Apache, MySQL, and PHP Weekend Crash Course

I am giving this 4 stars because I am still near the front of this book. From the other reviews I've seen here, most people are giving bad reviews because they are having trouble just setting up Apache, PHP and MySQL. Let me tell you, I have zero experience with any of those technologies, but I have the drive to figure things out. The versions of all three programs listed in the book are older than what is available now, but anyone worth their weight in scripting tags will be able to figure out how to install the newer versions. If you can't get past that part, then developing dynamic web content is not for you. In any case, it's not the book's fault if the programs have changed layouts and added new features that make the reader dig a little deeper to figure out how to implement the code. As for the code itself, the mySQL code I've worked with so far is spot on. It remains to be seen how the PHP coding turns out, but I have high hopes for this book

I had no problems following any of the author's steps in the book for Windows and I'm sure anyone who's competent with Windows can do the same. I didn't actually spend a whole weekend with the book as the title suggests, but each lesson takes about the amount of time prescribed and getting through the book in several evenings over the course of a week or two is pretty easy. be sure of course to get the right versions of MySQL, Apache, and PHP. The combination of the 3 can lead to problems if you don't use the exact versions with all the right patches applied as the author suggests. I had tinkered with IIS some in the past but never before had I done anything more complicated than HTML web pages. From the examples in this book, I was able to set up my own web site with a database.