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Core PHP Programming
The authors of Core PHP Programming have found a marvelous middle ground. Toward the beginning of the book they have a great deal of light, explanatory material as they cover the basics of PHP. As they move towards more advanced topics there is less explanation and a tighter packing of information. At the same time the book has a large number of small code examples throughout, making sure that you know how to use the functions under discussion.
This is the third edition and I must admit that I had not come across it in either the first or second editions, so I have no great way of comparing them in this review. It has certainly been revised to take into account the changes for PHP 5 and examining the table of contents for the second edition on Safari I can see the that the basic structure has remained the same while the book has grown about 300 pages. The addition of Zeev Suraski as co-author can only be to the benefit of the quality of the information, particularly regarding PHP 5.
The book starts with the absolute rock bottom of PHP, the basic data types and operators through to efficiency, debugging and design patterns. Along the way it covers almost all aspects of PHP 5 with a readable reference style. The 'Core' in the title of this book is a key to understanding it. If you're looking for a book with all the code required to handle session management, or user logins and security (to mention two possibilities) then this isn't the book for you. If, however, you are after a book that more than adequately explains the power and nuances of PHP and programming in the language then this is a marvelous volume.
It's broken up into 5 sections: "Programming PHP," which covers the basics of data, control flow and I/O; "Functional Reference," which is 600 odd pages broken up into 12 chapters that seems to cover every PHP function (a check of three sub chapters showed every function mentioned on the topic at PHP.net was also in the book) and does it well with good explanation and code examples; "Algorithms," which details a number of methods of performing routine tasks such as sorting, parsing and generating graphics; and "Software Engineering," devoted to design, efficiency and design patterns; and finally, there are a seven excellent appendices.
Taken as a whole it does a good job of covering the whole language and the ways of using it.
I can imagine it would make a good companion volume to my other favourite PHP volume, PHP and MySQL Web Development, which tends more towards recipes and leaves out the encyclopedic coverage of this book.
Leon Atkinson has a good page for the book that includes a link to download all the code and examples, a link to the Prentice Hall page for those wanting an example chapter or a look at the Table of Contents and some other reviews. His site also has a page for the inevitable errata, currently blank. While I did find only one typo (not in example code) I can't claim to have read every page or run all the code examples.
I'd recommend this volume to anyone who wanted a comprehensive guide to PHP 5. It is probably useful at almost all levels.
You can purchase Core PHP Programming, 3rd Ed. from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Thsi is teh Post on teh SPOKE!~
Woohoo!
Let's hear it for Ninnle Linux!
Core? I prefer Arm.
Your exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.
>
then i opened the comments page and there was this fp and i was like omfg wtf?!2""
DEAR PEOPLE THAT READ THE SLASHDOT ARTICLES,
MY BAD BROTHER DAVID HAS BEEN DIFFAMIMG ME ON THE INTERNET I N
AN SLASHDOT FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS BECAUSE HE IS VERY JEALOUS OF ME
BECAUSE I KNOW POLITICS MUCH BETTER THAN HIM AND ALSO BECAUSE I HAVE 2
GIRLS FRIENDS AND HE H AS NONE BECAUSE MY BROTHER DAVID IS NOT A GOOD
HUMAN BEING.
MY BROTHER DAVID DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOD AND HE IS A
MATHEMATHICIAN THAT IS STUDYING COMPUTER PROGRAMMING AND IT IS WITH
THIS KNOWLEDGE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING THAT HE HAS BEEN DIFFAMING ME
ALL THROUGH INTERNET CONSTANTLY FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS.
I AM A VERY GOOD PERSON ME MISTER MICHAEL BERNARD AND I BELIEVE IN
GOD FOR THE PAST 26 YEARS AND I KNOW ABSOLUTLY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT AT
ALL THAT GOD REALLY EXISTS AND THAT THEY A RE GREEK GODS AND THAT THEY
CREATED ALL THE UNIVERSE. I BELIEVE IN EVERYTHING THAT IS GOOD: GOD,
LOVE, PEACE, JUSTICE, LIBERTY, MEDECINE, SCIENCE, THE ARMY, THE POLICE
FORCES, PSYCHIATRY, RESPECT, GOODNESS, FRIENSHIP AND FINALLY
SEXUALITY.
MY BROTHER DAVID IS VERY JEALOUS OF ME AND HE SENDS MESSAGE FROM
IS INTERNET ADDRESS TO SLASHDOT UNDER ALL SORTS OF NAMES AND ALSO
ANONYMOUS. HE HAS B EEN DESTROYING MY REPUTATION EVERYWHERE IN SLASHDOT
ARTICLES FOR tHE PAST 2 YEARS, HE IS A VERY JEALOUS PERSON AND IS VERY
SICK AND ALSO HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOODNESS.
HE SIMPLY BELIEVE IN BEING BAD AND MEAN TOWARDS HIS GOOD BROTHER
MICHAEL BERNARD, ME, AND HE POSTS MESSAGE TO SLASHDOTS UNDER ALL
SORTS OF NAMES.
