Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours (2nd Edition)
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Average Customer Rating: 2.91Customer Rating: 2
Summary: Sams Teach Yourself PHP Second edition
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book for a solid foundation in php and pragramming
Comment: 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!
Customer Rating: 4
Summary: Worth the cash...
Comment: 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!