Core PHP Programming

Now, understand I went into this book knowing NOTHING about PHP, but I did have a background in Perl, HTML, JavaScript, ASP, Visual Basic, C++, CSS, and QBasic. What's another language, right? It seems to me that all the (horribly) negative reviews for this book come from people that didn't understand it. Programming books are written for certain types of people, and most of the myriad of choices are valid for someone. If you do not know what "syntax" means, this book might not be for you. I purchased this book because it had simple tutorials and a good index in the back. Because I knew nothing about PHP structurally speaking, I needed a few chapters of tutorials to figure out how to do this or that. From there, I relied on their reference for at-a-glance instructions on how to form arrays, or functions. Again, if you do not know what an array is or what a function is, this book is not for you. When selecting a programming book, whether you have digital bytes running through your blood or just starting out, go to a freakin' book store and thumb through the resources on the shelf. See how they are written. See if they will teach you something productive. Many basic books fail to tell you the transitional steps to make your own code. Many "advanced" books are merely reference code, that are not a very good starting point for people, well, starting out. Some have illustrations. Some have CDs. For me, this was the perfect guide. In conjunction with PHP.net, there is no task I cannot conquer with this language.

How can you convey the power, the flexibility and the simplicity of a relatively new language without loosing any of your audiences, beginner to advanced, along the way? I have been a programmer for over 6 years, but have never had the pleasure of doing anything with PHP before I started reading this book. I must say, I was totally impressed after I had finished reading Leon's book. The PHP language itself has grown tremendously over the past 8 years or so, and I can certainly see why it is so appealing to users of all levels. The author of the book, Core PHP Programming, does an amazing job explaining the nuance of PHP that any level READER can understand the topic and does whatever it is that he or she is after - which would be designing a dynamic web site in this case.Leon starts the book with the paraphrase "...answer is that PHP is better" and goes on to explain why that is the case. His answers would compel any PHP user or potential users:1) PHP is free2) PHP runs on UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS X3) PHP is modifiable4) PHP was written for Web Page creation5) Support for PHP is free and readily available6) PHP is popular7) Programming skills developed in other structured languages can be applied to PHPBy the end of page 11 (5 pages into chapter 1) the reader is hooked and wants to read on to find out what all Leon is talking about. All the key phrases are there: free, extendible, lots of supports, and ease of use. By the end of Chapter 7 or page 160, you are ready to rock. By now, you know what PHP is all about and have learned its syntax, features, and have even looked (or hopefully written) some code. Dynamic Function Calls ends chapter 4. This section CLEARLY shows to any programmer how powerful PHP really is and how easy it would be for anyone to utilize that power. Dynamic Function Call is very difficult to implement in Java (I don't know of any way to do in C++ actually - specially in one line of code). In one line of code PHP is able to accomplish this task. Very powerful stuff...I was personally very impressed with the OO features of the language, which was depicted very well in chapter 6. I also need to say that Leon's introduction to Objects and Classes are very easy to understand for users new to the topic.For the next few hundred pages, in Part II of the book - Functional Reference, various functions that PHP supports are shown and each one is explained in a great detail. Most of the functions have also been followed by an example that shows the usage each function just described. These chapters are very good reference even for the advanced users as PHP has grown so much that keeping track and memorizing of all the functions would be nearly impossible.Leon ends the book with a section called Software Engineering. The two chapters that I liked in this section were the design and the design patterns chapters. Chapter 27, Design, is basic software engineering practices in a nutshell. Something that took me over two g

Hands down the best PHP book i've read to date, Core 2 is a close second. Was easy enough to bang out in a long weekend and kept me juiced to learn more!Well Done!

I wasn't going to review this book until I read Robert Peters' review. It is factually incorrect. I had to respond. I can only guess that Robert got a copy of the FIRST edition, which apparently ... This second edition is great.First, Robert suggests that the book is "just a fat manual that lists functions" -- like a reference. Part 2 of the book is indeed titled "Functional Reference" and consists of 450 pages of functions (with sample code for most functions, organized into logical sections, like "Image Functions" and "Database Functions"). However, the book has THREE other parts, consisting of 300 more pages!Part 1 is titled "An Introduction To PHP" (7 chapters, about 120 pages). It teaches the fundamentals of programming, has tons of screenshots and sample code, and is written in a conversational style that makes it easy to understand the technical stuff. The author's explanation of variables (page 16) is good, and he also covers loops, functions, arrays, etc. If Robert's other criticism of the book, that "it won't teach you how to use the language" is true, then what is all of Part 1 for?Part 3 is titled "Algorithms" (5 chapters, about 100 pages). It steps you through real-world examples, and while none of the examples are huge (like "here's a complete e-commerce shopping cart solution"), they are all practical and can be combined to create what is needed. For instance, modify the discussion forum sample on pages 635-641, combine it with the code samples for session handling, and you could allow users to enter and store "preferences" for your Web site, or you could allow users to append comments to articles, like ZDnet does.Part 4 is titled "Software Engineering" (3 chapters, 80 pages). It addresses one of the big controversies with server-parsed HTML, and that is: "gasp, you've combined code with HTML!" The author talks about why it is an issue, and outlines different ways to embed PHP in HTML. I don't like his conclusion (turn everything into PHP and use "print" to output HTML), but I must admit I am elated to see someone discussing the issue.In conclusion, Robert's other criticisms of the book -- that it doesn't show how to "build dynamic web sites" and that the book doesn't explain how to use functions "within the context of a script" -- just shows he didn't bother to actually read it. Almost EVERY function has a code sample. And almost ALL the database examples are used precisely for building dynamic Web sites. Perhaps Robert thinks "dynamic Web sites" is the same as "Dynamic HTML" -- if so, he should get a book on JavaScript and leave Core PHP Programming to those of us who are ready to learn about database-driven sites. Because as far as I'm concerned, this book is great for learning and using PHP. Better than the PHP Bible.

This is a wonderful book! I've had this nagging background need to learn PHP for some time and have been putting it off as one of those extra little tasks I could do without. After reading just a little of this book I couldn't wait to get started! Leon Atkinson aims his book at both beginner and advanced users and his writing style manages to score a direct hit! The basics are covered in sufficient detail to allow the intelligent beginner to follow along and learn useful stuff pretty quickly. This is achieved without talking down to advanced users, or bogging them down in masses of simple things. The organisation and layout of the book is good enough to allow most readers to jump straight into the sections that interest them most, so if you just want to use this book for reference, rather than have it act as a tutor, you can. Lots of references to more elementary programming texts are provided for anyone who does find themself struggling with the concepts, but I can't really imagine anyone needing them.Coverage is very comprehensive too, so you never find yourself left in the lurch just as things are about to get really interesting, as I've had happen in many books aimed at beginners. So far, this book has provided good solid instruction of every PHP task I've needed or fancied (although a better index wouldn't go amiss!) and has frequently provided me with a coded solution all ready to plug in and use! I can see that this volume will have a place alongside my computer for some time!