16/03. This is an excellent book for beginners who know nothing about programming. However you must know XHTML before beginning this book. I have about 5 "Beginning" PHP books and this one is the best by far. The author has a very clean, straight forward writing style as he teaches the very basics of php and programming fundamentals including Object Oriented Programming. This book is a solid and comprehensive piece of work. It is by no means a "Shortcut" to learning PHP. If you want a solid understanding of PHP, this is the book. Something to note is that this book focuses on teaching the reader how to program and does not have comprehensive example applications. Rather, it has basic examples for each section that help keep the pace streamlined. After reading this book, you'll wont to get something like, The PHP Anthology By Harry Fuecks Vol. 1&2... or PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition by Luke Welling, Laura Thomson. These books will teach you by example and are excellent. A note to beginners... Learning to program can be very difficult. Unless you are some kind of genius, you must be dedicated and patient with your quest. Programming is a totally different way of thinking and there is a lot to learn... I think this book is a great way to learn PHP and to learn how to program in general. Good Luck!
Rating: 
Summary: This book is unsuitable for some
Review: Hello,
This book starts off good and easy, simple up to Hour 8.
Then it becomes ridicously difficult, with no warning.
I do not recommend this book to beginners, only to experienced object orientated programmers, e.g. Java, etc..
Bye
Eddie
Rating:
Summary: HOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIBBBBBBBLLLLLE
Review: I could swear the title was "Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours". It should be "Go learn PHP somewhere else, and then read this book otherwise you'll have no clue what's going on". Get my point? This book is so mal-titled that the author should be arrested for false advertising. If you're a beginner, with no PHP knowledge, don't be fooled by the title, and look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: HOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIBBBBBBBLLLLLE
Review: I could swear the title was "Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours". It should be "Go learn PHP somewhere else, and then read this book otherwise you'll have no clue what's going on". Get my point? This book is so mal-titled that the author should be arrested for false advertising. If you're a beginner, with no PHP knowledge, don't be fooled by the title, and look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the cash...
Review: I have 8-10 years of experience with VB(A) as a hobbyist programmer (ergo no college training). I understand OO Programming to a degree, at least as far as I have used it, and now wanting to move into web application development I believe PHP is that key. However, the language is so vast. There are an unlimited number of functions both internal and user-created that handle an insane number of programming situations. I needed something to walk me through the basics... this book did that, is doing that, and will probably continue to do that. Beyond that it also touches on some important features to wet-your-whistle, so-to-speak. Smarty and XML and XSL to name a few. Excellent book, I recommend it for beginners and intermediate users alike... beginners, don't read past what you understand... and all will go well!
Rating:
Summary: an excellent introduction to php
Review: I thought this was an excellent introduction to PHP programming. The author really covers a broad swath of PHP, with as much depth as 400 pages will allow. If you're looking for more depth, pick up a book that's meant to be more in depth; if you're looking for a clearer introductory text, you'll have a hard time finding ont. This book is clearly written, has good working examples, and is extremely well-organized. I have a few other PHP books lying around, but I still come back to this book as a reference almost every day.
Rating:
Summary: Great for the Beginner!
Review: I tried other PHP books such as PHP Quick and Easy and PHP Developer's Cookbook but they all left me in the dark and were hard to follow. This book however assumes you know nothing at all which is pretty much what I knew. The book starts you off with the basics of PHP: different types of data, variables, functions, loops, etc. and takes you further even. This book is definatly one that a beginner with no coding experience or very little experience should look into.
Rating:
Summary: Great for the Beginner!
Review: I tried other PHP books such as PHP Quick and Easy and PHP Developer's Cookbook but they all left me in the dark and were hard to follow. This book however assumes you know nothing at all which is pretty much what I knew. The book starts you off with the basics of PHP: different types of data, variables, functions, loops, etc. and takes you further even. This book is definatly one that a beginner with no coding experience or very little experience should look into.
Rating:
Summary: Get it, learn it, do it.
Review: I've been doing web design for years. I'm fluent with CSS, HTML, Flash, and some ColdFusion & Java. I've attempted to learn ASP, but the complexity overwhelmed me. A friend of mine recommended this book. I think it is GREAT for getting you up and going with PHP. I quickly jumped ahead to the MySQL and XML sections and now i have a database up & working on my site. Piece of cake. One problem: They don't tell you how to create the actual database. But its not hard, just say mysql_query( "CREATE blah blah" ). They give you the create tag to put in. Otherwise, great, concise, simple source. They explain everything they did in the code. I dunno how this isn't meant for beginners, because i didn't know the first thing about PHP. If you're a beginner CODER, atleast get grounded in C and move to some OOP (Object Oriented Programming) language first. PHP is like ColdFusion had a kid with Basic. :) It's really not hard at all. Learn by example, and get this book.
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