PHP Books

[Howard Kaikow]

What's the best book to learn PHP?
What's the best book for a PHP reference?

My goal is presently limited to construction of a custom 404 page for my web
site and PHP is the only scripting language my ISP allows us to use server
side.

--
http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.

[Coder Droid]

> What's the best book to learn PHP?

What's the best book for a PHP reference?

To be honest, the documentation at php.net is pretty good.

Head to: http://www.php.net/docs.php for a start.

They have a list of books there, too.

--cd

[Howard Kaikow]

"Coder Droid" <co********@likethiswouldstopspam.hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:ZZ*******************@fe2.texas.rr.com...

What's the best book to learn PHP?
What's the best book for a PHP reference?

To be honest, the documentation at php.net is pretty good.

Head to: http://www.php.net/docs.php for a start.

They have a list of books there, too.

That list seems to just kust what us available, not what is best.

[Michael Vilain]

In article <ck**********@pyrite.mv.net>,
"Howard Kaikow" <ka****@standards.com> wrote:

"Coder Droid" <co********@likethiswouldstopspam.hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:ZZ*******************@fe2.texas.rr.com...

What's the best book to learn PHP?
What's the best book for a PHP reference?

To be honest, the documentation at php.net is pretty good.

Head to: http://www.php.net/docs.php for a start.

They have a list of books there, too.

That list seems to just kust what us available, not what is best.

As with all learning material, there's either a book out there that will
match your learning style or there isn't and you'll have to write it
yourself. Some of us find this list to be 'a good start' and don't
always look for 'the best'. This is a personality thing, mostly. I'm
satisfied with 'good enough'. The other way lies madness.

[There are 10 kinds of people in this world--those who think in binary
and those that don't].

--
DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...

[Howard Kaikow]

<Michael Vilain <vi****@spamcop.net>> wrote in message
news:vi**************************@comcast.dca.giga news.com...

In article <ck**********@pyrite.mv.net>,
As with all learning material, there's either a book out there that will
match your learning style or there isn't and you'll have to write it
yourself. Some of us find this list to be 'a good start' and don't
always look for 'the best'. This is a personality thing, mostly. I'm
satisfied with 'good enough'. The other way lies madness.

There is a wide variety of "quality" in the books on just about all
(computer) subjects.
Many of them are outright crap.

Local bookstores do not devote as much shelf-space to computer books because
they realize such shelves are very often, if not largely, used as a
reference library and that many folkes buy computer books at online vendors
because the books are heavily discounted.

I have found that "reviews" at places such as amazon are not always
reliable, especially for the more specialized books.
So, recommendations in app specific forums is the best path.

[Michael Vilain]

In article <ck**********@pyrite.mv.net>,
"Howard Kaikow" <ka****@standards.com> wrote:

<Michael Vilain <vi****@spamcop.net>> wrote in message
news:vi**************************@comcast.dca.giga news.com...

In article <ck**********@pyrite.mv.net>,
As with all learning material, there's either a book out there that will
match your learning style or there isn't and you'll have to write it
yourself. Some of us find this list to be 'a good start' and don't
always look for 'the best'. This is a personality thing, mostly. I'm
satisfied with 'good enough'. The other way lies madness.

There is a wide variety of "quality" in the books on just about all
(computer) subjects.
Many of them are outright crap.

Local bookstores do not devote as much shelf-space to computer books because
they realize such shelves are very often, if not largely, used as a
reference library and that many folkes buy computer books at online vendors
because the books are heavily discounted.

I have found that "reviews" at places such as amazon are not always
reliable, especially for the more specialized books.
So, recommendations in app specific forums is the best path.

The place I read book reviews is slashdot (http://slashdot.org/). They
review a variety of books from technology to SF. O'Reilly
(http://www.ora.com) has a wide variety of books on many subjects plus I
can look through the TOC and even read a chapter on-line to see if it's
what I'm looking for. I've rarely been disappointed by O'Reilly books.
Can't say the same about SAMS or the other publishing houses.

I use the O'Reilly PROGRAMMING PHP
(http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progphp/) regularly althought I now have
a php function helper application that will decrease that usage.
There's also the PHP ANTHOLOGY (VOL I and II)
(http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpant1/). It filled in a lot of stuff
that just reading the PROGRAMMING PHP book lacked, like common
programming and design practices (each language seems to have their own)
plus extensive discussion of OOP (great for an old-timer like me who
used to code FORTRAN ages ago).

--
DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...

[christian9997]

"Howard Kaikow" <ka****@standards.com> wrote in message news:<ck**********@pyrite.mv.net>...

What's the best book to learn PHP?
What's the best book for a PHP reference?

Hi
I've got "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling and Laura
Thomson
and I love it.
It's very easy to read and full of helpful examples. Admittedly it is
a bit thick but once you've read it you know pretty much everything
there is to know about PHP (apart maybe for a few functions that you
can look up on php.net)
I thought it was fun to read and now I also use it as a reference (the
index is very good).
Definite recommendation!