Recommended Reading List for PHP

Steve writes "IBM developerWorks has put together a PHP recommended reading list. It provides resources for developers and admins adopting PHP and tackling advanced topics such as building extensions and writing secure code. There's also a list of books and blogs for keeping up with changes to the language itself."

Comments

Re:Ah, yes

[lymond01]

Meh. For web-based applications on a small to medium level, PHP is the way to go. You can say it's just a scripting language and therefore not a "real" programming language if your definition of "real" does not include a language with defined syntax, for loops, variables, arrays, system calls, objects, classes, etc.

But then what would you call it? An egg? No...that's taken by those round things chickens lay. I've no idea really. I'll just go with programming language and leave the modifiers out.

Re:How about this

[temojen]

How about compulsory reading of a C++ or Java OO book, even before you know what "var $myVar" is.

I've used C, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Scheme, Prolog, Cobol, plPGSQL, x86 Assembler, VAX Assembler, 68hc11 Assembler, and TCL, and I don't know what language you'd use the statement "var $myVar" in.

Security is *advanced*!?

[porneL]

If security is threated as advanced topic in PHP, no wonder this language has such lousy reputation.

Nooo!!!!

[drew]

And this is why I hate web programming and web programming languages:

It provides resources for developers and admins adopting PHP and tackling advanced topics such as building extensions and writing secure code.

Why is this considered an advanced topic? Security should be the first thing anyone writing software for the web learns. And web programing languages need to make it easy to write secure code by default. *Sigh*

Just learn from the examples.

[caluml]

Only thing I've ever needed to read to learn PHP is fr.php.net. (Because the UK mirror is slower.)

Re:PHP, the web standard

[Senzei]

The web hasn't standardised on PHP, there is an emacs mode for it, and you will probably come to hate it.

It has always seemed like the bash of web programming, except uglier and slightly more difficult to use. It works, but if you push it too hard or the wrong way it feels like you are trying to make a mud sculpture.

Re:Queue anti-PHP jokes...

[forkazoo]

I tried to add my joke to the queue, but do to a weak implimentation of object orientation and inconsistency, I was just left befuddled as to whether I needed to AddJokeToQueue, joke2queue, add_joke, etc. So, I gave up and just put my joke on rails... /me ducks...

Seriously, I love PHP, but I think that it is designed to require having the docs handy... :)

PHP - Because everyone else is doing it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have actual products and such written in PHP that I sell. I would consider myself "advanced" in php programming. (I've been at it a number of years)

PHP is very easy, but compared to perl (or even JSP..) it is terrible. The only reason to learn it is if you are planning on reselling scripts or working (as in paid..) for others. Working with it is a pain. It's horrible when it comes time to move from host to host because it has "settings" (a language with an .ini file is NOT a language)

PHP5 is a step in the right direction, however, it's been a couple YEARS now and most ISP's still don't support it (or if they do, it's via a CGI mode which is slow and buggy)

Unfortunately, people searching for web applications generally look at PHP directories. There is this sense that perl is outdated.

People like PHP because it doesn't involve setting permissions. It's common for designers to "bank on" a web server configuration working properly. This is shown by the way nearly all PHP "applications" have database passwords embedded directly into the PHP code, IN WEB SPACE. Try to design securely and your customers get confused by the notion of "out of web space" (secure design means passwords are NEVER stored in a web accessible file, even if it does end in .php)

The "language" was not designed, it just sort of "happened". If you need extensions (and you most certainly WILL need extensions, such as XML..) don't bank on it. You can look forward to hours of fun chasing them down, working around host limitations, etc..

If you're doing something "for fun"... pick another language. PHP is a cruel joke.

Re:PHP Rocks in time spent!

[Jesus_666]

Well, PHP is useful for general purpose scripting. I went from web scripting to shell scripting and I'm much more proficient at PHP than I am at Python or sh, so when I have to write shell scripts I usually go with PHP. Yes, I know that sh is faster. Yes, I know that Perl has better PR. But I can just crank out a PHP script in half the time it takes me to read awk's manpage or whatever I need to get that sh script going.

It might not be the cleanest language around, but it allows for fairly rapid script development when you're familiar with it. Also, it has the most useful documentation of any scripting language I have ever seen, even more useful than Java's API documentation.