The treatment of objects lets this book down.One of the primary reasons I got this book was to get a decent understanding of the use of objects. It fails to deliver on this front. The book assumes you alread know the ins and outs of objects, and fails to adequately explain their role in the language. For instance, it tells you how to create a static method, but doesn't say why you might want to do so, or indeed, how a static method differs from a non-static method! I can make an educated guess at this, but educated guesses are not the way to learn something properly!
Having said that, prior to geting to the object chapter, the rest of the book had been much better. So if you already know your objects or don't intend using that aspect of the language, then you can add at least 1 star to this review.
Too many mistakesI found this book a good introduction to PHP. But, it has a lot of mistakes. I think these have happened when the book was updated to cover PHP 5.
For example, when it describes constructors it says the constructor is a function named __construct(). But then it immediately gives an example where the constructor for class Person is a function called Person(). The former is PHP 5, the latter is PHP 4. Perhaps the update was a rush job.
If you can't already program in C or C++ then this book may not be for you. If you can, then it's OK.
Very GoodWritten in the standard O'Reilly style, this book gives you a comprehensive coverage of PHP without being overly verbose or too dryly technical. Now in its 2nd edition this book covers the most recent version of PHP, version 5.
While I wouldn't want to learn PHP as a first programming language from this book, anybody with a basic knowledge of HTML and an OOP based language (Java, C++ or even JavaScript) will quickly be able to code PHP.
While the book isn't perfect: the aforementioned lack of concrete examples (the cynic in me might think that O'Reilly were saving these for the PHP Cookbook which is due out soon) and the chapter on objects being only 20 pages long, it's still all you would need as both a reference and a learning resource. A strong buy.
An O'Reilly ClassicThis book is similar to every other O'Reilly book in that it is clear, concise and to the point. Never does it waffle on, and never does it go into too much detail and complexity that everyone except the best programmers understands it.
I personally found the explanation of objects and their classes to be better than the other explanations I have read for different languages, and certainly made picking up OOP in PHP a lot easier. Throughout is the obvious knowledge of the authors, something always reassuring in a title like this. The book fits well for beginners and seasoned programmers alike: the basics are explained well, and the technical reasons why things happen are included for good measure.
I was also surprised by the size of this book, as it significantly thinner than the other O'Reilly books (and other computer books for that matter), that I own. Computer books often appear large, daunting and dry. This book is an exception to that rule, and is perfectly good for someone wanting to learn PHP from the ground up to someone wanting to pick a chapter to swat up on, and use it as a reference book. All in all, a very good book.
Easy start in dynamic webpages
PHP is a great language to start creating dynamic websites with - it's easy to learn, but very powerful.
This book will start you out on the right tracks with PHP and help you build up your experience - even once you're experienced, you'll still turn to it for reference.
As usual, it's a solid O'Reilly title, it won't let you down. Being co-written by Rasmus himself (the creator of PHP) it benefits from more than a little extra experience and inside information.
Basically, if you want to create dynamic websites with a lot of power, PHP is the language you want, and this is the book.
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