HE CAN SEND INTERNET MESSAGES TO SLASHDOT FROM HIS INTERNET
ADDRESS AND MAKE MY INTERNET ADDRESS APPEAR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
MESSAGE: HE DOES THIS WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMIMG AND
HE ALSO POST MESSAGES UNDER THE SILLY NAME COMMANDER TACO, A
REAL FOOL. GO AND SEE WHAT IS SAID ON INTERNET BAOUT HIM,
COMMANDER TACO IS REALLY HATED ON THE INTERNET AND THIS S ILLY
PERSON IS NOBODY ELSE THAN MY BAD BROTHER D AVID BERNARD.
MY NAME IS MISTER MICHAEL BERNARD, AND MY INTERNET ADDRESS IS
saintmichaelbernard@sympatico.ca BUT YOU CAN NOT TRUST THAT WHAT COMES FROM
THIS INTERNET ADDRESS REALLY WAS WRITTEN BY ME, BECAUSE WITH HIS VAST
KNOWLEDGE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMIMG MY BROTHER DAVID IS SENDING MESSAGE
FROM HIS INTERNET ADDRESS AND THE INTERNET ADDDRESS THAT APPEARS AT
THE OTHER END, IS MINE: HE IS PLAYING A BAD COMPUTER TRICK, HE IS S
TUDYING PRESENTLY COMPUTER PROGRAMMIMNG AT UNIVERSITY LAVAL IN QUEBEC
CITY AND HE IS DOING HIS SECOND YEAR IN THIS PROGRAM. MY BROTHER DAVID
BERNARDIS THE PERSON THAT SENDS INTERNET MESSAGES UNDER THE NAME
COMMANDER TAC O AND HE IS HATED ON SLASHDOT.
I ASK YOU TO BELIEVE NOTHING THAT MY BROTHER DAVID TELLS YOU: HE
IS A COMPUTER CROOK A ND DESERVES NO CREDIT WHATSOEVER F OR WHAT HE
SAYS.
HE HAS A SICK-MIND AND HE HAS BEEDN TRYING FOR THE PAST YEAR TO D
ESTROY MY REPUTATION ALL THROUGH THE INTERNET, HE HAS SUCCEEDED VERY
WELL IN D OING THIS AND I WILL SHORTLY BE SUING HIM F OR D
IFFAMATION.
BELIEVE ME MISTER MICHAEL BERNARD, THA T BELIEVES IN GOD FOR THE
PAST 26 YEARS AND NOT MY EVIL MINDED BROTHER DAVID THAT DOES NOT
BELIEVE IN GOD A ND HA S VIRTUALLY NO FRIENDS.
I HAVE MA NY F RIENDS, 6 OR 7 FRIENDS AND THEY ALL BELIEVE IN GOD
LIKE ME.
SO, I WANT YOU TO GET THIS A LL AROUND THE INTERNET: MY BROTHER
DAVID IS A LIAR AND HE IS THE CROOK COMMANDER TACO THAT HAS
BEEN HAUNTING SLASHDOT FOR THE PAST 4 or EVEN MORE YEARS.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS MESSAGE A ND I A DDRESS YOU
A LL MY BEST SALUTATIONS.
AND I TELL YOU TO CONTINUE TO BELIEVE COMPLETELY IN GOD BECAUSE HE
REALLY AND WITHOUT ANY DOUBT EXISTS.
AMEN. AINSI-SOIT-IL.
ARCHANGEL ST-MICHAEL
WARNING! GOATSE TROLL!
Contact Me (got tired of viruses emailing me).
Right, like we can't see the link in the HREF:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/handle-generic -form/104-6605287-4877524?action=next-page&target= web-search/redirect.html&url=http://goatse.cx&ws_p age=1&ws_position=4&ws_type=google_regular
goatse troll
They might be an assfuck a dozen where you're at, but the distribution sure as hell isn't even all over the world. Lots of people dont even know what it is, they just want a fancy-ass webpage to tell people dynamically how many times their dog took a crap in the past hour. And are willing to pay absurd amounts of money for someone to do it for them.
/. about how superior they are. They get pathetic when they try and haggle down the price on a rustbucket, from what I've heard.
As for used cars, too much work. Plus I'd have to deal with asshole ex-hardware engineers who have no lives except to post on
Thank you, try again.
1. I doubt it.
2. Why should I care?
1. If you doubt it, you're wrong. I was one of the ACs and stopped posting after the one idiot started flaming about socialism and crap. I try to base my arguments on fact (even shady fact) rather than trolling like that.
2. You don't have to care, I'm just being amused by it. If you don't like it...tough, I live in a free country.
Oh, and I know you have no reason to care or believe me, but I'm as insulted by the crap that other AC was spewing as you. I prefer to insult people for stupidity, not race.
I'm really sick of working with semi-professional trolls such as you. You really should give your different personalities more distinctive features. You could have one of them ignore capitalization, for example. Have one of them display problems with correct punctuation (!!!1111). The possibilities are endless.
And NEVER EVER post two comments EXACTLY 2 minutes apart.
Anyway, the new story is here. It's about the Mars Rover. I suggest we go trolling there. We could crack some jokes about metric conversion and the crashed Beagle. Mmmmkay?
lol. Believe what you want to then. I can see you've obviously got everything figured out. I made the attempt at civility versus the other dude's racism/ethnic bias, and you rejected it. Carry on then.