PHP Book Recommendations

[Jeffrey Silverman]

Hi all. I am going to be teaching an introductory, course on PHP.
As this course has not been offered before, there are no existing
materials or list of resources for me to choose from. This is a Good
Thing(TM) because I get to do Whatever I Want(TM) as far as choosing
course materials goes.

So here's the questions:

What PHP books do you like?
Why do you like them?
What expertise range is targeted by the particular book(s) you have
mentioned?
What books do you really *not* like and why? (just as useful info as
knowing which books are popular is knowing which are *un*popular)
What other PHP resources have you used and why?

Keep in mind that I am just feeling out the PHP community for opinions. If
in fact there *is* a PHP community.

Thanks, all...
--
Jeffrey D. Silverman | jeffrey AT jhu DOT edu
Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD
Website | [url]http://www.wse.jhu.edu/newtnotes/[/url]

[Cal Lidderdale]

Jeffrey Silverman wrote:

> Hi all. I am going to be teaching an introductory, course on PHP.
> As this course has not been offered before, there are no existing
> materials or list of resources for me to choose from. This is a Good
> Thing(TM) because I get to do Whatever I Want(TM) as far as choosing
> course materials goes.
>
> So here's the questions:
>
> What PHP books do you like?
> Why do you like them?
> What expertise range is targeted by the particular book(s) you have
> mentioned?
> What books do you really *not* like and why? (just as useful info as
> knowing which books are popular is knowing which are *un*popular)
> What other PHP resources have you used and why?
>
> Keep in mind that I am just feeling out the PHP community for opinions. If
> in fact there *is* a PHP community.
>
> Thanks, all...

You can kill 2 boid's with one stone.

I like "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling & Laura Thomson
ccn - 99-64841 The examples are numerous and executeable - they really
really work - 860 pages, 14 lbs and way too much money - think I just
describe every puter book on the shelf :-(.

... resources ...: this NG, [url]http://forums.devshed.com/forumdisplay.php[/url] and
[url]www.php.net[/url]

.... my description of the elephant ;-)

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 10/08/2003 05:38 PM, Jeffrey Silverman wrote:

> Hi all. I am going to be teaching an introductory, course on PHP.
> As this course has not been offered before, there are no existing
> materials or list of resources for me to choose from. This is a Good
> Thing(TM) because I get to do Whatever I Want(TM) as far as choosing
> course materials goes.
>
> So here's the questions:
>
> What PHP books do you like?
> Why do you like them?
> What expertise range is targeted by the particular book(s) you have
> mentioned?
> What books do you really *not* like and why? (just as useful info as
> knowing which books are popular is knowing which are *un*popular)
> What other PHP resources have you used and why?
>
> Keep in mind that I am just feeling out the PHP community for opinions. If
> in fact there *is* a PHP community.

You can find here plenty of recommended PHP books that were already
reviewed:

[url]http://www.phpclasses.org/products.html[/url]

--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
[url]http://www.phpclasses.org/[/url]

[Eric Kincl]

Cal Lidderdale wrote:

> Jeffrey Silverman wrote:

>> Hi all. I am going to be teaching an introductory, course on PHP.
>> As this course has not been offered before, there are no existing
>> materials or list of resources for me to choose from. This is a Good
>> Thing(TM) because I get to do Whatever I Want(TM) as far as choosing
>> course materials goes.
>>
>> So here's the questions:
>>
>> What PHP books do you like?
>> Why do you like them?
>> What expertise range is targeted by the particular book(s) you have
>> mentioned?
>> What books do you really *not* like and why? (just as useful info as
>> knowing which books are popular is knowing which are *un*popular)
>> What other PHP resources have you used and why?
>>
>> Keep in mind that I am just feeling out the PHP community for opinions.
>> If in fact there *is* a PHP community.
>>
>> Thanks, all...

>
> You can kill 2 boid's with one stone.
>
> I like "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling & Laura Thomson
> ccn - 99-64841 The examples are numerous and executeable - they really
> really work - 860 pages, 14 lbs and way too much money - think I just
> describe every puter book on the shelf :-(.
>
> .. resources ...: this NG, [url]http://forums.devshed.com/forumdisplay.php[/url] and
> [url]www.php.net[/url]
>
> ... my description of the elephant ;-)

I'm using Mastering PHP 4.1 by Jeremy Allen and Charles Hornberger (old yea,
I'm sure theres a new ver) ISBN 0-7821-2924-2. This ones only 700 pages...
wow... a shorty. LOL. Its good though, has a pretty good section on SQL
queries, including the basics of JOINS and all the rules of normalization.
Which book you get depends on how much you want to teach. If you are in
the San Fransisco area, stop by Stacy's (spelling?) book store. It is
famous for tech books. *drools* MMmmmm... tech books.....


