Rating: 
Summary: Very good book
Review: This book covers all the stuff that anybody ready to start using PHP will need to know. Highly recommended for someone pretty new to PHP. This book is a great book to read after reading the Prima book on PHP by Julie Meloni.
Rating: 
Summary: Covers the material
Review: This book does the job. It's written in a plain, efficient style and it served my immediate needs. It covers the subject and each chapter is presented in bite-sized chunks. As the title would suggest: 24 hours; 24 chapters.This book could probably serve as a reference resource. I don't think any of the chapters really rely on the material from earlier chapters. However, this book soon lost its position as a fixture on my desktop. It does not stimulate. One wonders whether the chapter layout was the result of a survey or a committee decision. Because the author is bound by that layout (and the "24 hours" promise) he doesn't really take any risks. Any good progamming book should proselytize the principles of good coding. This book treats those as luxuries - and leaves them out - possibly, one feels, because they don't fit neatly enough into any of the rigidly defined chapters. This book gives you a good taste of PHP. You generally find that most of what you're looking for is covered. But it doesn't grip you. For each topic the first bit is really nicely done and you think "ah I'm glad it's so simple", ...but then the momentum is lost, the text loses its way and your eyes glaze over as the examples are presented. After you've found what you're looking for you'll put it down again as it doesn't inspire or pump you with enthusiasm. This is possibly a good thing for those with pressing deadlines, again, helps to shoehorn it into the "reference" category. To conclude: I doubt you'll read it all. It's just enough to cover the subject. I gets the job done in its own efficient way.
Rating:
Summary: A good starting point in learning the basics of PHP4
Review: This book gave me the knowledge needed to learn and develop PHP in a fast pace, although this book tries to cover a huge coverage of PHP in a very short time, you get the idea on how things work. I learned the basics here then shifted to Wrox's Professional PHP for the advanced topics. If you are a total newbie in PHP but not a newbie in programming, this book is for you. If you are a fast adopter, the ... documentations will suffice for the basic and advanced topics.
Rating:
Summary: A good starting point in learning the basics of PHP4
Review: This book gave me the knowledge needed to learn and develop PHP in a fast pace, although this book tries to cover a huge coverage of PHP in a very short time, you get the idea on how things work. I learned the basics here then shifted to Wrox's Professional PHP for the advanced topics. If you are a total newbie in PHP but not a newbie in programming, this book is for you. If you are a fast adopter, the ... documentations will suffice for the basic and advanced topics.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction but needs more editing.
Review: This book gives a great introduction to PHP4, programming concepts and structure, and Database integration. It was very easy to follow and well designed as far as how it led to more difficult concepts. My real beef with this book, is it *should* be called "PHP4, Edited in 24 hours." There are NUMEROUS type-o errors, ESPECIALLY in the code examples. If one was not more attentive, it would cause errors that may discourage the user new to programming. It also remains pretty basic, and is a GREAT starter, but it doesn't go in-depth enough for my tastes.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many typos
Review: This book has way too many typos that are confusing. Unless you are an experienced programmer, the errors will throw you off. Also there is not a list of errata on the Sam's Web site for this book. The book has a lot of potential, it is organized well but the author uses too much jargon for a newbie and the typos are downright annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Great starting point
Review: This book is a great place to start if you want to learn & use PHP. It gives you all the basics, and lots of examples to go with them. However, I would highly recommend also getting "PHP and MySQL Web Development" (also from the Sam's line of books)...this one covers some more complicated issues, and definitely was of more use to me to deal with real-life PHP web development. Keep in mind, however, that the "PHP and MySQL..." book assumes that the reader knows some PHP basics, which is where "...PHP4 in 24 Hours" comes in.
Rating:
Summary: Sams Teach Yourself PHP
Review: This book is definately not for the new programmer. It is written in Geek and for a Sams teach yourself not very well presented. I have been using the Sams books for a number of years and not had the difficulty with the comprehension. As a refrence book there is a substantial number of better publications, all of which should be consulted before wasting money on this volume. The volume I have is the Second Edition Published in 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Sams Teach Yourself PHP
Review: This book is definately not for the new programmer. It is written in Geek and for a Sams teach yourself not very well presented. I have been using the Sams books for a number of years and not had the difficulty with the comprehension. As a refrence book there is a substantial number of better publications, all of which should be consulted before wasting money on this volume. The volume I have is the Second Edition Published in 2001.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont buy this book..unless you want to waste your time
Review: this book is not the one to get if you want to learn PHP. I bought it on impulse before checking out the others from Wrox or from Julie Meloni. Professional PHP programming is a good basic one if you know some basics of PHP.
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