Computering with Artist KDD

The authors explain the basics of PHP and then get into more detail as the book progresses. This is a book for beginners and professionals alike. There is example code as the authors take you through how to use language basics and function calls.

They discuss strings, arrays and objects. Offering explanations of each and providing example code is a given throughout the book. The book was slow-going for me in the beginning until I understood the semantics of the language. A novice just doesn't grab everything on the first read, thus making this book a wonderful reference as one learns PHP or if you need a reminder later on.

Security in programming is a must and the authors touch on the subject. The do offer more in-depth reading through other book recommendations on the subject. In the security chapter they do talk about the do's and don'ts for secure programming.

PHP is a staple for web applications, and the authors discuss the implementation of the process. They show you how to create dynamic content as well as a web page.

The authors also discuss databases and how to connect and provide code examples. Images is another topic discussed. They talk about two methods of creating images and sizing them using PHP.

The last chapter discusses PHP on a Windows machine and the differences between writing PHP for Windows and Unix/Linux. Although for the most part the language is crossplatform compatible.

The book covers PHP5, which is the newest version of the language. This is a must have on your bookshelf if you plan on using dynamic content for your web site. It's not very often that the creator of a language is involved in producing a book, but I think that with Mr. Lerdorf being a contributor adds value and a certain impact to the validity of the content.

I'm sure that I'll be using Programming PHP as a reference for quite some time. Granted, on first read, the first few chapters made my head hurt, but that's understandable due to my lack of programming languages skills. I certainly could not have picked a better book on PHP than this one as my introduction to PHP.

My time is up; I thank you for yours.