PHP 5 Power Programming (Bruce Perens Open Source)

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice

Beginning PHP5, Apache, and MySQL Web Development (Programmer to Programmer)

Advanced PHP Programming

Php Books

Professional PHP5 (Programmer to Programmer)

Format: Paperback
Author: Edward Lecky-Thompson
ReleaseDate: 26 November, 2004
Publisher: Wrox
Rating:

Interesting points of view but....
Expect to spend some time determining if the code actually does what is described. Although errors can seem obvious in some situations, some are not so obvious when the prose describe what is desired, but the code samples provided do not fit the bill. Download the code samples from the Wrox site and try it for yourself first (start with ch15 for a good example of ample carelessness). Inconsistent conventions used throughout the book (naming private members of a class for example) also make it more challenging to follow the code samples. There is also a large portion of the book dedicated to non-php-specific Coding House approaches to business. Although several sections provide decent and accurate coverage, the book fails to provide a flow to the next section in most cases. While reading, it is apparent when you have switched to a new author (since they do not follow the best practices presented earlier in the narrative). If a proper review for errors and some rewriting to tie the sections together were performed, this book could improve, however, I cannot recommend it as is. If you are not bothered when you skim the table of contents and spot page numbers (chapter 25) being misnumbered, then perhaps the various other errors throughout the book can be overlooked. I would accept such errors in an online book under review - not from an established publishing house.

Buyer Beware
However, there are a number of grammatical errors throughout and the codes in the book are full of errors. I like the topics covered in this book. If you're up for the challenge of surfing the books forum page at [. . . ] to find code fixes, then this book is for you. But, if your not the adventurous type and like codes to work out of the box then this book isn't for you.

Missing information / Many examples don't work


Notice that if you're looking for a comprehensive PHP5 book, this is not it. This is obviously a book written by a collective of PHP4 programmers who have taken code that they've written and are familiar with (and which is sometimes outdated), and attempted to put a Object Oriented face on it in order to make a little money from this book. The authors don't even mention the new MySQLi extension for PHP5 nor the SQLite database. It's obvious they come from and are still in the pre-PHP5 world. They also are slanted towards Smarty page templates and using Postgres for their examples. They give only a passing mention (one page, three sentences) to MySQL.

If you do buy this book, be prepared to go to www. wrox. com and the forums to find corrections to the code examples made by readers. Be prepared to re-write many of their examples.

All in all, this might be a generally useful book, but be advised that the grammatical errors, code mistakes, and parochial attitudes don't make it the best.