-Eric Kincl

[Default User]

Jeffrey Silverman wrote:

>
> Hi all. I am going to be teaching an introductory, course on PHP.
> As this course has not been offered before, there are no existing
> materials or list of resources for me to choose from. This is a Good
> Thing(TM) because I get to do Whatever I Want(TM) as far as choosing
> course materials goes.

There are a few book reviews at accu.org, not nearly the number as for
the more established languages. However, you may want to read them over.


[url]http://accu.org/bookreviews/public/reviews/0sb/php.htm[/url]



Brian Rodenborn

[Jeffrey Silverman]

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 18:30:19 -0300, Manuel Lemos wrote:

<anip!>

> [url]http://www.phpclasses.org/products.html[/url]

Thanks Manuel. I actually did go to your site for a bit.

Can I recommend a rating system of some kind for your book reviews? The
fact that there are reviews is great. However, sometimes the reviews felt
a bit on the fluff side or were hard to digest and assimilate from the
standpoint of trying to make a decision like the one I need to make.

Something like
Ratings (or Summary or similar)
Expertise level: beginner/intermediate/advanced
Readability: 1-5 stars
Examples: 1-5 stars
Errors: 1-5 stars (I've noticed a lot of books have typos and whatnot.
More stars would mean less typos or something like that)
Overall: 1-5 stars

Something along those lines. People on the web and using the web expect
these instant summaries, and they can be useful.

just my 2 cents. later...
--
Jeffrey D. Silverman | jeffrey AT jhu DOT edu
Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD
Website | [url]http://www.wse.jhu.edu/newtnotes/[/url]

[rush]

"Jeffrey Silverman" <jeffrey@jhu.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2003.10.08.20.38.19.969487@jhu.edu...

> So here's the questions:
>
> What PHP books do you like?
> Why do you like them?
> What expertise range is targeted by the particular book(s) you have
> mentioned?
> What books do you really *not* like and why? (just as useful info as
> knowing which books are popular is knowing which are *un*popular)
> What other PHP resources have you used and why?
>
> Keep in mind that I am just feeling out the PHP community for opinions. If
> in fact there *is* a PHP community.

Here are a few books I found interesting:

[url]http://www.templatetamer.org/index.php?RecommendedBooks[/url]

rush
p.s. there my affilite ids on the links to the books so if you do not like
that do not click on them and instead serach directly in amazon.
--
[url]http://www.templatetamer.com/[/url]

[Manuel Lemos]

Hello,

On 10/08/2003 07:35 PM, Jeffrey Silverman wrote:

>>[url]http://www.phpclasses.org/products.html[/url]

>
>
> Thanks Manuel. I actually did go to your site for a bit.
>
> Can I recommend a rating system of some kind for your book reviews? The
> fact that there are reviews is great. However, sometimes the reviews felt
> a bit on the fluff side or were hard to digest and assimilate from the
> standpoint of trying to make a decision like the one I need to make.
>
> Something like
> Ratings (or Summary or similar)
> Expertise level: beginner/intermediate/advanced
> Readability: 1-5 stars
> Examples: 1-5 stars
> Errors: 1-5 stars (I've noticed a lot of books have typos and whatnot.
> More stars would mean less typos or something like that)
> Overall: 1-5 stars
>
> Something along those lines. People on the web and using the web expect
> these instant summaries, and they can be useful.

Sounds like a good idea, although it takes some work to put in practice.

I will put it in my todo list to also let the users rate and add their
own comments about each book.

Thanks for the suggestion.

--

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
[url]http://www.phpclasses.org/[/url]

[Jeffrey Silverman]

On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 00:34:15 +0000, Ian.H wrote:

<snip!>

>
> If you _really_ want dead tree material... I'd say apart from 'PHP and
> MySQL Web Development', most publications from O'Reilly are a good and
> safe bet (although somewhat pricey maybe.. but I believe you get what you
> pay for (in this case anyway)).
>

(I've bought a coupla O'Reilly books that I thought sucked. Notably,
"Apache: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Ed.")

Yes, well, a major component of the class, if I have my way (and I will),
will be instruction on how to use the PHP.net website. Too many noobs,
for example, don't know how to ustilize that resource.

But I do need "dead tree" materials. Gotta hand something out...or do I?

hmm... or maybe not. I'll think about that; you make a good point. I
realize that I, although I own a couple of PHP books, *never* refer to
them for anything. Only php.net's documentation. Why the heck should I
suggest a book if I don't even use 'em myself? ...just thinking out loud,
now.

thanks...

--
Jeffrey D. Silverman | jeffrey AT jhu DOT edu
Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD
Website | [url]http://www.wse.jhu.edu/newtnotes/[/url]